"Beautiful, unnatural thing" : Subversiva monster och konstruerade kroppar i Poor Things, Bunny och Our Hideous Progeny

Sammanfattning

In Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's (1797-1851) seminal novel Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), the body and the monster are revealed to be closely connected as Frankenstein's creature comes to embody the ultimate Other, equally repellent, frightening, and fascinating in his artificial corporeality. In this study I examine three modern novels – Poor Things (1992) by Alasdair Gray (1934-2019), Bunny (2019) by Mona Awad (b. 1978) and Our Hideous Progeny (2023) by C.E. McGill (b. 2000) – which, I argue, may all be linked to Shelley's novel through their shared usage of the Frankenstein motif: the creation or construction of artificial bodies. Focusing especially on the female protagonists of the novels, this study aims to illustrate how the novels use, subvert, and recontextualize the Frankenstein motif to explore the notion of the monstrous body, particularly the relationship between monstrosity, femininity, and queer existence. Combining feminist and posthumanist theory, I examine the novels' portrayals of female agency, reproduction, and sexuality as well as the seemingly contradictory term monstrous cuteness, showcasing the various ways in which the body may be used as a tool for subversion and reclaiming agency. The findings of this study highlight the figure of the monster as simultaneously ostracized object and powerful subject, revealing the implicit power dichotomies inherent in Cartesian humanism as well as advocating for a broader, more inclusive understanding of the human.