THE MONSTER INSIDE US: THE MONSTROUS UNCANNY IN ESTA SPALDING'S ANCHORESS, ANNE CARSON'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF RED, AND MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN

Abstract

<p>This thesis explores the concept of the monstrous in two contemporary Canadian poetry books, Esta Spalding's Anchoress (1997) and Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red (1998), in relation to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818). Drawing from the idea that each person possesses monstrous qualities identifiable in the "other," I will focus on the monster as a literal and a symbolic double for the poem's characters that crosses multiple boundaries: life/death, creation/destruction, personal/political, feminine/masculine, and spirit/body. Spalding and Carson practice what Alicia Ostriker calls "revisionist mythmaking," questioning the ideological frameworks of classical myths such as Antigone and Herakles and complicating the political, social, and ethical issues already presented in the originals. Their narrative choices, in terms of chronology and viewpoint, for instance, reflect their interest in destabilizing popular portrayals of monstrosity and, by consequence, portrayals of humanity. In addition to Ostriker's theory of revisionist mythmaking, I also employ Sigmund Freud's theory of the uncanny and G.W.F. Hegel's master-slave dialectic in my exploration of the monster as a problematized double or doppelganger, and Jacques Lacan's theories of the imaginary and the symbolic order in my examination of how the monster troubles the self/other division. Finally, I use theories that examine the role of love in political change-such as Jacques Derrida's arguments on friendship and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's vision of the multitude-in my final assessment of the monster as a figure that can represent and incite productive political dialogue and action, and of love as a concept whose effects extend beyond the personal realm. Ultimately, the thesis supports the idea that love as a social network amongst various people has the potential to galvanize radical political change because it breaks the division between what is considered to be human and what is considered to be monstrous.</p>