THE NIGHTMARE LIFE-IN-DEATH: ARTISTIC INTENTIONALISM IN MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN AND ANNE RICE’S INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE

Abstract

This thesis examines the gendered language and reliance upon birth metaphors in anti-intentionalist rhetoric as explicated in Wimsatt and Beardsley’s "Intentional Fallacy" and Barthes' “Death of the Author.” Reading Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire as a reworking of the themes of creative anxieties, power, and responsibilities presented in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it posits the novels' respective secondary narrators—Louis and Victor, both of whom are responsible for creating a supernatural life—as creators in conversation with their public. I argue that the differing levels of credibility and interpretive authority granted to Victor and Louis is a product of their levels of access to masculine interpretive authority. The project begins with an examination of the ways in which the anti-intentionalist's demand for authorial silence post-publication affects popular discourse surrounding the speech and images of celebrity authors, including Rice and Shelley, and asks questions about the implications of anti-intentionalist theories for readers’ creations of selves.