Female Monstrosity

Cari colleghi, sono lieto di informarvi che a breve sarà in distribuzione il libro “Di Melusine e Gorgoni. Entità mostruose femminili tra passato e presente”, testo edito con il patrocinio dell’Università del Lussemburgo e pubblicato all’interno della collana di studi del Museo delle Religioni. In basso potete trovare l’indice e il rimando al sito della casa editrice, le Edizioni Quasar, per eventuali maggiori informazioni. Chi tra voi è interessato, può approfittare della consueta offerta di lancio a prezzo scontato, valida a partire dal 5 marzo 2025. Basterà inserire il seguente codice sconto nell’apposita voce sul sito dell’editore: Melusine2025.

Di Melusine e Gorgoni. Entità mostruose femminili tra passato e presente
A cura di Igor Baglioni, Maria Luisa Caldognetto e Nathalie Roelens
Edizioni Quasar: https://edizioniquasar.it/products/di-melusine-e-gorgoni?variant=50299630616914

La bibliografia relativa alle entità mostruose con tratti femminili si caratterizza per la presenza diffusa, e nettamente prevalente nel corpus nel suo complesso, di letture a carattere attualizzante che decontestualizzano le caratteristiche di queste entità per interpretarle alla luce delle problematiche sociali del presente. Questo implica che i racconti di cui erano protagoniste, nelle loro differenti attestazioni, siano oggetto di analisi come se riflettessero gli odierni rapporti di genere e la loro interpretazione viene condizionata dalle diverse visioni contrapposte che in merito animano su più fronti il dibattito e l’attivismo contemporaneo. Questo porta alla pressoché totale distorsione di quelle che erano le peculiarità effettive di tali entità, il fraintendimento del loro potenziale simbolico e il mancato riconoscimento delle molteplici funzionalità che ricoprivano a seconda dei contesti, dei luoghi e delle fasi storiche di narrazione. Da qui, quanto all’opposto caratterizza invece i contributi raccolti in questo volume: l’esame puntuale della documentazione per ricostruire, in rapporto a questi esseri, caratteristiche, simbologie e funzionalità contestuali a un determinato ambiente storico-culturale; il seguire nel tempo il modificarsi di questi tratti in relazione ai cambiamenti intervenuti nei quadri storici e culturali di riferimento; la demistificazione delle letture attualizzanti.

Igor Baglioni - Maria Luisa Caldognetto - Nathalie Roelens, Introduzione
Piero Capelli, “Nostra seconda parente”. Lilit dall’antichità alla Sho’ah
Tommaso Braccini, Un mostro da fiaba. La Lamia tra antichità e folklore moderno
Igor Baglioni, L’eredità di Medusa. La Gorgone tra indagine storica e attivismo femminista
Sonia Macrì, “Nave inconfondibilmente femmina”. Scilla secondo Alberto Savinio
Valeria Melis, L’Erinni della povertà. Penia nel Pluto di Aristofane e altri mostri nel mito greco tra letteratura e iconografia
Angelica Aurora Montanari, Peli superflui. L’irsutismo di Camilla, regina dei Volsci
Carla Del Zotto, Gigantesse, donne elfo, entità marine: troll e huldrer nella tradizione nordica
Maria Luisa Caldognetto, Melusina allo specchio: elaborazioni e ibridazioni artistiche di un tema nei suoi riverberi plurimi e inattesi tra Italia e Lussemburgo
Armand Erchadi, Da Melusina al melusinismo: la féerie epica, una macchina per pensare la filiazione
Nathalie Roelens, “Archaïscher Torso Melusinas”. Oltre il mito
Luca Baratta, «Her Face, which is the Beauty and Ornament of All the Rest, had the Nose of a Hog»: Tannakin Skinker, la fanciulla dal volto suino, nell’Inghilterra del Seicento
Francesco Paolo de Ceglia, Due vampire e un esercito di streghe divoratrici di sudario. Le riflessioni dei medici
Lia Giancristofaro, Per un’epistemologia popolare della mostruosa pantafrica

Beautiful and monstruous. Why so many mythological monsters in Antiquity were female?

In the ancient cultures of the Near East and the Mediterranean monsters were the visual representation of phenomena that were perceived as evil or harmful, such as disease or natural disasters. Individual regions naturally had their own fearsome creatures, whose appearance was influenced by the cultural background, climate or fauna of the area. Such monsters literally encompassed the fear, desire, anxiety or fantasy of the people who created them. Culture itself creates its monsters. Without cultural awareness, there are no monsters or monstrous beings. So what cultural awareness, what fears, desires or expectations did patriarchal Greek society have that gave birth to its female monsters? This and other related questions I will try to answer in this paper, where I will examine selected female monsters from Greek mythology while offering a modern interpretation of them, especially from the perspective of a female recipient.

Just like the monster at the center of Mary Shelley's tale has been parodied worldwide, the socalled "bride of Frankenstein" has also become a cultural touchstone. Though she doesn't exist as a full character in the original novel-having been anatomically constructed from multiple corpses into one inert body, only to be ripped apart again and cast into the sea in a basket by Victor Frankenstein-the female monster of Frankenstein has been reimagined and transformed throughout popular culture. 1 While many adaptations have emphasized her existence as a "bride" and companion to Victor's monster-an Eve to his Adam-several literary works have sought to explore the distinct power and significance of the female monster beyond this supporting role. In Patchwork Girl, Shelley Jackson adapts the original Frankenstein tale from a feminist perspective, formally and conceptually expanding the potentiality of the female monster and of author Mary Shelley herself for an early digital readership. Jackson's hypertext fiction is considered a landmark work of electronic literature (e-lit, for short). First distributed on floppy disk by indie publisher Eastgate Systems in 1995, the work has undergone its own series of media transformations 2 as operating systems have developed over the past twenty years, though the story has remained the same. In brief, Patchwork Girl begins with the idea that the events of Frankenstein really took place. However, while Victor is playing hide and seek with his creation across Europe, Jackson's fictionalized version of author Mary Shelley takes over his abandoned work and brings the female monster, the eponymous "patchwork girl," to life. The two begin a relationship, and eventually the patchwork girl leaves Mary and travels to America for another set of adventures.

Mélusine ou la Noble Histoire de Lusignan tells us about the peculiar founding mother of the house of Lusignan. Cursed by her fairy mother at a young age, Mélusine is forced to transform her body into a half-serpent, half-human body every Saturday in secrecy. At the very last moments before her complete and monstrous exile, Mélusine is met with a grieving audience: her hybrid form has been discovered by her husband Raymondin and this betrayal imposes grief on the lovers and the internal audience alike. The parties involved bemoan the loss of their lady, now condemned to a fully monstrous form. However, as the lady flies away through the window, the marks of her inner selfhood prevail in physical form embedded on the windowsill in the shape of a footprint and a voiced emotional grievance, as her crying and wailing are described as the voice of a woman. This paper argues that Mélusine’s hybrid nature together with her emotive display confirm the existence of a stable, yet malleable selfhood that prevails through embodied changes. The transformation of her body does not seem to affect the existence of her selfhood but only the identification of it, as it directly alters the (self)narrative created around her. Through the analysis of Mélusine’s changing body in Jean d’Arras’s version and its multiple translations, this paper sheds light on the reasons behind this interest in her humanity and her selfhood. In all, this paper demonstrates that emotive display is an effective tool to access selfhood in literary characters—albeit not the only one.

There are many reasons why Rachel Feinstein’s choices among Northern Renaissance altarpieces and sculptures are fitting, sensible foundations for the paintings in her exhibition Mirror. That time and place, like our current age, also presented transformative crises of belief—world-changing shifts in political, spiritual, and ideological power, influence, and control. Like the early twenty-first century, the early sixteenth was a time of new and old pan- demics. Bubonic plague was making the rounds of major European capitals and the rural hinterlands, and the new scourge of syphilis had just made its debut in Western Europe. The new plague was popularly blamed (along with crop failures, disastrous weather, more standard plagues, climate problems, and much else) on the activities of witches.

Sofia Papastergiadis - the protagonist of Deborah Levy's Hot Milk - seems to be encircled by various monstrosities. First, her overbearing, monstrous mother suffers from an equally monstrous unidentifiable illness, because of which the two women travel to Almería, seeking answers and potential therapy. Second, while in Andalusia, Sofia is often attacked by Medusae/jellyfish, which is a painful, yet uncannily addictive experience. Third, the protagonist is puzzled with her own doubtful motivations, hasty decisions, and dark fascinations, resurfacing, for instance, in a pursuit of toxic, but sensual, affairs. All of these drive Sofia to investigate yet another monster: one residing inside her. In this article, I propose a reading informed by psychoanalysis and feminist criticism which aims at tracing how the discourse of illness interweaves with that of monstrousness in Levy's Booker-shortlisted bildungsroman. Keeping in mind that disease and monstrosity engage in an interplay of secrecy and revelation in the novel, I wish to study the implications of that for the protagonist and her relationships with others.

M. Stępnik, Sphinx and Gorgons: The Evolution of the Psychoanalytic Bestiary - Reinterpretations, transl. J. Szelągiewicz, "View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture", [special issue: Visualising Psychoanalysis, eds. K. Bojarska and J. Morra], No 35/2023. ISSN: 2300-200X FULL TEXT:  https://www.pismowidok.org/en/archive/2023/visualising-psychoanalysis/sphinx-and-gorgons
ABSTRACT: In 1924 Beata Rank de domo Minzer (1886 – 1967) publishes an essay whose title translates as: "The Role of a Woman in the Evolution of a Society". The text written by an eminent Polish born psychoanalyst is largely devoted to the (very early) reinterpretation of a specific bestiary developed by Freudians. In this constellation of figures, borrowed from the ancient imagery, a special place is occupied by female-animal hybrids and monsters: the Sphinx, Medusa, or Chimera. The main aim of this article is to trace how these character have been filtered through the prism of interpreting the écriture féminine - above all, in the spirit of Hélène Cixous, somehow foreshadowed by the early thought of Beata Rank. The considerations taken up in the text will be illustrated by chosen examples of oeuvres by contemporart Polish artists.

keywords: psychoanalysis; monstrosity; écriture féminine; mythology; visual arts

O presente artigo busca como objetivo geral destacar certos trabalhos artísticos que refletem sobre o corpo feminino. Pretende, especificamente, observar como agressões impostas ao corpo das mulheres são reveladas, nomeadamente, nas obras da escritora Paulina Chiziane, da escultora Reinata Sadimba, ambas moçambicanas, e da escritora Isabela Figueiredo, portuguesa, nascida em Lourenço Marques. A escrita e a modelagem do barro apresentam-se como territórios onde as revelações ocorrem, na exposição de feridas, na denúncia de abusos e ao pensar a condição feminina, seja em sociedades tradicionais africanas, seja no chamado mundo moderno, durante e após o colonialismo português. Os objetivos das denúncias destas artistas podem ser encarados, portanto, como catalisadores de resistências e impulsionadores de um novo contexto, no qual as agressões ao corpo feminino sejam ao menos nomeadas e exibidas, a fim de poderem, quem sabe um dia, serem ultrapassadas. A violência que recai sobre Moçamb...

Julian of Norwich is also briefly mentioned on p. 728. I could find no mention of Catherine of Genoa and the index was no help in this respect. The fourth and "missing" woman from this volume was Hildegard of Bingen. 3 For a consideration of the various debates surrounding women's status in fourteenth-century England,

Esse artigo visa destacar a importância da Tertúlia literária para o ensino da Língua Inglesa a leitura, compreensão, comunicação e reflexão crítica sobre a obra durante os encontros estabelecidos nas aulas. A Tertúlia Literária é uma prática de leitura dialógica que consiste em um encontro ao redor da literatura, no qual os participantes leem e debatem, de forma compartilhada um capítulo escolhido para a aula, a obra clássica deve apresentar a literatura universal. Durante a escolha da obra foi feito um curso de capacitação online na plataforma: comunidades de aprendizagem a saber o que é uma tertúlia, como fazer uma tertúlia dialógica literária e quais obras utilizar em uma tertúlia literária. A tertúlia foi organizada por capítulos e por datas para não prejudicar os alunos durante o planejamento semestral das aulas. O livro escolhido foi Hamlet de William Shakespeare uma ora clássica e de valor para aprimorar vocabulários, leituras, oralidade. O livro Hamlet de Shakespeare é um livro totalmente em inglês e de Nível elementar, rico de glossários acompanhados de desenhos é um HQ que os alunos prendem sua atenção, as palavras no livro interagem junto com as imagens e isso facilitou o entendimento da narrativa. A Tertúlia Literária foi aplicada para os alunos dos 1º anos do Ensino médio na Escola de Tempo Integral em Coroatá Maranhão. O objetivo desse trabalho1) Promover o acesso da leitura de uma obra clássica de Língua inglesa e a promoção nas aulas de Língua Inglesa. 2) Conhecer novas vocabulários 3) refletir sobre a obra e destacar aspectos positivos para seu aprendizado. Entretanto destacar as práticas de leitura dialógica e Tertúlia Literária, aumentam o vocabulário, melhoram a expressão oral e escrita, ampliam a compreensão leitora, o pensamento crítico e a capacidade de argumentação em todos os envolvidos, produzindo importantes transformações na superação de desigualdades. Esse trabalho teve uma contribuição para o aperfeiçoar os estudantes a leitura a aquisição de vocabulários o contato com a obra na Língua Inglesa e o desenvolvimento da autonomia em fazer uma leitura em uma obra estrangeira.

Roberta Flores Pedroso descreve Carolina Maria de Jesus (1914-1977), autora de Quarto de despejo (1960), como “mulher negra, pobre, semialfabetizada e migrante” que “se tornou um fenômeno editorial”. Na tentativa de estabelecer um contexto anglófono para a leitura comparativa de Quarto de despejo, este artigo apresenta cinco autoras negras, anglófonas, de países periféricos, nascidas entre 1904 e 1924, e analisa de quais maneiras os termos pobre, semialfabetizada, migrante e fenômeno editorial devem ser relativizados para poder fazer a comparação. As autoras são Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920-1993) e Faith Bandler (1918-2015), da Austrália; Ellen Kuzwayo (1914-2006), da África do Sul, e Una Marson (1905-1965) e Louise Bennett (1919-2006), da Jamaica.

Julian of Norwich is also briefly mentioned on p. 728. I could find no mention of Catherine of Genoa and the index was no help in this respect. The fourth and "missing" woman from this volume was Hildegard of Bingen. 3 For a consideration of the various debates surrounding women's status in fourteenth-century England,

Looking at mythical dimensions in medieval narratives, the aim of this paper is to show – by discussing monstrosity in conjunction with femininity and orientalism respectively – that medievalism, which is not automatically a purely creative preoccupation with the past, needs our critical attention. This is therefore a call for critical medievalism.

The show Game of Thrones operates on medievalist fantasy elements which are grafted onto a long tradition of appropriating the past and using it as an imaginary canvas. Medieval tales themselves functioned on a mythical plane where the line between claims to historical accuracy and creative leeway is blurred. Using the concept of “mythical thinking” as expounded in Ernst Cassirer’s work,  we  can  see  how  the  medieval  narratives Mélusine and Duke Ernst deploy mythical elements. Investigation into aspects of femininity in conjunction with bestiality  on  the  one  hand  and  orientalism  on  the  other  with  the  help  of  Cassirer’s “mythical thinking” elucidates the ways in which cultural and historical appropriation work. Reminding the reader of Umberto Eco’s as well as J. R. R. Tolkien’s view on medievalism, the author – in light of politicised forms of the preoccupation with the medieval past – calls for critical medievalism.

Although Daphne du Maurier has always been recognised for her atmospheric stories ridden with darkness and suspense, the critical analysis of her work as part of the Gothic tradition is relatively recent. For this reason, the aim of the present thesis is to further contribute to the analysis of du Maurier’s novels as specifically Gothic by exploring how she employs select Gothic elements in her novel My Cousin Rachel in order to create an atmosphere of terror. The main purpose is to examine, based on the examples from the book, which Gothic elements she has chosen to achieve such an atmosphere and what effect it is meant to have on the characters as well as readers.https://www.ester.ee/record=b5461103*es

The following article takes into consideration two cases of early modern female 'monstrosity' drawn from the Italian collection of Novelle published by Matteo Bandello in 1554. The events recount the stories of two mothers who, seized by 'unnatural' folly, kill in cold blood their own offspring. The article tackles the conflicting concepts of normality and malady, putting this ambiguous opposition in relation with the consequent translations of the Novelle in French and in English. The shifts that appear in the translations reveal a deep preoccupation with definitions of malady, be they physical or cultural. Through a close analysis of the original Italian text and its English rendition (Geoffrey Fenton's Tragical Discourses, 1567), this article sheds light on the troubled relationship of English translators with 'Italianated' thus 'degenerate' customs, and on their authorial and textual strategies to preempt the infectious potential of their Italian sources. 'Englishing' the Italian Renaissance novella Elizabethan fiction and theatre, especially during the decades 1570-1590, owe a share of their success to the flourishing translation of Italian medieval and Renaissance novelle. Borrowing part of their plots from Italian literature and chronicles, these works become increasingly

This research aims to determine the type of bullying experienced by the main character in Carrie’s novel. This research uses a qualitative descriptive method that focuses on Erikson’s theory. This data is taken froma novel titled Carrie with 183 pages. Other data are collected fromvarious references such as books, journals, articles, thesis, and online sources. The objectives of this research are to determine the type of bullying experienced by the main character in the novel and to determine the effects of bullying experienced by the main character toward her personality development. The techniques of analyzing data in this research are method as following data collection, data condensation, data display, and finally making conclusions based on findings. The results showed that the main characters experienced four types of oppression, namely physical bullying, verbal bullying, relational bullying, and cyberbullying.

Embora a novela tenha apresentado o vampiro ao mundo literário inglês, The Vampyre (1819) de John Polidori consta na história como uma realização menor quando comparada com essa outra criação monstruosa, Frankenstein (1818), ambas apresentadas como resultado de uma competição entre Lord Byron, os Shelley e do secretário do primeiro, Polidori. Com Las Piadosas / The Merciful Women (1998), Federico Andahazi presta uma homenagem irónica ao The Vampyre e à literatura gótica em geral. No romance de Andahazi, o monstro é uma mulher-animal de espécie indefinida e de traços indefinidos. Utilizando a estética gótica no seu próprio romance, Andahazi interroga o universo literário a partir do seu interior ao abordar questões como a autoria e ansiedade femininas, a política sexual da indústria literária, o vampirismo metafórico nas perspectivas masculina e feminina e respectivos contextos sociais, e a animalidade feminina como um símbolo da forma negada de agência literária feminina.Though the ...

O presente artigo busca como objetivo geral destacar certos trabalhos artísticos que refletem sobre o corpo feminino. Pretende, especificamente, observar como agressões impostas ao corpo das mulheres são reveladas, nomeadamente, nas obras da escritora Paulina Chiziane, da escultora Reinata Sadimba, ambas moçambicanas, e da escritora Isabela Figueiredo, portuguesa, nascida em Lourenço Marques. A escrita e a modelagem do barro apresentam-se como territórios onde as revelações ocorrem, na exposição de feridas, na denúncia de abusos e ao pensar a condição feminina, seja em sociedades tradicionais africanas, seja no chamado mundo moderno, durante e após o colonialismo português. Os objetivos das denúncias destas artistas podem ser encarados, portanto, como catalisadores de resistências e impulsionadores de um novo contexto, no qual as agressões ao corpo feminino sejam ao menos nomeadas e exibidas, a fim de poderem, quem sabe um dia, serem ultrapassadas. A violência que recai sobre Moçamb...

The primordial relationship between writer and reader presents a wonderful paradox: in creating the role of the reader, the writer also decrees the writer's death, since in order for a text to be finished, the writer must withdraw, cease to exist. While the writer remains present, the text remains incomplete. Only when the writer relinquishes the text, does the text come into existence. At that point, the existence of the text is a silent existence, silent until the moment in which a reader reads it. (…) All writing depends on the generosity of the reader.-Alberto Manguel. A History of Reading, 179.

The aim of the paper is to pose questions concerning the current perspectives of a gender focused approach within Translation Studies, as well as to examine its potential to influence every day translation practices. From the academic perspective , the cultural turn in Translation Studies resulting from interest in post-structural and deconstructivist philosophy and, more generally, from the new politics of identity, may be seen as something which can be taken for granted. Nevertheless, I will argue that in a country like Poland, where the absence of critical theorizations of identity was for quite some time intentional absence, the gap thus created is clearly discernible in both translators' approaches and in the reception of translated texts. This gap, which has never been fully made up for, is also reflected in the absence of linguistic customs which are adequate to address various materializations of gender. In the light of the rise of new gender politics (to use Judith Butl...

The example of Thüring of Ringoltingen's Melusine powerfully illustrates the dialectics of the binary opposition between Other and Self. Although Melusine's husband fears his monstrous wife once he has discovered her true identity, he also feels deeply attracted to her, both in her familiar and her unfamiliar appearance. Nevertheless, his intellectual and emotional weakness makes it impossible for him to accept the Other as an important element in his life, which leads to the destruction of his marriage. As various other sixteenth-century chapbooks, such as the Historia D. Fausten and Wagnerbuch, indicate, the Other grew in importance, and by then represented a crucial catalyst for early modern sciences. 3 Claudio Galderisi: Une poétique des 'enfances'. Fonctions de l'incongru dans la littérature française médiévale. Orléans 2000 (= Medievalia, 34).

This research aims to determine the type of bullying experienced by the main character in Carrie’s novel. This research uses a qualitative descriptive method that focuses on Erikson’s theory. This data is taken froma novel titled Carrie with 183 pages. Other data are collected fromvarious references such as books, journals, articles, thesis, and online sources. The objectives of this research are to determine the type of bullying experienced by the main character in the novel and to determine the effects of bullying experienced by the main character toward her personality development. The techniques of analyzing data in this research are method as following data collection, data condensation, data display, and finally making conclusions based on findings. The results showed that the main characters experienced four types of oppression, namely physical bullying, verbal bullying, relational bullying, and cyberbullying.

O artigo propõe uma leitura de Frankenstein (1818), de Mary Shelley, por meio de algumas de suas figuras femininas ou feminizadas, de modo a sugerir, em diálogo com autoras e autores como Halberstam, Mellor, Riskin e Haraway, uma interpretação da monstruosidade, no romance, como um tipo feminino capaz de ameaçar o projeto científico de conquista da natureza.

In Losing Our Heads, Regina Janes writes that “decapitation..., [is] motivated by the irresistibility of symbolism, grounded in the body and coded by culture” (Janes 9). The head, as a signifier, denotes countless signified meanings in different contexts of age, nationality, and gender. In Beowulf, decapitation is a constant feature for one particular character: Not only does Grendel’s mother avenge her son’s death through the decollation of Hrothgar’s best warrior, Æschere; she also dies from decapitation. In short, Grendel’s mother is the only character who both performs and is subjected to decollation. Despite the variety of interpretations given to decapitation in Beowulf scholarship, these attempts fail to take into account the gender differences of these Anglo-Saxon practices. As Janes points out, women that decapitate men are monstrous and men who decapitate women are heroic (Janes 30). In this light, Grendle’s mother's participation in decapitation as a gendered Anglo-Saxon activity signals her dissent from mainstream gender norms and further perpetuates her identity as an Other, while her demise can be read as reinstatement of such norms by Beowulf. As such, this paper seeks to defend Grendel’s mother as simply participating in organic Anglo-Saxon traditions, and explain how she is wrongfully demonized by the “monstrosity” signified by decapitation.

This article examines the treatment of fatherhood in works by influential mendicant encyclopedists writing between 1240 and 1260: Liber de Natura Rerum by Thomas of Cantimpré, De Proprietatibus Rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus, and Speculum Maius by Vincent of Beauvais. The study examines sections on anatomy, the ages of man, family relations, and the theology of marriage. The article argues that the anatomical concept of heat functioned as a metaphor for masculinity, strength, and intelligence, and linked together such aspects of fatherhood as the father’s formative role in conception and the responsibility to instill virtue in and provide for the child, as well as broader concepts of household management and political government.

Drawing from the mainly Bakhtinian theories of the grotesque and its further readings by Kristeva, Foucault, and Bhabha, the present paper tends to examine the representation of “feminine grotesque” in one of the less discussed novels of Post-millennial Muslim diaspora, Leila Aboulela’s The Kindness of Enemies (2015). Written in response to the Islamophobic aftermath of the 9/11 and London bombings, Aboulela’s postmillennial fiction is often read as an instance of Islamic Postcolonialism, in the shade of which the story’s manifestly corpographic quality is mainly neglected by the critics. An offspring of miscegenation between a Muslim African and a white non-Muslim Russian, Aboulela’s female protagonist Natasha Hussein reconfigures diasporic hybridity as seminally “monstrous,” and accordingly proposes a synthesis between the feminine abject and Muslim monstrosity. The Bakhtinian grotesque is exemplarily revitalized in Natasha’s abject body at different strata, which turns her body m...

The focus of my reflection will be the circulation and reception of canonical texts of twentieth-century feminist thought in translations. Making use of the concept of a travelling theory put forth by Edward Said (1982: 226-247) and its extension in feminist and translatological studies (Sebnem 2006), I would like to analyse the history of translations of three works which are unquestionable components of the canon of contemporary feminist and gender studies. These are as follows: Virginia Woolf’s A Room of Her Own of 1929, Simone de Beauvoir’s Le Deuxième Sexe of 1949 and Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble of 1989. I am largely inspired by the works of Susan Gal, who dedicated much time and attention to tracing back the routes of feminist ideas, notions, concepts, and practices, especially in Central and Eastern Europe; how they circulate, become recontextualised and what local impact they have (Gal 2003; Gal Klingman 2000). I am not going to embark on an in-depth comparative study rel...

Traditionally, translation was valued to the extent that it created a subservient equivalence to the ideas and meanings of the original text; translation was deemed no more than impersonal, transparent activity. This status of subalternity was metaphorically emphasised through sexualised tropes invoking gender variable roles in a manner reflecting cultural values. Translation was depicted as secondary and derivative; hence, it was 'feminine.' Originality, creativity and authority, depicted 'masculine,' had patriarchal authority empowering them to relegate whatever was female to secondary roles. By deconstructing this perspective and eroticising translation, converting it into a semiotic sign representing femininity and subordination, this article proposes a discourse of empowerment that attempts to assert translation as a visible and creative process possessing an authoritative role and, thus, in a position of power. The concepts of gender and cultural identity are s...

In the Victorian society, the fallen woman was identified with the monstrous Other as in the case of George Eliot's Hetty Sorrel in Adam Bede as well as the author herself. Both Eliot and her Hetty were monsters of their society as they violated the Victorian norms. Through the tragic story of Hetty Sorrel, Eliot depicts how the victimized female becomes a monstrous Other. This paper asserts that Eliot creates Hetty as her double to reflect her own unrest and anger in the conservative Victorian society. The paper also examines how, as a product of Eliot's complex mind, Hetty takes two polar opposite roles throughout the novel: a monster who contravenes the Victorian rules and a monstrous Other who is the victim of Victorian ethics and principles. Accordingly, Hetty becomes Eliot's madwoman who mirrors her own wrath and dilemma between the traditional role attached to woman and her rebellion against patriarchy.

O presente trabalho pretende abordar o romance O morro dos ventos uivantes (1848), de Emily Bronte, segundo alguns conceitos filosoficos de Gilles Deleuze, como o rizoma, a maquina de guerra e as linhas de fuga. Para tanto, observaremos tanto os personagens e eventos narrados, quanto as estrategias narrativas que nos permitem estabelecer as relacoes entre o romance vitoriano e a filosofia pos-estruturalista do pensador frances. Ao longo do romance, que se desenvolve por duas geracoes de personagens, podemos perceber um violento processo de ruptura e transfiguracao dos modelos sociais e morais estabelecidos, que propicia novas formas de pensamento, de criacao e de vida impossiveis para os personagens da primeira geracao narrada. O objetivo de nosso trabalho e discutir este processo de ruptura com os modelos tradicionais e de criacao de novos possiveis em termos deleuzianos. Palavras-chave: Bronte; Deleuze; rizoma; linhas de fuga.

El presente artículo analiza la trilogía "La guerra de las brujas" de Maite Carranza, publicada entre 2005 y 2007. La figura de la bruja, tradicionalmente considerada como un exponente de lo monstruoso femenino, ha surgido como una figura popular en la ficción para jóvenes adultos a la hora de abordar la formación de la identidad en lo que se ha denominado como 'the teenage witch convention'. Mi análisis parte de este concepto y de las teorías de Joseph Campbell acerca del viaje del héroe para explorar la figura de la bruja joven o adolescente como un espacio de mediación e hibridez que permite articular los conceptos de heroína, negociación cultural y poder femenino.

Drawing from the mainly Bakhtinian theories of the grotesque and its further readings by Kristeva, Foucault, and Bhabha, the present paper tends to examine the representation of “feminine grotesque” in one of the less discussed novels of Post-millennial Muslim diaspora, Leila Aboulela’s The Kindness of Enemies (2015). Written in response to the Islamophobic aftermath of the 9/11 and London bombings, Aboulela’s postmillennial fiction is often read as an instance of Islamic Postcolonialism, in the shade of which the story’s manifestly corpographic quality is mainly neglected by the critics. An offspring of miscegenation between a Muslim African and a white non-Muslim Russian, Aboulela’s female protagonist Natasha Hussein reconfigures diasporic hybridity as seminally “monstrous,” and accordingly proposes a synthesis between the feminine abject and Muslim monstrosity. The Bakhtinian grotesque is exemplarily revitalized in Natasha’s abject body at different strata, which turns her body m...

Desde finales de los años 60 del siglo xx el movimiento feminista intensificó la recuperación de las figuras
femeninas monstruosas que el poder patriarcal había vinculado con la transgresión de las normas de
género, de la corporalidad, la sexualidad o la moral. Este artículo explora el camino de deconstrucción
y restitución de la bruja, arquetipo del monstruo femenino a quien el feminismo ha dotado de un nuevo
significado subversivo desde la resistencia y la acción. La perspectiva de género guía el estudio de su
transformación en nuevo icono del feminismo a través de diversos contextos: por un lado, el ámbito
teórico, la militancia y los colectivos de mujeres que impulsaron el proceso de resignificación y se han
re-apropiado de esta figura en forma de reivindicación; por otro, la práctica artística donde se ha reinterpretado
la asociación de lo femenino con lo monstruoso, lo siniestro o lo abyecto.
Palabras clave: feminismo, monstruo femenino, brujas y hechiceras, figuras transgresoras.

We believe that the representation, construction, manufacture, and exclusion of monsters across genres and media is an increasingly pressing issue for individuals and civil societies on a global scale. The widespread use of exaggerated frames presenting a variety of others as mere threats has deadly consequences for many people—worldwide. And, ‘Western’ liberal democratic elites urgently need to acknowledge their own role in such processes as the current construction of ‘Monster Assad’ as a Hitler-esque tyrant intending to ‘gas his own people’ or the continuing framing of Iran as ‘a nuclear threat to world peace’ lead by ‘nuke-building, apocalyptic mullahs’ are equally irresponsible and dangerous acts as the presentation of ‘non-normative’ persons as a menace to cultural and societal stability or the assumption that certain people are simply born as terrorists. We believe that as researchers, students, employees, workers, pupils, retirees, and others—in sum: as citizens—, we must be...

RESUMO: Este artigo propõe uma análise do filme Sangue de Pantera (Cat People, 1942), de Jacques Tourneur, no que concerne às questões de controle intrínsecas à construção do conceito de monstruosidade, principalmente de uma monstruosidade feminina. O filme em debate foi abordado a partir de uma discussão sobre o contexto histórico e cultural estadunidense durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, situando-o em meio às produções fílmicas do período e anteriores a ele. A influência de uma estética gótica, evidenciada pelas imagens fílmicas de um universo sombrio e pela discussão de angústias do período, também serão analisadas como forma de complementar a discussão proposta neste trabalho. No cinema, não temos um gênero estabelecido e reconhecido como "gótico", no entanto, temos imagens, enredos, personagens e estilos góticos em filmes. Isso se dá, como observa Masha Kavka, devido ao fato de que filmes "como uma mídia que nasceu no século XX, chega depois [da literatura] e é um plagiador ávido e desavergonhado de formas literárias góticas anteriores" 3 (KAVKA, 2002, p. 210-Trad. Livre). Contudo, dizer que esse cinema apenas segue as convenções e características que se encontram explícitas em romances 1 Doutora em Literatura Comparada pela UFF. Realizando Pós-Doutorado na UFF. 2 Doutora em História pela PUCRS. 3 as a medium born with the twentieth century, is both a latecomer to and an avid, anashamed plagiarizer of earlier, literary forms of the Gothic.