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A Stranger Among Those Who Are Still Men: Reading Monsters as Performing Transgender Identities in Four Short Stories by H. P. Lovecraft

Sarkar Nilsson, Eric LU (2020) ENGK01 20192
Division of English Studies
Abstract
In his book Skin Shows, Jack Halberstam posits that depictions of monsterhood in horror media
can be directly comparable to different socially constructed identities, such as gender, and even
transgender. But can such a comparison be made in a text regardless of its author’s biases and
intentions? The purpose of this essay is to find out how the monsters in four of H. P. Lovecraft’s
short stories can be read as performing transgender identities. In order to do this, I employ
theories of identity performativity, queer readings, queer coding, and Halberstam’s ideas on
monsterhood and gender and adapt them into a transgender theoretical framework. Using these
theories, this essay argues for a link between the way the monstrous... (More)
In his book Skin Shows, Jack Halberstam posits that depictions of monsterhood in horror media
can be directly comparable to different socially constructed identities, such as gender, and even
transgender. But can such a comparison be made in a text regardless of its author’s biases and
intentions? The purpose of this essay is to find out how the monsters in four of H. P. Lovecraft’s
short stories can be read as performing transgender identities. In order to do this, I employ
theories of identity performativity, queer readings, queer coding, and Halberstam’s ideas on
monsterhood and gender and adapt them into a transgender theoretical framework. Using these
theories, this essay argues for a link between the way the monstrous characters in “The
Outsider”, “Cool Air”, “The Dunwich Horror”, and “The Thing on the Doorstep” perform
mind-body dissonance, social tension, and bodily transformation in a way evocative of
transgender identity expressions. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Sarkar Nilsson, Eric LU
supervisor
organization
course
ENGK01 20192
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
language
English
id
9004502
date added to LUP
2020-04-07 13:26:08
date last changed
2020-04-07 13:26:08
@misc{9004502,
  abstract     = {{In his book Skin Shows, Jack Halberstam posits that depictions of monsterhood in horror media
can be directly comparable to different socially constructed identities, such as gender, and even
transgender. But can such a comparison be made in a text regardless of its author’s biases and
intentions? The purpose of this essay is to find out how the monsters in four of H. P. Lovecraft’s
short stories can be read as performing transgender identities. In order to do this, I employ
theories of identity performativity, queer readings, queer coding, and Halberstam’s ideas on
monsterhood and gender and adapt them into a transgender theoretical framework. Using these
theories, this essay argues for a link between the way the monstrous characters in “The
Outsider”, “Cool Air”, “The Dunwich Horror”, and “The Thing on the Doorstep” perform
mind-body dissonance, social tension, and bodily transformation in a way evocative of
transgender identity expressions.}},
  author       = {{Sarkar Nilsson, Eric}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{A Stranger Among Those Who Are Still Men: Reading Monsters as Performing Transgender Identities in Four Short Stories by H. P. Lovecraft}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}