Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Frankenstein and the Timelessness of Queer Identities: Teaching Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein through Queer Theory in the Upper-Secondary EFL classroom

Brandt, Elsa LU (2023) ÄEND14 20222
English Studies
Division of English Studies
Abstract
This paper analyses the pivotal gothic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley through a close queer reading, focusing on excerpts featuring the artificially created creature and their maker, Victor Frankenstein. The queer perspective is applied to the gender identity and expression of the creature, which is a reading that lends itself to the teaching of the novel to Swedish upper-secondary students because of the timelessness of the themes and its close ties to the 2022 recommendations of the Swedish National Agency for Education regarding sexuality, consent, and relationships. The analysis focuses on three excerpts from the novel that are particularly fitting for teaching alongside queer theory and finds that the creature can be likened to an... (More)
This paper analyses the pivotal gothic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley through a close queer reading, focusing on excerpts featuring the artificially created creature and their maker, Victor Frankenstein. The queer perspective is applied to the gender identity and expression of the creature, which is a reading that lends itself to the teaching of the novel to Swedish upper-secondary students because of the timelessness of the themes and its close ties to the 2022 recommendations of the Swedish National Agency for Education regarding sexuality, consent, and relationships. The analysis focuses on three excerpts from the novel that are particularly fitting for teaching alongside queer theory and finds that the creature can be likened to an adolescent individual trying to make sense of their gender identity and place in the world, which is an equally engaging and useful approach to take when teaching upper-secondary English students. The conclusion determines that the approach of queer theory in the reading of Frankenstein could prove an effective way to make a classic novel relevant and engaging to English 7 students while fulfilling both the literary reading prompts of the course and the comprehensive upper-secondary school prompts for dealing with equality, identity, and sexuality. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Brandt, Elsa LU
supervisor
organization
course
ÄEND14 20222
year
type
L3 - Miscellaneous, Projetcs etc.
subject
keywords
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, queer theory, queer pedagogy, EFL
language
English
id
9108833
date added to LUP
2024-02-26 09:04:20
date last changed
2024-02-26 09:04:20
@misc{9108833,
  abstract     = {{This paper analyses the pivotal gothic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley through a close queer reading, focusing on excerpts featuring the artificially created creature and their maker, Victor Frankenstein. The queer perspective is applied to the gender identity and expression of the creature, which is a reading that lends itself to the teaching of the novel to Swedish upper-secondary students because of the timelessness of the themes and its close ties to the 2022 recommendations of the Swedish National Agency for Education regarding sexuality, consent, and relationships. The analysis focuses on three excerpts from the novel that are particularly fitting for teaching alongside queer theory and finds that the creature can be likened to an adolescent individual trying to make sense of their gender identity and place in the world, which is an equally engaging and useful approach to take when teaching upper-secondary English students. The conclusion determines that the approach of queer theory in the reading of Frankenstein could prove an effective way to make a classic novel relevant and engaging to English 7 students while fulfilling both the literary reading prompts of the course and the comprehensive upper-secondary school prompts for dealing with equality, identity, and sexuality.}},
  author       = {{Brandt, Elsa}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Frankenstein and the Timelessness of Queer Identities: Teaching Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein through Queer Theory in the Upper-Secondary EFL classroom}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}