THE CONSTRUCTION OF MONSTROUS WOMEN THÉRÈSE DESQUEYROUX BY FRANÇOIS MAURIAC

Issues of domestication, minority, and discrimination have frequently put women in inferior position in society. When women seek equality, they are often framed as embracing monstrous attitudes. This study focuses on François Mauriac’s novel titled Thérèse Desqueyroux (1927) with the intention of exploring the meanings and the significations in its construction of women as monsters. It has been observed that women are depicted as monsters because their struggle for freedom is seen as a challenge to the patriarchal system. The aims of this study are to find out and to describe the influential aspects in the construction of women as monsters and how such construction creates meanings. The study relies on content analysis method and follows three steps of analysis: collecting data relevant to monstrosity, classifying data based on the themes and problems related to the topic, and analyzing the data using Barbara Creed’s theory of the monstrous feminine (2007). The study results in the finding that the construction of women as monsters is strongly correlated with the deep institutionalization of patriarchy in French culture. Penempatan perempuan pada posisi inferior dalam banyak narasi disebabkan oleh faktor-faktor domestifikasi, minoritas, dan diskriminasi. Ketika perempuan memperjuangkan kesetaraan, mereka dianggap membangkang dan disimbolkan sebagai monster. Konstruksi monster terhadap perempuan ini terlihat pada novel François Mauriac berjudul Thérèse Desqueyroux (1927). Tulisan ini mencoba memahami makna dan pemaknaan konstruksi perempuan sebagai monster dalam novel tersebut. Studi ini menemukan bahwa perempuan digambarkan sebagai monster karena perjuangan mereka untuk mencapai kebebasan dianggap menentang struktur patriarki. Tujuan dari studi ini adalah menemukan dan mendeskripsikan aspek-aspek yang berkaitan dengan proses pemonsteran perempuan dan bagaimana proses tersebut dimaknai. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode analisis isi cerita dan dilakukan dalam beberapa tahap. Tahap pertama adalah pengambilan data yang relevan dengan pemonsteran. Tahap kedua adalah pengklasifikasian data sesuai dengan tema dan permasalahan tentang pemonsteran perempuan. Tahap terakhir adalah analisis data temuan dengan teori Barbara Creed (2007) tentang the monstrous feminine. Studi ini menyimpulkan bahwa konstruksi perempuan sebagai monster berhubungan erat dengan kultur patriarki yang sudah terinstitusionalisasi di dalam budaya Prancis pada masa ketika novel tersebut ditulis.

Víctima, monstruo o ser humano en pantalla: Agencia femenina, diversidad funcional y el derecho a ser un monstruo en “Hush”=Victim, monster or human being on screen: female agency, functional diversity and the right to be a monster in Hush

<p align="left"><strong>Resumen</strong></p><p>Este artículo pretende explorar las implicaciones de la agencia femenina dibujadas en la cinta de horror de 2016 <em>Hush</em>, dirigida por Mike Flanagan y escrita por él mismo junto a Kate Siegel, protagonista del filme. Para este fin se realizará una revisión teórica desde los estudios del cuerpo y los estudios feministas sobre la agencia corporal femenina, la diversidad funcional, lo monstruoso femenino y las representaciones corporales en los medios audiovisuales. Así, se abordarán conceptos y figuras de teóricas como De Lauretis, Mulvey, Creed, Garland-Thomson y Blackman ente otras/os, con el objetivo de analizar y problematizar los motivos presentes en el filme, desde las nociones de la subversión de los estereotipos femeninos y la reivindicación crítica de la abyección.</p><p align="left"><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>This article aims to explore the implications of female agency drawn in the 2016 horror film <em>Hush</em>, directed by Mike Flanagan and co-written with Kate Siegel, the film's protagonist. For this purpose, a theoretical review will be carried out from body studies and feminist studies on female bodily agency, functional diversity, the monstrous feminine and body representations in audiovisual media. Thus, concepts and figures of theorists such as De Lauretis, Mulvey, Creed, Garland-Thomson and Blackman, among others, will be addressed in order to analyze and problematize the motifs present in the film, from the notions of the subversion of female stereotypes and the critical vindication of abjection.</p>

Tolkien and Rape

J. R. R. Tolkien’s representation of women in his fiction has generated a number of controversies since its original publication. This essay examines two major issues: an evasiveness in Tolkien’s treatment of sexual violence against women that is not disconnected from a gendered terror that underlies several moments in his works and functions to link women’s sexuality and desiring with death. Specifically, we read the author’s depiction of Shelob and her appetitive, arachnoid monstrosity as at once displacing sexual violence onto the monstrous feminine and evoking a revulsion at the aging female body. We next explore the consequences of the author’s depictions of women and his handling of sexual violence in close connection with his own 1939 public performance of Chaucer’s Reeve’s Tale, a comic narrative turning on two rapes that Tolkien nevertheless conceals in a comparable fashion to his elision of sexual violence in Middle-earth.

The monstrous feminine and the structure of transformation: art, language, technology, magic

The structure of art is an architecture of transformation. This thesis is a meditation on the notion of art or aesthetics as technological, arguing that art or aesthetics in its highest aspect can foment revolution or transformation within oneself, or in the material world. The power of art to invoke change, I define as magic, a means of effectuation that exists outside of the confines of a materialist or scientistic imaginary. Such a mode of effectuation is also linguistic, and connected with meaning. These ideas find their inspiration primarily in the works of Heidegger, Deleuze, Lacan, Kristeva, Schelling, and Slattery. This thesis also acts as a practical, exegetical exercise in aesthetics to render an interpretation of my own artwork, a praxis of art-based research.

The monstrous feminine and the structure of transformation: art, language, technology, magic

The structure of art is an architecture of transformation. This thesis is a meditation on the notion of art or aesthetics as technological, arguing that art or aesthetics in its highest aspect can foment revolution or transformation within oneself, or in the material world. The power of art to invoke change, I define as magic, a means of effectuation that exists outside of the confines of a materialist or scientistic imaginary. Such a mode of effectuation is also linguistic, and connected with meaning. These ideas find their inspiration primarily in the works of Heidegger, Deleuze, Lacan, Kristeva, Schelling, and Slattery. This thesis also acts as a practical, exegetical exercise in aesthetics to render an interpretation of my own artwork, a praxis of art-based research.

Postmodern Medusa: The Monstrous-Feminine in StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm

This article explores the representation of monstrous-feminine agency through the character of Kerrigan in the StarCraft series with emphasis on StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. Kerrigan’s subjectivity as a player-character complicates her in ways that require a different application of the monstrous-feminine from those characters from literature, film, and video games that position them as enemies to overcome. The article begins examining Kerrigan through the lens of the monstrous-feminine and the abject before discussing how her hypersexualization ostensibly contradicts her monstrosity as an empowering force. The author then explores the obstacles Kerrigan must overcome and how this struggle reifies her disruption of and resistance against the symbolic order. The discussion concludes that Kerrigan’s connection between the player and monstrous-feminine character is a significant paradigm shift for the female monster and how agency and empathy allow players to understand the monstrous-feminine in a new perspective.

Kóralína og mæður hennar: Um vandkvæði þess að skipta um móður í Kóralínu eftir Neil Gaiman

Í greininni er fjallað um nútímaævintýrið Coraline (2002). Kenningarammi sálgreiningarinnar hefur verið áberandi í fræðilegri umræðu um þessa bók frá upphafi og þessi grein er engin undantekning frá því aðallega er byggt á kenningum Sigmunds Freud um „hið ókennilega“ og Juliu Kristevu um „úrkastið“ auk femínískrar gagnrýni Barböru Creed á „the monstrous feminine“. Fjallað verður um samband mæðra og dætra í bókinni og þroskasögu Kóralínu sem er ellefu ára telpa að brjótast undanvaldi móður sinnar. Sú uppreisn fer fram í stórkostlegri sviðsmynd þar sem „hinmóðirin“, illviljuð og gráðug, ræður ríkjum. Niðurstaða Kóralínu er að hin raunverulega móðir, „nógu góða móðirin“, sé allt sem telpa þarf.