ENGLISH 400: MONSTER THEORY
Jenni Camhi
Research Abstract
"The Virago: Reading Grendel's Dam in Anglo-Saxon Contexts"
Of the three monsters portrayed in Beowulf, one in particular highlights Anglo-Saxon cultural anxieties about the role of women: Grendel's mother. This paper will look deeper into her significance in the text and investigate why it is that she was a source of anxiety for Anglo-Saxon audiences around the 9th-11th century, when Beowulf was written. Why is Grendel's dam a monster? Why was her quest for vengeance seen as deviant? In Beowulf, it is not only acceptable to seek revenge when one's kin has been slain; it is expected. However, there is a catch: in order to enact vengeance, you must be male. In Anglo-Saxon society -- something of which this text reflects many elements -- it is the men who are warriors, who even the score when loved ones are taken from them. Women, contrastingly, are expected to be "peace-weavers," and when a loved one, like a son, is taken from them, they are expected to accept it and grieve, but not take action. Therefore, the dam's monstrosity stems from the anxieties that she provokes regarding Anglo-Saxon gender roles.
Using a historicist lens that considers the context of Anglo-Saxon society and gender roles in Beowulf's time, I will argue that Grendel's dam is considered monstrous because she is a virago: a female that embodies masculine strength or spirit. Scholars like Jane Nitzsche, Martin Puhvel, and Paul Acker argue that Grendel's mother upends the Germanic understanding of what it means to be a woman because she fights her own battles; instead of being a peace-weaver, like other women highlighted in Beowulf, she acts in an aggressive and revenge-seeking fashion reserved for men. Grendel's dam, therefore, goes against the ideal Anglo-Saxon woman because she participates in violence, battle, and vengeance, instead of grieving. Her monstrosity is built on her undertaking masculine roles and the fear that is provoked from women who overreach their gendered expectations. Understanding Grendel's mother is an entry point into understanding the roles of women and men in early Anglo-Saxon culture. It is an opportunity to better analyze the constructedness of both monstrosity and femininity.
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Capstone Presentation
"A Changing World: Marxism and Allegory in 'The Lady of the House of Love'"
In my presentation I will do a Marxist reading of Angela Carter’s short story “The Lady of the House of Love.” The story depicts two main characters: the Countess, a vampire queen who represents monarchy and old money that has been passed down through generations, and the Bicyclist, a British soldier who represents both new money and a rising new generation. Although the Countess appears to be the more powerful of the two initially, when they meet it spells the end of the vampire queen’s centuries-long rule and the end of her life. In order to understand these characters and the result of their interaction, they must be looked at as representative of their fictionalized historical moment—the Bolshevik Revolution. In addition to social and economic factors, this revolution was inspired by political unrest and a desire to replace Russia’s imperial government with a new socialist form of government. My analysis will explain how “The Lady of the House of Love” is a Marxist allegory
foreshadowing the Bolshevik Revolution, and is ultimately arguing that when an old money world collides with the new generation of revolutionaries, it cannot survive.