ENGLISH 400: MONSTER THEORY
Maira Vandiver
Research Paper Abstract
"'The End of Being' : Male Fantasy and Feminine Non-Identity in 'The Lady of the House of Love'"
Angela Carter's visceral and unsettling vampire tale, "The Lady of the House of Love" presents an arcane conclusion which has garnered a plethora of scholarly commentary. The Countess' death, directly preceded by the tender fulfillment of her greatest desire, presents more questions than it does answers: as a narrative conclusion, what does this death signify? How do we make sense of her demise, and the abrupt ending of this short story?
Instead of reading the Countess' death as a literal loss of life, I will argue that her demise is a complete metaphysical loss of identity. this paper will assert that the Countess is meant to be read not as a physical entity (vampiric though she may be) but rather an amalgamation of male sexual fantasies, in particular, the tropes of the Ingenue and the Femme Fatale. Her identity is sustained for centuries through her untouchable nature; this allows her to remain a fetishized fantasy as opposed to a physical reality. The young Bicyclist's care for the Countess, motivated not by erotic desire but by human interest,
negates her identity. A sexual fantasy ceases to be a fantasy once humanized; thus, the Countess ceases to exist after the Bicyclist's tender kiss. Using the lens of queer studies and the male gaze, I will examine the Countess as an entity defined only by others' perception and what such a reading offers to a wider discussion of feminine identity.
This interpretation differs from the majority of academic discourse on the story. The common analytical position examines "The Lady of the House of Love" as a feminist critique on sexual dehumanization, in line with the anthology's overarching theme. The Countess' death is widely understood as a liberation from an unwilling and predestined existence, enabled by an act of selfless love. Such an analysis denies the complexity of the narrative; the reading I propose deepens our understanding of the text not only as a feminist critique, but as a construction of feminine identity, but as a constitution of male fantasy as desiring non-human artifice. Carter asserts that the male gaze, and its construction of feminine identity, stands in opposition to the humanization of its subject. We, as the voyeuristic audience, simultaneously construct her identity through our own perception, and thus are asked at the end of the narrative: have you liberated the Countess? Or have you destroyed her?
Capstone Presentation
"'A Bag of Rice was her Advice': Domesticity versus Agency in Soucouyant Narratives"
The soucouyant, a vampiric figure from Caribbean folklore, is an insatiable woman whose violent appetites drive her to consume the “life blood” of her fellow community members. In many soucouyant narratives, the monster is waylaid when confronted with a pile of rice, forcing her instead to count each individual grain. In “Greedy Chokepuppy,” Nalo Hopkinson presents similar domestic themes through Granny’s kitchen and ritualistic
cooking. In this presentation, I will examine domesticity in soucouyant folklore as an oppressive agent against women’s independence, and illustrate how this theme allows us to read the soucouyants in “Greedy Chokepuppy” as an embodiment of anxiety over women’s autonomy.