Monstrosising infertility : supernatural barren females in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer
author:
Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska Agnieszka
editor:
Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska Agnieszka , Graham Karen
book title:
Monstrous manifestations : realities and the imaginings of the monster
date of publication
:
2013
place of publication : name of publisher:
Oxford : Inter-Disciplinary Press
pages:
151-160
eISBN:
978-1-84888-202-7
series:
At the Interface. Evil Hub
notes:
Bibliogr. s. 158-159
language:
English
book language:
English
abstract in English:
The representation of an infertile woman as a monster has been long present in the
cultural history of the world. The inability to bear children was well established as
one of the main characteristics in the construction of the monstrous female already
in ancient times and the Middle Ages. Although it is occasionally argued that the
figure of the infertile woman has lost its monstrous face in the contemporary
culture of the West, it does not seem to be so. This chapter considers the notions of
(in)fertility in the famous Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer as determining the
construction of monstrous and human femininities. While Barbara Creed places
sexuality as the key to understand the monstrous in the feminine, Meyer’s saga
takes it one step further, narrowing the sexuality factor to the inability of giving
birth to a child. In consequence, infertile females are constructed as abject,
monstrous and transgressors as theorised by Barbara Creed, Christine Bousfield,
Julia Kristeva and Linda H. McGuire. Fertility and motherhood, on the other hand,
are depicted as thoroughly human