Queering the norm in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

By definition, queer, is whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, or the dominant (OED).According to Mary Klages, queer literary theory examines the nature of gender, sexuality, and identity within literature, but with particular attention to "normative and deviant categories" -with emphasis on the deviant (117).Gothic fiction is often the subject of queer theory because it frequently presents the dominant norm as destabilized and threatened by the deviant or marginalized otherthe former often being dependent upon the latter.As William Hughes asserts, "to be queer is to be different" and "the Gothic, in a sense, has always been different" (3, 1).According to Mair Rigby, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a Gothic novel that is ideal for reading through the lens of queer literary theory in that it contains possibilities "that must be recognized [as] dangerous," primarily because they render the supposedly normal open to question (51).Hughes further expands upon this position by stating, "if the queer state may persist successfully, even if only for a short disruptive period, then it retains the potential to construct itself as a viable alternative to all that is not-queer" (4).Examining Mary Shelly's Frankenstein in the context of queer literary theory exposes a binary opposition of social bonds that disrupts the patriarchal structure of the objectification of women and presents a threat to the dominant social bond and the patriarchal power it supports.However, before we begin an exploration of Frankenstein with this literary theory it is first necessary to understand the context in which it is used.According to Michel Foucault, the sexual categories we acknowledge today are historical constructs which began developing during the seventeenth century and which have become an integral part of the social code we know today (17-18).These constructs enable a massive body of work that connects Frankenstein with a queer reading that