A European getaway for female monsters

Abstract In my study, I explore representations of otherness and alienation in the Athena Club trilogy by Theodora Goss, a Hungarian-born writer currently living and working in the United States. In the first part of the analysis, I focus on the relationship between female identity and monstrosity. I argue that monstrosity in Goss' novels can be seen in the deconstruction of traditional nineteenth-century female roles. Hence, the female monsters of the Athena Club can be interpreted as a metaphor for self-realization and a representation of otherness. In the second part of the analysis, I will examine the experience of alienation from the perspective of the protagonist (Mary), along the opposition of home and abroad. I will point out that the experience of the new cultural environment, and more specifically the positive experience with Hungarian cultural realities, means the final elimination of the experience of alienation.