Hybridizing Textual Bodies and Neo-Gothic Identities: Frankenstein’s Afterlife in Shelley Jackson’s Fiction

Abstract

Against the background of the current scholarly debate on the Neo-Gothic fascination with the body manipulation and dissection, this paper examines some recent transmutations of the archetype of the hybrid monster of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. More specifically, the paper focuses on Shelley Jackson's production, from the hypertexts Patchtwork Girl, or A Modern Monster (1995) and My Body. A Wunderkammer (1997) to The Melancholy of Anatomy (2002), up to her most recent project Skin (2010). Although she cannot be strictly considered part of the Neo-Gothic stream, her works exemplify significant ways in which post human thought intersects with Gothic textuality. By reimagining Frankenstein's archetype of the assembled creature, Jackson explores emerging postmodern paradigms of disturbingly porous and disjointed identities in the context of digital culture.