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Matriarchal Monsters: Literary Villians Through The Lens Of Gender, Katherine Currie

Honors Theses

The exposure of American readers to the literary monster culminates at an incredibly young and impressionable age. The genre of children’s literature seems to rely heavily on the impact of the presence of villainous monster characters. From the “boogey man” to “Cruella de Vil” to “The Grinch,” children are presented at a very young age with the character of evil. As a result of our early experience with villains, we as readers accept the “bad guy” created in a novel to be classified under the category of “monster.” However, most readers have never even pondered or questioned the label of …