“The Lurking Place of Nameless Terrors”: Queer Alterity within British Normative Subjects in Richard Marsh’s The Beetle

Abstract

My thesis project will examine the resurgence of gothic literature in the 1890s through the

framework queer theory. As scholars of the literary gothic suggest, the prolific production and consumption of gothic literature reflected anxieties surrounding identity categories in the fin de siècle. The literature represented an extensive range of concerns through its ambiguous monsters and portrayals of male characters who breached the expectations of masculinity (Halberstam, Hutchison, Stuart, Rowlinson). Because of these concerns about identity, there is a focus on gothic literature through the framework of queer studies. I focus on Richard Marsh’s novel The Beetle (1897), which subverts the notions of stable identity categories and locates the threat within the gothic monster and the so-called normative characters. The text exploits fears surrounding scientific discourse, English society's decline, and normative gender roles. In Marsh’s novel, the monstrous beetle invades English customs and bodies yet demonstrates that such otherness exists within normative subjects. Despite the reinstatement of order at the end of the novel, Marsh presents a character that makes readers question the validity, stability and strength of masculine and imperial hegemony.

Faculty Mentors: Dr. Daniel Martin & Dr. David Hollingshead