Date of Award
Spring 2026
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein places the “Monster” at the center of the text and I argue that Shelley is purposeful in not giving a real, human name to the Monster nor a specified gender. I propose that the Monster is an experimentation of un-gendered embodiment that Shelley meticulously crafts and which can be read through the lens of Trans-studies as a literary example of what I term Gender Outperformance. I define this as what may be embodied once gender is either fully abandoned, never granted, or stretched beyond its normative limits. Once gender is outperformed it is transcended.
Recommended Citation
Morgan, Camryn, "The Nameless Monster: Outperforming Gender in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein" (2026). Munn Scholars Awards. 20.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/munn/20