Abstract

The monster is an icon of literary discussion and criticism, cemented by Cohen’s ‘monster theory’ (1996), with his conceptualisations vital for “understanding [the] cultural creation of monsters” (Gloyn, 2020). Gothic scholar Halberstam argued that “...the emergence of the monster within Gothic fiction marks a peculiarly modern emphasis upon the horror of particular kinds of bodies” (1995, p.3). It is the postmodern monster that will become the subject of this thesis.

This thesis re-engages with the monster, arguing that the rise of biotechnology and audience relations to this technology, provides a new lens for examining monsters that are created, reflected in the growth of the subgenre Lars Schmeink terms ‘biopunk’ (2016). Brodwin asserts that the uncertainties emerging from biotechnological developments change how the body is conceptualised and categorised as the body is an arbiter of political relations (2000, p.7).

The thesis proposes that biotechnology has morphed humanity but, despite this, there are instances of biotechnological interventions (or disruptions) that are treated with suspicion, and their recipients, the icons known as mutants, face othering. This thesis therefore proposes a subspecies of the monster: the mutant, a literary icon representing the monsterisation of those altered by new forms of intervention and this is utilised through a case study of the popular game franchise Mass Effect. This will include a taxonomy of mutant types and definitions – from werewolves to cyborgs – to reflect the biotechnological age.

Monsters act as literary metaphors for marginalisation but there remains a long history of disabled people being labelled monsters as a pejorative term. This thesis contends with the depiction of mutant characters, taking a neutral term to those representations with the hope that one day this term may be reclaimed, in a similar way to how the meaning of queer has been reshaped. Usage of a “morphed humanity” delineates how humanity’s normative relations to biotechnology and the body is ever-changing, and therefore undermines the idea that mutants of text should be marginalized due to highly contested and unstable perceptions of the body. This thesis seeks to provide analysis of a science fiction icon and term, the mutant, that has permeated a plethora of texts for decades but thus far has avoided engagement.