Between Flesh and Fault: A Kristevan Inquiry into the Collapse of Moral and Physical Monstrosity in Frankenstein, The Wasp Factory, and Poor Things

Abstract

This essay challenges the distinction between moral and physical monstrosity. Rejecting this binary as reductive, it argues that Kristeva’s theory of abjection provides a framework for reading moral and physical monstrosity as twin expressions of the same ontological disturbance rather than discrete labels. It contends that violations of the natural order often underpin the physical expressions of monstrosity, while what is deemed morally monstrous cannot be separated from gendered bodies on which morality is differentiated. Narrative framing initially destabilises the site of monstrosity by allowing monsters the opportunity to speak. However, as their self-articulation threatens the patriarchal and ontological boundaries upon which their societies depend, their monstrosity is reasserted by the dominant narrative. Together, the novels form a stitched body of monstrosity with each demonstrating that monstrosity is not generated solely in the body or by moral transgressions, but through a boundary-breaking interplay between them.