Stitched Identities: Frankenstein between Cultural Theory and Teaching Practice

Abstract

The article proposes a Cultural Studies approach to the analysis of narrative literary texts, taking the body as a keyword and critical device. Drawing on Cultural Studies perspectives, it shows how the body constitutes a privileged site in which ideological and political dynamics, as well as cultural conflicts, become visible—dynamics that have historically contributed to defining, delimiting, or excluding what is recognised as ‘human,’ ‘normal,’ and ‘legitimate’ and that shape processes of subjectivation and identification.

The first part outlines a theoretical framework that conceives of the body as a historically situated construction and as a surface of cultural inscription, bringing into dialogue Michel Foucault, feminist and queer theory (with particular reference to Judith Butler and Elizabeth Grosz), and key trajectories within Cultural Studies. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818; 1831) is taken as an exemplary case study, as it enables an effective examination of the relationship between body and identity (both individual and social), the logics of inclusion and exclusion, and the processes of normalisation and monstrification of the ‘othered’ body.

The second part presents a teaching module for a fourth-year upper secondary school class, which translates these categories into a Cultural Studies reading of the novel centred on the Creature’s body as a culturally legible text and as a critical device through which identity is constructed—or denied. The proposed activity shows how a canonical text can be reread in light of issues that shape the contemporary socio-cultural present, thereby reinforcing the critical and formative function of literary education.