Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Bachelor of Arts in English Literary Studies
Advisor
Laura D'Amore, Ph.D.
Abstract
With the rise of the monstrous feminine in contemporary popular literature and culture today, this paper will analyze Chelsea Summer’s 2019 novel, A Certain Hunger. The novel’s protagonist, Dorothy Daniels, spends her time feeding her cannibalistic urges. Drawing from Barbara Creed’s framework of this archetype in her book, The Monstrous-Feminine, this paper will argue that Daniels’ acts of slaughtering and devouring her male lovers depict a radical expression of unregulated female sexuality and agency that is typically suppressed by society, leaving women with a sexual rage and hunger that’s difficult to satiate. By rejecting traditional feminine passivity and by becoming the “Femme Castratrice” Creed defines, Daniels challenges patriarchal control over female desires and bodies. The cannibalism Daniels partakes in is a grotesque assertion of female dominance, emotionally and sexually over men, that explores male anxieties about female power. This analysis emphasizes how transgressive stories like A Certain Hunger are crucial to understand the rise of female cannibal characters in popular culture today, and their quest for sexual control over their male counterparts.
Recommended Citation
McKechnie, Joan, "Devouring the Patriarchy: The Monstrous Feminine, Cannibalism, and the Reclamation of Female Sexuality" (2025). English Theses. 372.
https://docs.rwu.edu/english_theses/372
