Transgressing otherness : embracing the abject in beauty and the beast

• Main Author: Chiu, Shi Hui
• Other Authors: Samara Anne Cahill
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Literature::English
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/63094
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In the thesis I would like to investigate otherness, particularly with reference to female sexuality, through the story of Beauty and the Beast. Prima facie, the story allows an investigation of the encounter with a non-human Other, the Beast, who defies the fundamental categories of human nature. However, if we delve deeper to sieve out the latent sexual undertones of the story, as well as take into consideration the social context in which the tale was written during the eighteenth century, the story permits an investigation of the encounter with a sexuality that women have repressed, or rather, been made to repress. The Beast then serves as a metaphor for the active/deviant female sexuality, the Other within her.