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Abstract
This article shows how the Hugolian monster's speech metamorphoses into a new deformed discourse. The hybrid and excessive physical forms of two key monsters - Quasimodo of Notre-Dame de Paris and Gwynplaine of L'Homme qui rit - become mirrored in the contours of their language. The text, in turn, transforms into a foire-like spectacle where grotesque discourse is the headline performer. This revolution of literary form invites discussion of the socio-political dimensions of the works. Throwing a spotlight on reader-spectators as well as text-spectacle, this study interrogates both the nineteenth-century desire for deformity and our own contemporary thirst for the monstrous.
When nineteenth-century physically deformed "monsters" are gazed upon, it is with a medusa's eyes. Exhibited in the foire and drawing spectators with magnetic force to the famous Dupuytren "musée des monstres",1 monsters are the object of an immobilising gaze which seeks to render them static statues, commodities to be viewed. They are, in some sense, the ultimate manifestation of the old adage; they should be "seen and not heard".2 The importance of the monster's visual aspect also surfaces in the literary sphere: Victor Hugo presents the reader with Quasimodo's catalogue of deformities in Notre-Dame de Paris (1831), and the grotesque artificial smile carved into Gwynplaine's face in L'Homme qui rit (1869). Yet in a subversive departure from the purely visual element demanded by the foire, Hugo fills his monsters with words. What are the implications of this transition from "speaking of monsters" to "speaking monsters"? Through the case studies of the inarticulate Quasimodo and the eloquent "spokesmonster" Gwynplaine, this article excavates the chameleon effect which occurs between the monster's grotesque body and its words. After exploring how Hugo stitches together grotesque bodies on the page, I draw on Saussurean semiology to examine how the monster's words transform into a new deformed discourse. Throwing a spotlight on these speaking monsters not only illuminates the socio-political dimensions of Hugo's works, but also illustrates how the monsters' subversive syllables can reshape and revolutionise literary form.
What makes a monster?
Before examining the contours of the monster's words, it is important to identify the shape of the monster itself. Yet defining the monster is no mean feat, as an extensive body of criticism reveals; Jeffrey Jerome...