Criminals, Degenerates, and Artists: Victorian Science and "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

Scientists in the Victorian period were captured by a desire to see evil in the faces of criminals—to find signs of the inner monster on the surface of the body. Fear of the unknown, of evil that could lurk unseen, manifested itself in study of physiognomy, hysteria and degeneration. The theories drawn from these studies, however, targeted some of the most vulnerable members of Victorian society, including “hysterical” women and “deviant” homosexuals. Shannon Payne will show how these theories were used to make marginalized people into monsters, and discusses how to read literature of the period through the lens of this science.

Shannon Payne is a first year MA student in English Literature and Science and Technology Studies. Her current work focuses on Oscar Wilde, degeneration theory, and resistant writing, but she has interests in many different intersections of literature and science. Shannon's research employs analytical tools from multiple disciplines to study literature (especially popular literature in the form of books, graphic novels, film, and television) as a source of complex cultural communication.