Literary Theory: Feminine Monstrosity: Embracing the Taboo in Modern Fiction
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This event is part of UntitledTown Book and Author Festival, happening in Green Bay, Wisconsin September 25-27, 2026. Including over 11 different locations, 70 authors, 80 individual events and every single one is free admission. More details can be found at www.untitledtown.org.
This critical lecture looks at the ways that women, and feminine identifying peoples, have been denied power throughout modern history, how patriarchal structures rely on fiction as a necessary mechanism in reinforcing and validating these foundations through continued use of demonizing and infantilizing stereotypes.Furthermore, Calvert argues that these mechanisms often serve as catalysts, inducing the very monstrosity that women, and female identifying peoples are then punished for. Calvert interrogates how modern feminist fiction seeks to transform qualities that have typically been classified as “bad” in favor of a renewed understanding of those qualities as healing, natural, powerful, and necessary.
What you'll walk away with:
Examine how historical and structural patriarchy weaponizes fiction to reinforce demonizing and infantilizing stereotypes against women and feminine-identifying people.
Analyze the theoretical frameworks of Kristy Butler and Barbara Creed to understand how societal expectations act as catalysts for manufactured "monstrosity."
Explore contemporary feminist masterworks like Nightbitch, Chouette, and The School for Good Mothers to see these dynamics in action.
Reclaim traits historically coded as "bad" or unruly, transforming them into understood sources of natural power, healing, and creative agency.
Where: Brown County Library Central Branch Think Tank C (Second Floor), 515 Pine Street, Green Bay, Wisconsin
When: Saturday, September 26, 2026 at 10 am - 11:45 am
Admission: FREE! Space is limited.
Alycia Calvert (she/her) is a neurodivergent queer author who is learning the exquisite agony of starting over at forty. Her work was shortlisted for the Extinction Rebellion story competition in 2024, and elsewhere. In 2024-2025 Alycia served as EIC of Harpur Palate Literary Journal, after serving as fiction editor from 2022-2024. She has read for numerous literary journals since 2020 including Fractured Literature since January, Midway Journal since last August, Witness Magazine from 2020-2022, and CLMP: Firecracker Manuscript Awards in Fall of 2021.
This critical lecture looks at the ways that women, and feminine identifying peoples, have been denied power throughout modern history, how patriarchal structures rely on fiction as a necessary mechanism in reinforcing and validating these foundations through continued use of demonizing and infantilizing stereotypes.Furthermore, Calvert argues that these mechanisms often serve as catalysts, inducing the very monstrosity that women, and female identifying peoples are then punished for. Calvert interrogates how modern feminist fiction seeks to transform qualities that have typically been classified as “bad” in favor of a renewed understanding of those qualities as healing, natural, powerful, and necessary.
What you'll walk away with:
Examine how historical and structural patriarchy weaponizes fiction to reinforce demonizing and infantilizing stereotypes against women and feminine-identifying people.
Analyze the theoretical frameworks of Kristy Butler and Barbara Creed to understand how societal expectations act as catalysts for manufactured "monstrosity."
Explore contemporary feminist masterworks like Nightbitch, Chouette, and The School for Good Mothers to see these dynamics in action.
Reclaim traits historically coded as "bad" or unruly, transforming them into understood sources of natural power, healing, and creative agency.
Where: Brown County Library Central Branch Think Tank C (Second Floor), 515 Pine Street, Green Bay, Wisconsin
When: Saturday, September 26, 2026 at 10 am - 11:45 am
Admission: FREE! Space is limited.
Alycia Calvert (she/her) is a neurodivergent queer author who is learning the exquisite agony of starting over at forty. Her work was shortlisted for the Extinction Rebellion story competition in 2024, and elsewhere. In 2024-2025 Alycia served as EIC of Harpur Palate Literary Journal, after serving as fiction editor from 2022-2024. She has read for numerous literary journals since 2020 including Fractured Literature since January, Midway Journal since last August, Witness Magazine from 2020-2022, and CLMP: Firecracker Manuscript Awards in Fall of 2021.
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Where is it happening?
Brown County Library (Central Library), 515 Pine St,Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherUntitledTown
