ABSTRACT
This chapter uses a combination of queer and Gothic reading to analyse New Orleans author Grace King’s short story “One of Us”, elaborating on the role positions of (social) marginality play in becoming a monstrous or transgressive force. In particular, King’s story revolves around a failed opera singer, a dugazon manquée, who stands at a crossroads between genders while being turned into both Gothic monster and victim. The boundaries between these concepts blur as the dugazon is caught between the fascination and repulsion her monstrous transformation simultaneously evokes in others, resulting in a multi-dimensional transgression in terms of gender, theatrical, and social role. In keeping with the earlier Gothic tradition, marginality here does not mean powerlessness; King instead renders an empowered vision of her marginal character, further subverting expectations.
