IMAGINATION AND DEFORMATION: MONSTROUS MATERNAL PERVERSIONS OF NATURAL REPRODUCTION IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND examines the creation in early modern English reproductive, teratological, wonder, and fictional literature of the "monstrous mother"--a female reproductive figure capable of generating both fetal and non-fetal forms of offspring through the power of her imagination. While earlier critics have identified monstrous mothers in early modern English literature--figures who produce grotesque and/or excessive offspring, deny or obstruct nurture, commit infanticide, and sometimes exhibit their own physical deformities--such mothers require offspring to expose their monstrosity. That is, deformed, numerous, starving, sickly, or slain bodies testify to their mothers' monstrous desires, reproductive natures, and parenting practices. In contrast, I argue that monstrous maternity develops independently of the birth of offspring, and specifically, manifests during conception and pregnancy, before women deliver issue that exposes their monstrous maternal inclinations. While monstrous maternal power primarily develops from women's desires, it also remains embodied within conceiving and pregnant women, and thus permits women to generate not only deformed offspring and power, but also new, monstrous forms of generation.While monstrous mothers exercise powerful imaginative force that permits them to produce numerous types of "monstrous births," they also face antagonistic attempts to suppress their monstrous tendencies. Yet the authors of regulatory imagination texts, particularly sixteenth- and seventeenth-century obstetrical manuals, are repeatedly confounded by the monstrous mother's ability to innovate her imaginative influence when confronted with attempts to limit it. Thus, antagonism actually augments monstrous maternal power. Early modern fictional literature depicts the growth and innovation of monstrous maternity even as practitioners, husbands, and communities attempt to suppress it. Fictional works therefore re-theorize regulatory imagination theory, as they persistently underscore the uncontrollable nature of monstrous mothers and monstrous maternal reproduction.

The intent of this thesis is to examine and interpret the representation of the Holocaust in young adult literature. The tone, style, and emotion used to convey the Holocaust experience, both in fiction and nonfiction stories, in eyewitness and indirect accounts, affects its representation to a young adult audience. I will study the effects of sentimentality, realism, and fun and their impact on our understanding and remembrance of the Holocaust. I will analyze several texts, including Island on Bird Street, The Book Thief, and Night. The paradox of finding an appropriate balance between presenting a realistic portrayal of the Holocaust and understanding that we could never fathom the horrors of the Holocaust is one that plagues both writers and readers of this genre of literature and I plan to critique the ways in which different works discuss the subject. Ultimately, I will consider the conflict of how we negotiate between complete repression versus obsessive memorialization. What is the role of memory? What is the proper way to move on from the horrors of the past while still honoring the innocent people who lived and died? Through my analysis, I hope to attempt to answer these questions and, perhaps, provide suggestions for appropriate representation and memorialization.