The figurative image of the veil (in its Sedgwickian sense, “suffused with sexuality”) functions in Penny Dreadful as both a repressive and emancipatory device, frequently evoked via literal transformations into “other(ed) selves” (demon-possessed Vanessa lycanthropic Ethan). Through a “veiling” that conceals the monstrousness/queerness of his characters, either from themselves or from heteronormative Victorian society at large, Logan explores the taboo and fluid sexualities often unloosed in Gothic narratives. This chapter considers the ways that John Logan, as a queer author, reappropriates the abject and the liminal in Penny Dreadful (2014–2016) as signifiers of what I call the queer sublime-an almost hallowed state of difference-something Logan conceives of as desirable but inherently misunderstood, often by the very characters who embody it most. The series itself is situated as a Sadean text, melding high and low cultural forms through its appropriation of penny dreadful literature within the context of contemporary “quality television,” which echoes Sade’s merging of philosophy with pornography and violence. References to Sade’s transgressive philosophy can be found throughout Penny Dreadful, primarily expressed through characters such as Justine, Lily, and Dorian, who fit the mold of the Sadean libertine. This subplot is the first to directly cite Sade’s work, but this chapter argues that his influence has always been present in the series. In the show’s reimagining of Sade, certain features of his work are adapted and revised. But while Sade’s Justine is an eternal victim, in Penny Dreadful the character’s fate is changed, under the tutelage of season regulars Lily Frankenstein and Dorian Gray. In Episode 3.2 of Penny Dreadful the character of Justine is introduced, in reference to the title character of the Marquis de Sade’s 1791 novel Justine. A subject of growing academic attention, Penny Dreadful has also received scholarly analysis in articles by Sarah Artt, Nina Farizova, and Benjamin Poore, chapters in monographs by Yvonne Griggs, Antonija Primorac, and Saverio Tomaiuolo, contributions to a special issue of Critical Survey (see Louttit, Akıllı and Öz, Rocha, and Manea), and the essays in an entire section of Shannon Wells-Lassagne and Eckart Voigt’s edited collection Filming the Past, Screening the Present: Neo-Victorian Adaptations (see Böhnke, Mendes, VanWinkle, and Mantrant)-and this work only represents a sample of what has been published since the series aired. The Showtime-Sky Atlantic television series Penny Dreadful ran for three seasons from 2014 to 2016, inspiring critical acclaim, a cult of fan-viewers (calling themselves “The Dreadfuls”), tie-ins such as a prequel and sequel comic-book series published by Titan Comics, and a television spin-off, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, cancelled after the first season aired on Showtime in 2020. As a recent example of adapting multiple sources in different media, Penny Dreadful has as much to say about the Romantic and Victorian eras as it does about our present-day fascination with screen monsters. Jekyll, Penny Dreadful is a mash-up of familiar texts and new Gothic figures such as spiritualist Vanessa Ives, played by the magnetic Eva Green. Frankenstein and his Creature, the “bride” of Frankenstein, Dracula, the werewolf, Dorian Gray, and Dr. Chapters examine the status of the series as a work of twenty-first-century cable television, contemporary Gothic-horror, and intermedial adaptation, spanning sources as diverse as eighteenth and nineteenth-century British fiction and poetry, American dime novels, theatrical performance, Hollywood movies, and fan practices. This edited collection is the first book-length critical study of the Showtime-Sky Atlantic television series Penny Dreadful (2014-2016), which also includes an analysis of Showtime’s 2020 spin-off City of Angels.
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