UCLA Library

Lynd Ward’s wood engravings for the 1934 illustrated edition of Frankenstein push the boundaries of what it means to “read” an illustrated edition of a novel in conversation with its cultural afterlives, its material dimensions, and its queer undertones. Using French literary theorist Gérard Genette’s definition of hypertextuality, this paper explores the radical ways in which nontraditional texts like Ward’s wood engravings and Shelley Jackson’s 1995 hypertext novel Patchwork Girl speak to the reading experience through their use of framing devices—a tool borrowed from Shelley herself. This essay reads Ward’s work through the lens of Patchwork Girl’s critical apparatus, concentrating on how the emphasis on the creature’s body speaks back to the voyeuristic desires and expectations of the reader.