What’s In A Face?: The Subversion of Victorian Physiognomy Through Gothic Literature

Abstract
My paper analyzes the link between physical appearance and moral standing proposed by physiognomy, a popular nineteenth-century racial pseudoscience. A critique of physiognomy, specifically its categorization of people based on appearance, will be examined through Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) by Oscar Wilde. 
Presenter Biography
Keira Carpenter is an undergraduate student at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. She has an English major with a concentration in literature, as well as a music minor. In April of 2023, she participated in the Popular Culture Association conference, where she presented a research paper on two Gothic short stories, examining how both works perpetuated the infantilization of women as a method of control.