The Contaminant Cobweb: Complex Characters and Monstrous Mashup

This article maps out character complexity in Penny Dreadful by focusing on the intertextuality of monstrous female characters. The aim of this study is twofold. First, it seeks to examine show how mashup characters gain complexity through textual contamination as they are woven into an intertextual cobweb of signification. Secondly, it aims at examining how monstrous characters like Vanessa Ives can be conceived as mashups contaminated by different manifestations of the monstrous-feminine as coined by Barbara Creed. An overarching hypothesis of this study is that interfigural strategies contribute to character complexity of traditional female monsters usually seen in televisual horror-drama.