This Is My Becoming: Transformation, Hybridity, and the Monstrous in NBC's Hannibal

Abstract

This article will interrogate the postmodern desire for a reclamation of queer monstrosity by examining Hannibal, the National Broadcasting Company's adaptation of Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter series, a recent television show that deals explicitly with queerness and evil and found critical success and a cult online fandom. Holding in mind that show runner Bryan Fuller himself referred to the show as a “werewolf story,” this article will examine the ways in which the show uses the traditional trappings of werewolf narratives to craft a monster narrative that is both thoroughly postmodern and canonically queer. It will also examine the show as a transformational adaptation and look at Will Graham not only as a literal hybrid figure but also as a meta-textual one. Accordingly, this article will also analyze the show's fanatical fan following in the context of the reclamation of queer monstrosity and postmodern gothicism.