Saving people, hunting things: a critical rhetorical analysis of monstrosity and trauma in the TV series Supernatural

This thesis analyzes the critically acclaimed television series Supernatural and how the characters Dean Winchester and Castiel perform, resist, and subvert tropes of queer monstrosity and trauma. From a critical rhetorical standpoint, this study examines depictions of queer monstrosity and traumatic concepts like torture, sacrifice, and punishment and how these characters advance or inhibit queer representation through these depictions. Overall, the themes of queer monstrosity that were found were the visual representations of skin and consumption habits of the characters that serve to exacerbate both the masculinity and queerness of the respective characters. Further, the themes of torture, sacrifice, and punishment that were found were visually expressed hypermasculinity and heteronormativity through the characters and their bodies in particular. Ultimately, I argue that depictions of queerness that adhere to hypermasculinity and heteronormativity do not serve to progress the narratives of queer characters in the horror genre.