The Female Body Revamped: Beauty, Monstrosity and Body Transformation in the Twilight-saga
Heike Steinhoff, Maria Verena Siebert

Throughout the four novels of the Twilight-saga, its protagonist Bella Swan goes through immense physical changes. This paper will read Bella’s bodily transformation from human to vampire as a makeover narrative. We will demonstrate that it follows the same narrative pattern as extreme makeover programs such as The Swan, including the construction of an abject body in the ‘before' stage, a painful bodily transformation, a mirror scene after the procedure that has been conducted on her, and the constitution of a new, whole self. This gendered discourse can be read either as female empowerment or as a subjection of the female body to patriarchal ideals.