The Only Real Monster: Rediscovering Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde ~ with Joey Otero

Who is your neighbor, really? What about your coworker, your classmate, your doctor, and so on? You trust each of these persons with some important part of your life— but how well do you know them as people? What ugly things are they concealing from public view? And which would be worse? Seeing something that you never could have imagined... or seeing something that you recognize in yourself? These are the fears and anxieties that drove Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and they still resonate with us today. In the Internet age, our lives are more public—and more easily fabricated—than ever before, and we navigate this strange new public sphere with the ever-present fear that someone we know might actually be a predator in disguise. Stevenson's Victorian readers felt the same way in 1886, as city populations soared, and crime with it. Today we remember Jekyll & Hyde for its story about a strange potion and a dual personality, but its real legacy is something that we carry with us day-to-day. In this workshop, expert Joey Otero will unpack that cultural legacy, and work layer-by-layer through Stevenson's snapshot of the Victorian psyche. *Pre-reading the book is NOT required to take this workshop. *Joseph Otero received his MA in Victorian Literature and Culture from the University of York in 2020, with distinction, and has taught undergraduate courses in both composition and literature.