Mary Shelley
David H. Guston, Ed Finn, and Jason Scott Robert (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262533287
- eISBN:
- 9780262340267
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262533287.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has endured in the popular imagination for two hundred years. Begun as a ghost story by an intellectually and socially precocious eighteen-year-old author during a cold ...
More
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has endured in the popular imagination for two hundred years. Begun as a ghost story by an intellectually and socially precocious eighteen-year-old author during a cold and rainy summer on the shores of Lake Geneva, the dramatic tale of Victor Frankenstein and his stitched-together creature can be read as the ultimate parable of scientific hubris. Victor, “the modern Prometheus,” tried to do what he perhaps should have left to Nature: create life. Although the novel is most often discussed in literary-historical terms—as a seminal example of romanticism or as a groundbreaking early work of science fiction—Mary Shelley was keenly aware of contemporary scientific developments and incorporated them into her story. In our era of synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and climate engineering, this edition of Frankenstein will resonate forcefully for readers with a background or interest in science and engineering, and anyone intrigued by the fundamental questions of creativity and responsibility. This edition of Frankenstein pairs the original 1818 version of the manuscript—meticulously line-edited and amended by Charles E. Robinson, one of the world’s preeminent authorities on the text—with annotations and essays by leading scholars exploring the social and ethical aspects of scientific creativity raised by this remarkable story. The result is a unique and accessible edition of one of the most thought-provoking and influential novels ever written. Essays by Elizabeth Bear, Cory Doctorow, Heather E. Douglas, Josephine Johnston, Kate MacCord, Jane Maienschein, Anne K. Mellor, Alfred NordmannLess
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has endured in the popular imagination for two hundred years. Begun as a ghost story by an intellectually and socially precocious eighteen-year-old author during a cold and rainy summer on the shores of Lake Geneva, the dramatic tale of Victor Frankenstein and his stitched-together creature can be read as the ultimate parable of scientific hubris. Victor, “the modern Prometheus,” tried to do what he perhaps should have left to Nature: create life. Although the novel is most often discussed in literary-historical terms—as a seminal example of romanticism or as a groundbreaking early work of science fiction—Mary Shelley was keenly aware of contemporary scientific developments and incorporated them into her story. In our era of synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and climate engineering, this edition of Frankenstein will resonate forcefully for readers with a background or interest in science and engineering, and anyone intrigued by the fundamental questions of creativity and responsibility. This edition of Frankenstein pairs the original 1818 version of the manuscript—meticulously line-edited and amended by Charles E. Robinson, one of the world’s preeminent authorities on the text—with annotations and essays by leading scholars exploring the social and ethical aspects of scientific creativity raised by this remarkable story. The result is a unique and accessible edition of one of the most thought-provoking and influential novels ever written. Essays by Elizabeth Bear, Cory Doctorow, Heather E. Douglas, Josephine Johnston, Kate MacCord, Jane Maienschein, Anne K. Mellor, Alfred Nordmann
Julia V. Douthwaite
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226160580
- eISBN:
- 9780226160634
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226160634.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
Mary Shelley’s “Modern Prometheus” in the parable of Frankenstein presents an interesting coincidence with the French Revolution—which was itself an attempt to make a “new man” and a new nation. ...
More
Mary Shelley’s “Modern Prometheus” in the parable of Frankenstein presents an interesting coincidence with the French Revolution—which was itself an attempt to make a “new man” and a new nation. Shelley’s tale, however, is not alone in its theme of artificial creation. A novella by Nogaret has a surprising prescience to it—one which the author focuses upon in this chapter. What events in history inspired this spectacular tale? How does this novella—not to mention Shelley’s Frankenstein as well—serve as a fable of revolutionary social engineering? The chapter explores how these literary works have influenced not only the country’s literary history, but its politics and culture as well. The conceptualization and invention of the automaton, particularly, is given much attention in the mapping out of this period of literary history.Less
Mary Shelley’s “Modern Prometheus” in the parable of Frankenstein presents an interesting coincidence with the French Revolution—which was itself an attempt to make a “new man” and a new nation. Shelley’s tale, however, is not alone in its theme of artificial creation. A novella by Nogaret has a surprising prescience to it—one which the author focuses upon in this chapter. What events in history inspired this spectacular tale? How does this novella—not to mention Shelley’s Frankenstein as well—serve as a fable of revolutionary social engineering? The chapter explores how these literary works have influenced not only the country’s literary history, but its politics and culture as well. The conceptualization and invention of the automaton, particularly, is given much attention in the mapping out of this period of literary history.
Lisa Ottum
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781949979046
- eISBN:
- 9781789629705
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781949979046.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
How might an Anthropocene feminism reshape literary history? Conventionally, green Romanticism is conceptualized as a cluster of proto-environmentalist attitudes articulated by (mostly male) Romantic ...
More
How might an Anthropocene feminism reshape literary history? Conventionally, green Romanticism is conceptualized as a cluster of proto-environmentalist attitudes articulated by (mostly male) Romantic poet-naturalists. In this paradigm, Romanticism gave rise to modern environmentalism, which is conceptualized as a progressive trajectory. Feminist accounts of the Anthropocene challenge this history, exposing the Anthropocene narrative as falsely totalizing in its view of man, history, and nature. This essay finds traces of a counter-Anthropocene in works by Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley—that is, a vision of Earth that both enriches and complicates existing literary ecologies. In The Last Man (1826) and other texts, the Anthropocene’s unpredictable feedback loops register both formally and affectively: the novel’s multi-layered narrative structure captures a future “already here,” a future that feels paradoxically proximate and distant. The texts discussed, thus, challenge orderly models of geological change, offering instead a feminist view of history as radically contingent, dynamic, and multi-layered.Less
How might an Anthropocene feminism reshape literary history? Conventionally, green Romanticism is conceptualized as a cluster of proto-environmentalist attitudes articulated by (mostly male) Romantic poet-naturalists. In this paradigm, Romanticism gave rise to modern environmentalism, which is conceptualized as a progressive trajectory. Feminist accounts of the Anthropocene challenge this history, exposing the Anthropocene narrative as falsely totalizing in its view of man, history, and nature. This essay finds traces of a counter-Anthropocene in works by Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley—that is, a vision of Earth that both enriches and complicates existing literary ecologies. In The Last Man (1826) and other texts, the Anthropocene’s unpredictable feedback loops register both formally and affectively: the novel’s multi-layered narrative structure captures a future “already here,” a future that feels paradoxically proximate and distant. The texts discussed, thus, challenge orderly models of geological change, offering instead a feminist view of history as radically contingent, dynamic, and multi-layered.
