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Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein:Frankenstein Belongs in the Canon
Marsha Law, M. S. Ed.CORE Academy, June [email protected]
“I think most readers will agree that
Frankenstein really is a good
novel, both scary and
thoughtful.” Stephen
King
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/frankenstein-by-mary-shelly
How did it all begin?
Born August 30, 1797. (Bennett, 1998)
Parents, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, were viewed as philosophers and novelists. (Bennett, 1998)
Wollstonecraft dies of puerperal fever. (Bennett, 1998)
Godwin remarries. (Gilbert and Gubar, 2007)
Scotland. (Gilbert and Gubar, 2007)
https://gypsyscarlett.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/mary-shelley-and-the-night-that-birthed-frankenstein/
Educates herself by reading.
Meets Percy Shelly, poet and future husband, on a trip to visit her father in London.
Death of first daughter after birth at 17 years old.
Her “preoccupation with death and resurrection prefigures some of the central concerns of Frankenstein”
Journal entries indicate dreams of her baby coming back to life.
http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/marys-journal-entry-on-harriet-shelleys-suicide
In Scotland…
Gilbert and Gubar (2007)
Frankenstein is “perhaps the most memorable and
influential science fiction fantasy ever published in
English” (493).
Gilbert and Gubar, 2007
Other Influences on Shelly’s Life
Education—Godwin’s Early Influence
Shakespeare—Plays and Wollstonecraft
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178928/
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mary-shelleys-frankenstein-1994
Each monster has multiplied, “continually being re-produced in criticism, in stage
productions, and in various film versions” (27). These monsters also achieved an
afterlife beyond that of their initial creators, experiencing “a new existence
beyond the horizon of their original inception” (28).
Sawyer, 2007
1944
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_of_Frankenstein
http://www.doctormacro.com/Movie%20Summaries/H/House%20of%20Frankenstein.htm
http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/586/
This newspaper page was created to promote the movie.
http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/586
Universal Studios was “kept alive, actually, by the horror films—
notably the Frankensteins. They would have been broke without those pictures” (197), yet, they received little critical acclaim
while generating a great income (197–198).
Hitchcock, 2007
http://4thletter.net/2009/10/dude-youre-getting-a-dell-frankenstein/
http://4thletter.net/2009/10/dude-youre-getting-a-dell-frankenstein/
Children’sBooks
http://www.amazon.com/Frankenstein-Makes-Sandwich-Adam-Rex/dp/0547576838
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12654902-robot-zombie-frankenstein
http://www.amazon.com/Frankenstein-Great-Illustrated-Classics-Shelley/dp/1577656865
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/michael-burgan/frankenstein.htm
http://timothybanks.com/skill/childrens-book/
Anyonehungry?
http://www.amazon.com/Franken-Cereal-Spooky-fun-Marshmallows-Famliy/dp/B00NO3VX5Q
Political & Military Drawings
Hitler is portrayed as Dr. Frankenstein being attacked by his own monster. Hitchcock, 2007
World War II produced “its own Frankensteins […] clownish reflections of real-life horror” (193). Hitchcock, 2007
Thousands of the “Armed Services
Edition” were shipped over seas
and read by soldiers for
inspiration. Hitchcock, 2007
https://www.etsy.com/listing/203948779/frankenstein-by-mary-shelley-armed
“As part of the famous ghost-story contest that took place in
Switzerland in the summer of 1816 […] Frankenstein was the
most prodigious result.”
Stephen C. Behrendt
Final ArgumentsThree complex texts by Shelly (1818, 1823, and 1831), and many translations with early and late prefaces
Blend of the Gothic and the Godwinian psychological, sociopolitical novel with Mary Shelley’s own particular Romanticist sensibility
Many possible readings such as Gothic, political, biographical, religious, psychological, anti-male feminist, anti-Godwin and anti-Shelley
Although different, the three texts reflect Mary Shelley’s consistent, larger metaphoric questions of the exercise of power and responsibility, personal and societal (30).
Bennett, 1998
Works Cited
Barns & Noble Editors. March 31, 2014. 1:48 p.m. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/frankensteinhunter/1104729856?ean=9780393964585
Behrendt, Stephen C., ed. Approaches to Teaching Shelley’s Frankenstein. The Modern Language Association of America: New York, 1990. Print.
Bennett, Betty, T. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: An Introduction. The Johns HopkinsUniversity Press: Baltimore & London, 1998. Print.
Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. W. W. Norton & Company: New York and London, 2007. Print.
Hitchcock, Susan, T. Frankenstein: A Cultural History. W. W. Norton & Company: New York and London, 2007. Print.
King, Stephen. Introduction to the Marvel Edition of Frankenstein. MaryWollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein: A Marvel Illustrated Novel. The Marvel Comic Group: New York, 1983. Print.
Sawyer, Robert. “Mary Shelley and Shakespeare: Monstrous Creations”. South Atlantic Review. South Atlantic Modern Language Association. Vol. 72, No. 2 (Spring 2007), 15-31. Retrieved 2-21-2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27784706.
http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/the-best-movie-you-never-saw-mary-shelleys-frankenstein