Articles
Articles
- The Devaluing of Life in Shelley's Frankenstein"Much of the recent criticism of Frankenstein centers on the role of Dr. Frankenstein as the failed creator. Feminist critiques tend to focus on this theme (as pointed out by Ellen Cronan Rose in her 1995 article "Custody Battles") and explain it as an example of the male inability to procreate. But this explanation doesn't go far enough because it relies on sexist generalizations of male ability. I will argue that it is Dr. Frankenstein's devaluing of life for the sake of social standing that leads to his downfall as both a creator and a person, and leads to the monster wreaking havoc throughout the novel ... "
- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, and the Spectacle of Masculinity"While a strong feminist tradition has virtually revolutionized the reading of Frankenstein, giving the work's feminine subject new visibility and centrality, this approach has simultaneously obscured access to the text's theatrical display of masculinity. Yet an understanding of the deployment of the male body (in the novel and in the cultural construction of Mary Shelley) might challenge current understandings of both the gendering of Frankenstein and Frankenstein's place in the gendering of literary history ... "
- Technology and Impotence in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.The article presents a literary criticism of the book "Frankenstein," by Mary Shelley, its broader mythological body of works, and its discussions of technology, power, and weakness. The author examines the primary theme of technology use and its dangers as seen within the story, contrasting the illusion of power in technological capability with the ways technology weakens or usurps human freedom and power.
- A Tradition of Male Poetics: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as an Allegory of Art.Describes how Mary Shelley analyzes the ethical nature of male poetics of her time through her work `Frankenstein'. Parallelism in the creation of the monster in `Frankenstein' and an artist's creation of art; Emphasis on ethical implications of representation in society; Influence that Mary Shelley received from her husband.
- Novelistic Sympathy in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.The article presents a literary criticism of the novel "Frankenstein," by Mary Shelley, particularly the characters' inability to be successfully sympathetic with one another, but the author argues that the book "relies on compensatory sympathy." The grotesqueness of Frankenstein's body and the story of Safie and the De Laceys are considered as are the frames in which the novel is layered, particularly in that it uses written, spoken, narrative, and epistolary means of conveying the story.
- "Listen to my tale": Multilevel Structure, Narrative Sense Making, and the Inassimilable in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.An essay is presented on the narrative style used in the book "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley. It provides an analysis on the text used in the narration which is relevant in drawing out reader's response. It outlines the characters and explores the symbolic significance of these characters specifically on the role of Frankenstein. An overview of the story is given.