In Frankenstein's Wake: Mary Shelley, Morality and Science Fiction

by Alison Bedford, Donald E. Palumbo (Editor), C.W. Sullivan III (Editor)

Overview

Just over 200 years ago on a stormy night, a young woman conceived of what would become one of the most iconic images of science gone wrong, the story of Victor Frankenstein and his Creature. For a long period, Mary Shelley languished in the shadow of her luminary husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, but was rescued from obscurity by the feminist scholars of the 1970s and 1980s.

This book offers a new perspective on Shelley and on science fiction, arguing that she both established a new discursive space for moral thinking and laid the groundwork for the genre of science fiction. Adopting a contextual biographical approach and undertaking a close reading of the 1818 and 1831 editions of the text give readers insight into how this story synthesizes many of the concerns about new science prevalent in Shelley's time. Using Michel Foucault's concept of discourse, the present work argues that Shelley should be not only credited with the foundation of a genre but recognized as a figure who created a new cultural space for readers to explore their fears and negotiate the moral landscape of new science.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476677804
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	01/11/2021
Series:	Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy , #72
Pages:	205
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.42(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Alison Bedford is a sessional lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba, Australia. She is also a secondary school English and history teacher. Her research interests and publications focus on Romantic and Victorian fiction and pedagogy for the teaching of history.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments v

Preface 1

Introduction 5

1 Reading Shelley: A Review and a Response 11

2 Shelley's Context: Place, Time and Personality 36

3 Authorship and the Founding of Discourse 71

4 Mirror Fragments: A Close Reading of the 1818 Edition of Frankenstein 101

5 Influence, Inspiration and Innovation 128

6 In Shelley's Wake: Measuring the Impact of Frankenstein 153

Conclusion: Afterlives 181

References 187

Index 195

Editorial Reviews

A substantial, important, and innovative contribution to our appreciation of Frankenstein and its continuing influence of culture.”—Stephen Behrendt, George Holmes Distinguished Professor of English, University of Nebraska

From the Publisher