Frankenstein, Mary Shelley claims that the Publishers of Standard Novels specifically requested that she "furnish them with some account of the origin of the story," (16). However, the Publishers of Standard Novels did not simply want to know how the author had considered the main premise, plot, and theme of the Frankenstein story but that the story -- and its female authorship -- seemed contrary to prevailing gender norms. According to Shelley, the publishers wondered, "how I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?" (16). If young girls were supposed to be sugar, spice, and everything nice, then a story about a monstrous creation would seem antithetical to the 19th century feminine ideal. Not only that, Mary Shelley intuited the publishers' surprise with the author's gender, for no sooner does Shelley launch into a carefully crafted response to their query, she does so in a subtly condescending tone that explains what no male author would deign to do: justify her choice of career. Whereas the publishers might have sought input into the genesis of the gothic tale, Shelley opts to mock and humor them with an overly detailed explication of how she, just a "girl," came to birth anything so sophisticated as a novel like Frankenstein. Also in the introduction to Frankenstein, Shelley does eventually describe her romantic longings for otherworldliness, fantasy, and the supernatural through encounters with nature and the darker side of human nature too. Therefore, the introduction to the 1831 edition of the novel Frankenstein promotes the novel as a whole by prompting the reader to pay attention to its autobiographical symbolism and feminist discourse within a Romantic framework.The 1831 introduction shows that Shelley's Frankenstein is a novel that covertly addresses gender identity and explores the pitfalls of patriarchy. For one, the sardonic introduction lambastes the publishers' persistent questions about the origins...
O'Rourke points out that in the 1831 edition in which the introduction appears, Shelley also amended and edited substantive elements of story itself, much to the chagrin of critics, who said that it was "a deliberate attempt on Mary Shelley's part to make a disturbing book more palatable for a conventional readership," (366). If this was the case, it was indeed her publishers pressuring Shelley for these changes, a career author made a ruthless yet strategic decision in so doing. The introduction justifies those changes, placing Shelley simultaneously in control of her literary legacy while also showing how the publishing industry demands a certain amount of pandering to social codes and conventions. As O'Rourke also notices, Shelley does mention in the introduction that the publishers had been pestering her for a period of exactly thirteen years, suggesting "both the persistence of the questioners and the relative disinterest, if not active resistance," of Shelley herself (367). Her resistance to their questions and her ironic response are in fact feminist approaches to taking back ownership of her own intellectual property.
Her list includes the following: culture / Nature reason / Nature male/female mind/body ( Nature) master/slave reason/matter (physicality) rationality/animality ( Nature) human / Nature (non-human) civilised/primitive ( Nature) production/reproduction ( Nature) self/other At first glance, this list seems to capture the basic groupings and gender associations that are at work in Mary Shelley's novel. The Creature exemplifies animality, primitiveness, and physicality, whereas Victor represents the forces of civilization, rational production, and culture. Victor is part of a happy family
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Bakhtin distinguished the literary form of the novel as distinct from other genres because of its rendering of the dynamic present, not in a separate and unitary literary language, but in the competing and often cosmic discord of actual and multiple voices, thus making contact with contemporary reality in all its openendedness (Bender et.al., p. x). Bakhtin's definition of the novel is important because it serves to illuminate
SCIENCE FICTION & FEMINISM Sci-Fi & Feminism Origins & Evolution of Science Fiction As with most things including literature, science fiction has progressed and changed a lot over the years. Many works of science fiction were simply rough copies and following the altready-established patterns of prior authors. However, there has always been authors and creators that push the envelope and forge new questions and storylines that have not been realized or conceptualized before.
Ross (1988) notes the development of Romanticism in the late eighteenth century and indicates that it was essentially a masculine phenomenon: Romantic poetizing is not just what women cannot do because they are not expected to; it is also what some men do in order to reconfirm their capacity to influence the world in ways socio-historically determined as masculine. The categories of gender, both in their lives and in their
Gender and the 19th c English novel The question of gender in the nineteenth century English novel is complicated by consideration of more recent late twentieth century theorizing about gender. In particular, Judith Butler's highly influential notion of "gender performativity" suggests that gender is, in itself, nothing more than a sort of act. However this becomes an interesting angle to approach the works of creative artists, as a female novelist will
Your answer should be at least five sentences long. The Legend of Arthur Lesson 1 Journal Entry # 9 of 16 Journal Exercise 1.7A: Honor and Loyalty 1. Consider how Arthur's actions and personality agree with or challenge your definition of honor. Write a few sentences comparing your definition (from Journal 1.6A) with Arthur's actions and personality. 2. Write a brief paragraph explaining the importance or unimportance of loyalty in being honorable. Lesson 1 Journal
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