Date of Award
5-1999
Culminating Project Type
Thesis
Degree Name
English: M.A.
Department
English
College
College of Liberal Arts
First Advisor
Sharon Cogdill
Second Advisor
Patricia Hauslein
Third Advisor
Rex Veeder
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Keywords and Subject Headings
Galvani; Victor Frankenstein; pedagogy; feminist critique; Gilbert and Gubar; eighteenth century biology
Abstract
In this study, four things happen.
1. Critical literature discussing feminist readings of the scientific aspect of Frankenstein is surveyed to develop understanding of how the novel has been interpreted by previous critics.
2. The novel is placed between two poles of a metaphysical debate over the existence, or lack of existence, of revolutions in scientific research. The anti-revolution argument asserts that the idea of revolution is a modernist illusion; the pro-revolution argument asserts that revolution is an innate quality of the scientific enterprise. This is connected to Victor Frankenstein in an attempt to discern whether he is a scientific revolutionary, or a misguided modern.
3. Victor Frankenstein's behaviors as a fictional scientist are compared and contrasted to behaviors of factual scientists of the same historical period to determine whether or not he is a reliable representative image.
4. The above three mini-studies are demonstrated to be pedagogically sound approaches to teaching Frankenstein in cross-disciplinary circumstances, as an instance of critique applicable to many different colleges.
The first three points correspond to chapter divisions, while the fourth point becomes an umbrella concept connecting the chapters together.
Recommended Citation
Grossman, Christine Jeanne, "Interdisciplinary Applications of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"" (1999). Culminating Projects in English. 46.
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/eng_etds/46
