Frankenstein, Verisimilitude, and the Sublime

Junior English. Mon, Aug 20th, 2012 at 5:23 pm

Themes: , , , ,

We began our discussion of Frankenstein today with questions from you:

These questions and your insights will be the lifeblood of our conversations, so keep them coming.

If you were absent, be sure to get copies of the notes from a peer, but here are a few highlights: ((Here is an ugly comparison between the two eras we’re focused on. Yours will be more detailed when we get done, but it might be helpful now.))

Shelley’s introduction of the story with letters from the mariner provides a bit of verisimilitude to the opening, while offering an excellently sublime backdrop to a story that would otherwise begin with a description of the titular character’s childhood. In addition, it gives the audience a glimpse into the author’s thesis—beware of unbridled scientific inquiry?—through the conversation between the sailor (here embodying the Enlightenment’s values of a self-assured explorer) and Victor (a man whose vanity and hubris brought him low). Shelley clearly wants her audience to understand which side she’s on.

Victor’s relationship with his sister/cousin prompted a discussion of gender politics at the time. We read selections from Edmund Burke’s 1757 A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, specifically his sections on the beauty of small objects and the sublime. To make the Frankenstein connection, we read excerpts of Mary Wollstonecraft’s rebuttal, A Vindication of the Rights of Men. ((Copies will be made available shortly.))

Finally, we began reading from the large “Frankensources” packet I gave you. ((If you’d like a digital copy, send me an email. Copyright restrictions preclude my posting it here.))

You should read and journal tonight through chapter five of the novel. If you’ve journaled all you can, begin reading and annotating the packet. Once you’ve read through a work within, go back to your Frankenstein journal and note any connections; these will soon be the basis of our discussions—they will later be the basis of your paper.

Oh! Interesting explanation of the etymology of “inspiration” here.

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