In Frankenstein's Wake : Mary Shelley, Morality and Science Fiction (Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy)

Bedford, Alison/ Palumbo, Donald E. (EDT)/ Sullivan III, C.W. (EDT)

McFarland & Co Inc（2021/01発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 205 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9781476677804
• DDC分類 823.7

Full Description

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.

Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

One. Reading Shelley: A Review and a Response

Two. Shelley's Context: Place, Time and Personality

Three. Authorship and the Founding of Discourse

Four. Mirror Fragments: A Close Reading of the 1818 Edition of Frankenstein

Five. Influence, Inspiration and Innovation

Six. In Shelley's Wake: Measuring the Impact of Frankenstein

Conclusion: Afterlives

References

Index