On 11 March 1818, “Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus” was published. The book itself is the mother of science fiction, but the mother of the book was Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, wife of Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and her mother was feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, who died giving birth to her. Woven throughout the novel are the offsprings of ideas, of technology, of fear and of guilt and these are also woven throughout Shelley’s life. The more you know of who she knew and how they influenced her, the more you can see what is monstrous and what is angelic in her work.
- George Gordon Byron. The Collected Poems of Lord Byron (Wordsworth Editions: 1994)
- William Godwin. Caleb Williams. Or, Things as They Are (Mint Editions: 2021)
- John William Polidori. The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre (Oxford University Press: 1998)
- Mary Shelley. Frankenstein (Bedford/St Martin’s: 2016)
- Mary Shelley. The Last Man (OUP Oxford: 2008)
- Percy Bysshe Shelley. The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Macmillan and Company: 2012)
- Mary Wollstonecraft. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (Penguin Publishing Group: 2004)
- Outline the life and achievements of: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, John Polidori
- Identify the historical and cultural context of the creation of Frankenstein: Industrial Revolution, Gothic genre, Romantic movement, Radicalism
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- Discuss the personal and cultural influences in the creation of Frankenstein.
- Discuss the themes within Frankenstein, and their meanings at the time, and today.
- Assess the significance of Frankenstein to the horror and science fiction genres.
- Want to read and re read Frankenstein and other works by Mary Shelley and the writers she knew.
