Mary Shelley: The Feminist Behind Frankenstein — The Airship — http://go.shr.lc/1LE10kD via @BlackBalloonPub
Progress in Brain Research
Volume 204, 2013, Pages 169–190
The Fine Arts, Neurology, and Neuroscience — New Discoveries and Changing Landscapes
Chapter 9 – Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Exploring neuroscience, nature, and nurture in the novel and the films
Abstract
The
story of Victor Frankenstein’s quest to conquer death produced a legacy
that has endured for almost 200 years. Powerful in its condemnation of
the scientist’s quest to achieve knowledge at any cost, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
is one of the most enduring novels of all time. It has never been out
of print and has been translated to both stage and screen many times
since its “birth.” Numerous novels, short stories, and scripts have
drawn upon Shelley’s primary theme: the creation of a living organism
from the dead, dying, and decaying body parts of human beings. Although
Mary does not provide details of the animation process, particularly in
her first edition, the process has been explored with a great deal of
imagination and originality in the various cinematic portrayals of the
story. Equally important as the theme of the scientist’s quest for
knowledge is the role that a creator plays in the life of its creation.
Mary Shelley’s novel pondered on how rejection would affect the
offspring of such “unnatural” origins. In keeping with the “scientific”
basis of the Creature’s birth, cinematic portrayals attempted to provide
a scientific rationale for the Creature’s descent into madness and its
evil behavior. From Robert Florey’s initial script for the 1931 film
directed by James Whale to the more recent films and television series,
an abnormal brain is considered to be the cause of the madness and
malignity of the Creature.
Keywords
- Robert Florey;
- Hammer films;
- James Whale;
- John William Polidori;
- Kenneth Branagh;
- Luigi Galvani;
- Naturphilosophen;
- Universal Studios
Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Frankenstein - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis
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