2nd Global Conference

Monsters and the Monstrous:
Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil

Monday 10th May - Wednesday 12th May 2004
Budapest, Hungary

Conference Programme, Abstracts & Papers

Session 4: Frankenstein and Friends
Chair: Estelle Mare

Frankenstein to Frankenberry: Morphing of the Monster Myth in Pop Culture
Paul Yoder
Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, USA

Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, much like the monster itself, entered society ultimately to be transformed into an entity only partially resembling that of its birth. The Frankenstein monster has become an icon of society's contemporary monster, but an icon Mary Shelley would scarce be able to recognize. Much as Victor's idealized creation is left to become a horrible wretch at the hands of a society unable to comprehend the true nature of the creature, so too does Shelley's thematic creation become bastardized at the hands of pop culture. But what has led contemporary interpretation of Shelley's monster to seemingly go so astray from its original portrayal? My goal in this study is to juxtapose Shelley's literary discourse in the novel Frankenstein with the visual representations found both in the stage versions produced shortly after the publication of the novel and in the pop culture representations commonly forming the foundation of many of today's horror films. The ultimate goal in this study is to define the “monster” based on a societal interpretation of the outsider and examine how fear of the “other” is internalized. It is the way in which we, as a contemporary society, perceive the concept of the other, which will ultimately lead to the way we mold the visual representation of the Frankenstein monster as a mythical archetype within the horror of pop culture.

Download Full Conference Paper -

Frankenstein: Mary Shelley´s Horror of Split Consciousness
Kamila Vránková
Pedagogical Faculty, University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic

No abstract presently available

Download Full Conference Paper -

Mechanical Monsters and Melancholia: From Frankenstein’s Monster to Edward Scissorhands
Fiona Peters
Department of Cultural Studies, Bath Spa University, United Kingdom

‘To examine the causes of life, we must first have recourse to death'

What do we want from our monsters? In this paper I will be addressing the dichotomy of, on the one hand the constructed monster (primarily Frankenstein's) being viewed as Other, terrifying and threatening, and on the other hand the corresponding and inexorably linked human fascination for the creation of these creatures.
Wittgenstein's question: ‘Could a machine think? Could it be in pain?', could be transposed to a consideration of the plight of the automaton, constructed throughout modern history as a device to enable us to circumvent or stave off death, the mechanical creature becomes a ‘lost object of scientific endeavour' possessing the ability to feel yet not a human subject, without a past, a family and an unconscious.
From Descartes' resurrection of his dead daughter Francine by reconstructing her as a metal and clockwork ‘living doll', to the desperate doomed androids of Blade Runner these mechanical creatures function on one level to remind us of our own mortality; their own ‘undead' qualities throwing the human condition into stark relief.
I will be arguing in this paper that the mechanical monster is a necessarily melancholic creation; that, exemplified by Frankenstein the monster is ‘let down' by culture and the inexorable cruelty of the human world: ‘Through his tragedy, culture only gets back its own message: his monstrosity is the monstrosity of culture.' As an ‘unnatural' body the mechanical monster is barred from nature, while at the same time being excluded by culture. The moment Frankenstein's creature comes to life, the moment it opens its eyes and, in the rendering of its gaze, becomes the Lacanian Thing, he must reject it: ‘Now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.'
The monster tries to reach out to his ‘father' but he is spurned, thus precipitating the tragic unfolding of this most melancholic cautionary tale that, I will be arguing, exposes the limitations of the Enlightenment universe; by attempting with his creature to close the gap between nature and scientific endeavour, Frankenstein blows it apart.

Download Style Sheet 1
(pdf)

Download Style Sheet 2
(pdf)

Download Specimen Chapter
(Word)

© Wickedness.Net 2004