Frankenstein and the Monster of Representation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3138690 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel Cottom (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1980 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 60 |
| Publication date | 1980-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | SubStance (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0049-2426 • E-ISSN: 1527-2095 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3683905 |
| OpenAlex | W2324999836 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
As Mary Shelley indicated when she described this novel as her hideous progeny (10)2, monster created in Frankenstein is a likeness of novel itself. The similarity is so strong, in fact, that figure Victor Frankenstein brings to life may be said to represent novel in which both he and that figure appear. Thus, horror that Frankenstein feels in contemplating monster can also be reaction of a reader who finds letters on a page to lose their meaning as they lose their ground in a referential depth and order. This analogy is supported by way in which experience of reading is dramatized elsewhere in this work. Frankenstein's vision of monster agrees with that discordant vision of man which is given through a reading of Volney's Ruins of Empires. Summing up his reaction to that book, monster says, Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous, and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? (119). For this is parable of Frankenstein: in seeking to represent himself, man makes himself a monster. Or, to put it in other words: Frankenstein's monster images monstrous nature of representation. Victor, then, may deliberately choose monster's gigantic stature (54) as a mechanical expedient in his work; but when that work is completed, it comes to have a significance beyond pragmatic. As Victor says, How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate wretch whom with such infinite pains I had endeavoured to form? (57). The size of monster magnifies a faulty relationship between inside and outside of his body as well as a lack of harmony on surface of his body. His features are related to each other by a contiguity without any substantial ground, for they either contrast too much or too little and are not even distinguishable as external features from muscles and arteries that also appear on surface. As it is represented in monster, human body that Locke called the great foundation of property3
Art · Art history · Monster · Political science · Representation (politics) · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · Law
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,08 |
| Citation span | 1988 - 2025 (38) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |