• The Frankenstein Complex or The Disturbing Otherness

    Lidija Kapuševska-Drakulevska

    Abstract:

    The text is to attempt to re-examine a novel from the age of English pre-Romanticism, published almost two centuries ago—in 1818—Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley. Written in the tradition of the English ‘gothic’ ghost novel, as horror novel, Shelley’s Frankenstein is also considered the first authentic foundation of a new genre—science fiction.

    The romantic longing for the unknown, for rebellion or unfettered ambition to surpass the limits of human possibilities, as well as the curse/punishment for such an act, are traditionally associated to the myth of Prometheus. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is also related to and imbued with the legend of the Golem, as well as the Faustian motif.

    Anthropologically the pair of Frankenstein and the creature implies a separation, a differentiation of the human from the animal taking place inside man himself, and the above duality might also be considered in the spirit of the contemporary theories of identity and otherness. The problem of Otherness in Mary Shelley’s novel, has ethical and moral, anthropological and psychoanalytical aspect, but also an obvious gender feature.

    The paper aims to illustrate the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley as one of the most representative examples of literary myth..

    Keywords: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Identity, Otherness.

    Pages: 23 – 31 | Full PDF Paper