Download or read book Mars Shelley s Frankenstein A Representation of the Dichotomy of Nature versus Civilization written by Janine Lacombe and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2014-08-11 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Koblenz-Landau (Anglistik), course: Interpreting Literature, language: English, abstract: Civilization is hideously fragile [...] there’s not much between us and the Horrors underneath, just about a coat of varnish. (C.P Snow qtd. in Bhimeswara 178). What does it mean to be human and what does it mean to become civilized? Questions of origin and purpose constitute strong themes in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. In the following chapters the seeming interdependence between civilization, its scientific pursuits and nature will be examined and illustrated by appropriate examples. Before exploring how the dichotomy of nature versus civilization is represented in the story and which motifs and themes are incorporated in order to create such contrast, two philosophical approaches thought to have inspired the author will be introduced and put into context. After a theoretical frame is established, ‘nature’ and ‘civilization’ as major themes of the novel will be analyzed and compared. It is hoped to illustrate how each theme is represented and what effect it has on the overall reception and interpretation. 2. Nature versus Civilization – Philosophical Approaches and Theories Mary Shelley’s scientific gothic novel can be interpreted as a representation of a Victorian woman’s reaction to experiments in natural science and galvanic electricity. To what extend her sophisticated and critical reflection on contemporary societal issues draws from theories of much cited social analysts like Jean Jacques Rousseau and John Locke will be explored in the following chapters.
Download or read book Nature and Civilisation in Mary Shelley s Frankenstein written by Nadine Wolf and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2007-09-26 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Bayreuth, course: Proseminar, 9 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Civilization has developed itself from nature, but it has also changed nature in the process. Apart from theories of much cited social analysts like Rousseau or John Locke, one equally well known example is that of man as the hunter: in his natural state, man only hunted to find food, to ensure the survival of himself and his family. In our society, humans do not have to hunt their food by themselves anymore, but we still don't seem to have lost our natural instincts, our natural aggressions. One logical consequence is that we direct our aggressions towards each other, that we decimate our own species; the problem is, however, that natural reasons like ensuring the best breed possible don't exist anymore, that we don't have explanations why we kill each other apparently at random. Tim Marshall writes about a crime known as 'The Edinburgh scandal', which took place in the years of 1828 and 1829. Dr. Robert Knox, an anatomist from Edinburgh and very engaged in the newly upcoming art of dissection, employed two criminals to bring him fresh corpses for his dissections. At this time, grave robbing in order to obtain corpses was an usual occurrence in British graveyards, but in this case the acquired 'objects' didn't come from those who had died naturally, but from people who had been murdered only for the sake of dissection. The reason for these murders was science, and with it civilization, therefore human nature was misused for the sake of science which in turn needed the bodies to explore the secrets nature still withheld from science. The resemblance to Mary Shelley's novel is apparent. But in Frankenstein, nature and civilization are also set in opposition to each other by the attributes they are given: nature as feminine, civilization as masculine. S
Download or read book Mary Shelley Women Frankenstein written by Laura Weyand and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2014-01-20 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,3, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, language: English, abstract: For a better understanding of the main part of this term paper, firstly, the predominant doctrine of separate spheres will be introduced and sufficiently explained. Likewise a short overview of the situation of women from the 19th century will be given in this chapter. Further on it will then be demonstrated how Mary Shelley coped with the fact of being a female writer in a male dominated society and how she managed her life. Afterwards it will be looked at all women, appearing in the novel Frankenstein, and how Shelley presents them. In addition it will be analysed in what way Shelley displays critique of the gender division and the patriarchal society. Finally, the results of the analysis of the novel will be summarised.
Download or read book Beyond Archangel The Archangel Theme in Mary Shelley s Frankenstein written by Melanie Kirkham and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2007-07-23 with total page 23 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: A, The University of Utah (-), course: Research and Bibliography, language: English, abstract: In my paper “Beyond Archangel” I take a semiotic and thematic approach to the theme of Archangel in the novel. In the novel the term “Archangel” shows up over and over again and many references are made to other themes relating to heaven and hell, such as Dante’s Inferno. Geographically, the novel begins in a place beyond the city Archangel. It is an actual city in the Artic named after the archangel Michael. It is the Christian archangel Michael, but a whole tradition; Judaic, Greek... surrounds him. Therefore, in the text the word Archangel takes on multiple meanings as it refers to the physical place but also the spiritual place the three main characters are in. Victor, Walton and the Creature, all three of them are beyond Archangel, that means beyond the state of being in God’s grace. They are closer to hell than to heaven. Victor, one of the characters has already fallen and there is no help for him. The Creature and Walton seem to be beyond all hope for salvation as well, but one of them will ultimately be saved. It is the Creature who takes on another archangel persona and through this selfless act manages to save Walton from his fast track to damnation. Through the Creature Walton manages to shake off Victor’s spell over him, and return to the save haven of Archangel. Here again, the city takes on a meaning of being a place of God. The Creature never physically returns to Archangel, but he is redeemed through his actions. The three main characters therefore represent the three different spiritual states: Fallen, redeemed and saved by grace. I will look at religion and what the meaning of an archangel is. Mary Shelley herself was acquainted with different religions and her knowledge influenced her novel, of course. I want to be present the different religious traditions that are found in the text and explore what it means for Frankenstein.
Download or read book Considering the Possibility of Life on Mars written by Kimberly Wylie and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2006-09-13 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2003 in the subject Astronomy, University of Phoenix, language: English, abstract: In the early 1900′s, people looked into the night sky and believed there was, or at the very least had been, life on Mars. Intricate canal systems were thought to be seen crisscrossing the planet, and were used as evidence of a wondrous civilization. But, Mars was millions of miles away, and when we got closer to the Red Planet, starting with NASA′s Mariner 10 mission, we learned much more. Although some still believe they have seen "an ancient city the size of Los Angeles with a geometry of streets and cross roads" ("The Cydonia Complex") or have spotted ancient pyramids and a gigantic face in the Cydonia Complex, scientists discount these reports. Rather than an amazing series of agricultural waterways, or buildings that would rival Egypt, Mars is only a giant desert, which could never support life, or could it?
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Frankenstein written by Andrew Smith and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-08-25 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sixteen original essays by leading scholars on Mary Shelley's novel provide an introduction to Frankenstein and its various critical contexts.
Download or read book Romanticism as a Transition to Modernity written by Jens Stuhlemer and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2017-11-02 with total page 10 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1.7, University of Warwick, language: English, abstract: This essay aims to show how far the Romantic period in German and English literature can be seen as a transitional phase from the Enlightenment and to the point of Modernity. Given the fact that all consecutive literary periods cannot be divided by mere points in time and certain general features, it is going to be shown that the given eras melt into each other; that earlier periods, in this case first of all Romanticism, but also the Enlightenment, the Classical era, established characteristics which would then be absorbed, redefined or rejected by the succeeding ones, namely Romanticism and Modernity. The main focus will be to differentiate between, as well as to equalise certain features of Romanticism and Modernity, which must include a deeper look at the past they emerged from. To do so, it will also be necessary to include a high amount of literary criticism, all dealing with the relevant periods and to exemplify the evidences provided by referring to primarily “Frankenstein”, “Die Räuber”, “Die Verlobung in St. Domingo”, and “Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte”.
Download or read book The Conventions of the Gothic Genre written by Kwan Lung Chan and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2020-08-05 with total page 11 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2020 in the subject Literature - Comparative Literature, grade: A-, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, course: ENGE5950 The Gothic in the Romantic Era, language: English, abstract: In this essay, the author will look into the five aspects of sublimity, using an example from Horace Walpole’s "Castle of Otranto" (1764), Matthew Gregory Lewis’s "The Monk" (1796) and Mary Shelley’s "Frankenstein" (1818), in order to trace the transformation of the Gothic genre from mid-18th century, when the genre began, to early 19th century, when the most famous novel of the genre was written. The conventions of the Gothic genre have always been changing as time goes on. The most notable and central one is the notion of sublimity, which can be further categorized into five aspects, namely passion, terror, obscurity, power and vastness.
Download or read book The Mask of Anarchy and Frankenstein A Vindication of the Rights of Woman written by Katya Schodts and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2015-11-27 with total page 23 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bachelor Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0 ("sehr gut"), Free University of Berlin (Institute of English Language and Literature), course: Romanticism and Revolution: The Shelley Circle., language: English, abstract: When I read Percy Bysshe Shelley’s The Mask of Anarchy (The Mask) for the first time, I was immediately captivated by the important role that appears to be assigned to what Ashley J. Cross calls “a series of connected female figures”. A female Hope is given the strength to stop the excesses of an unjust society, and it is a female voice that calls upon the men of England to “Rise like Lions after slumber”. Apparently, The Mask’s men are passive. Father time waits “Fumbling with his palsied hands”, and the men of England have been chained while asleep. This sharply contrasts to how women and men are depicted in Frankenstein. The novel’s women largely comply with contemporary gender norms: passive, docile, and dependent daughters, sisters, wives and mothers who are confined to the domestic sphere. They are not given a voice and are recurrently depicted as victims of a society dominated by ambitious, active men. In The Mask, by contrast, women not only survive tyrants, but they also emerge as highly influential forces in the establishment of an imagined future egalitarian society. Frankenstein has long been accepted as a novel that embraces women’s rights. Some critics have also read The Mask in the context of 19th century society and its attitudes towards gender. In my thesis, I will argue that both works incorporate a strong call for women’s rights and that in spite of a different approach, the similarities between them go far deeper than they appear on the surface. I will emphasize the influence of Mary Wollstonecraft’s ideas on both writings. They seem to have been an invaluable source of information and reveal an inextricable bond between The Mask, Frankenstein and Wollstonecraft’s writings.
Download or read book Natural Person in German Civil Law written by Fabio Koza and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject Business economics - Law, grade: 2,7, University of applied sciences, Cologne, course: Business Law, language: English, abstract: This assignment is about the natural person in German Civil Law and will first give an quick overview about the BGB and will then explain where the natural person is defined. The following chapter will then describe what and/or who is a legal person and which rights and obligations has a natural person. After that, different obligations and rights in different stages of ages will be explained and substantiate with examples and jurisdictions. The natural person in antiquity, slaves were fundamentally without rights, they had no rights and were treated as one thing because of the legal system and were not considered in the legal sense as a person. The legal system must therefore make a decision on who owns rights and, in other words, who is to be considered a person. This regulation is made by the legal institution of legal capacity. Legal capacity is the ability to be the bearer of rights and obligations. Legal capacity has natural and legal persons. Many things in terms of natural persons have changed since the antiquity and the German Civil Law came into effect. Changes and actual regulations will be explained in this assignment.
Download or read book Ecological Literature and the Critique of Anthropocentrism written by Bryan L. Moore and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-10-14 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an analysis of literary texts that question, critique, or subvert anthropocentrism, the notion that the universe and everything in it exists for humans. Bryan Moore examines ancient Greek and Roman texts; medieval to twentieth-century European texts; eighteenth-century French philosophy; early to contemporary American texts and poetry; and science fiction to demonstrate a historical basis for the questioning of anthropocentrism and contemplation of responsible environmental stewardship in the twenty-first century and beyond. Ecological Literature and the Critique of Anthropocentrism is essential reading for ecocritics and ecofeminists. It will also be useful for researchers interested in the relationship between science and literature, environmental philosophy, and literature in general.
Download or read book Women Science and Fiction written by D. Shaw and published by Springer. This book was released on 2000-09-19 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since Mary Shelley drew inspiration for Frankenstein from the scientific speculations to which she attended as a 'nearly silent listener' at the now famous chateau in Switzerland, many other women have been similarly motivated to produce works informed by scientific theory. Successive chapters trace the history of women's science fiction writing from the turn of the century to the early 1990s, analysing how women writers have utilised the genre to critique the ideology that informs what counts as scientific knowledge.
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Posthuman written by Bruce Clarke and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book gathers diverse critical treatments from fifteen scholars of the posthuman and posthumanism together in a single volume.
Download or read book New Keywords written by Tony Bennett and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-05-29 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over 25 years ago, Raymond Williams’ Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society set the standard for how we understand and use the language of culture and society. Now, three luminaries in the field of cultural studies have assembled a volume that builds on and updates Williams’ classic, reflecting the transformation in culture and society since its publication. New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society is a state-of-the-art reference for students, teachers and culture vultures everywhere. Assembles a stellar team of internationally renowned and interdisciplinary social thinkers and theorists Showcases 142 signed entries – from art, commodity, and fundamentalism to youth, utopia, the virtual, and the West – that capture the practices, institutions, and debates of contemporary society Builds on and updates Raymond Williams’s classic Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, by reflecting the transformation in culture and society over the last 25 years Includes a bibliographic resource to guide research and cross-referencing The book is supported by a website: www.blackwellpublishing.com/newkeywords.
Download or read book Mutability Percy Bysshe Shelley and the Insignificance of Humanity written by Laura Marsden and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2015-01-12 with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2014 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 65.0, University of Sheffield, course: English Literature, language: English, abstract: ‘Mutability’ employs traditional conventions of the Lyric poem as it is “brief and discontinuous, emphasising sound and pictorial imagery rather than narrative”, in order to present the concept of life as ephemeral. Shelley is a poet shaped by the sense “that there are narrow limits to what human beings can know with certainty.” ‘Mutability’ reflects this notion as Shelley undermines human importance within a world in which nothing is constant. In his ‘A Defence of Poetry’ he argues that for man to be “greatly good...the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own” and therefore this essay shall consider the way Shelley uses ‘Mutability’ in order to educate readers on humanities fleeting and irrelevant nature.
Download or read book The Primordial Bond written by Stephen H. Schneider and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does the solution to our energy crisis depend upon the de velopment of coal, nuclear, solar, or some other energy source? Are we better off because science and technology have made us less vulnerable to natural catastrophes? How, in fact, do we see ourselves now in relation to our natural world? The answers to these questions lie as much within the humanities as in the sciences. Problems as seemingly unrelated as our vulnerability to OPEC oil price hikes or a smog alert in Los Angeles or Tokyo often have common, hidden causes. One of these causes is simply the way our society sees its place in nature. There are many reasons for the heavy demand for oil. Among these we vii viii I PREFACE can include desire for industrial growth, hopes for improved living standards, mobility through automobiles and rapid transportation systems, and, not least, an attempt to loosen the constraints on man imposed by nature. These constraints and man's concomitant dependence upon nature are exam ples of the intense and finely interwoven relationship be tween man and nature, a relationship that constitutes a pri mordial bond forged long before the era of modem technology. Similarly, man has explored this primordial bond through the humanities for all the centuries prior to our present techno logical age. As we will see in this exploration, the bond un derlies many of the environmental and technological prob lems we have come to label the ecological crisis.
Download or read book We Modern People written by Anindita Banerjee and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How science fiction forged a unique Russian vision of modernity distinct from Western models Science fiction emerged in Russia considerably earlier than its English version and instantly became the hallmark of Russian modernity. We Modern People investigates why science fiction appeared here, on the margins of Europe, before the genre had even been named, and what it meant for people who lived under conditions that Leon Trotsky famously described as "combined and uneven development." Russian science fiction was embraced not only in literary circles and popular culture, but also by scientists, engineers, philosophers, and political visionaries. Anindita Banerjee explores the handful of well-known early practitioners, such as Briusov, Bogdanov, and Zamyatin, within a much larger continuum of new archival material comprised of journalism, scientific papers, popular science texts, advertisements, and independent manifestos on social transformation. In documenting the unusual relationship between Russian science fiction and Russian modernity, this book offers a new critical perspective on the relationship between science, technology, the fictional imagination, and the consciousness of being modern.
