Frankenstein: Defining the Monster

Mary Shelley's classic has been a literary touchstone for generations, as well as an inspiration for myriad filmmakers, graphic novelists, and costume designers. For Heather Keenleyside, University of Chicago professor of English, this text is also one of modernity's central myths, a unique lens through which to understand the anxieties and aspirations of a rapidly changing civilization. In the wake of Frankenstein's publication in 1818, what it meant to be human was no longer clear. To give us added perspective, Keenleyside frames the novel within the intellectual context of the Enlightenment and contemporary society's approach to issues of monstrosity and animal embodiment.
This program is presented as part of the annual Karla Scherer Endowed Lecture Series for the University of Chicago.

[@skepticalrebekah]

48:03. A phrase I’ve heard quite a bit is that being educated means you know Frankenstein is the doctor. And being wise means you know Frankenstein is the monster.

[@MLee-gb9xl]

Victor Frankenstein isn't a doctor (whether medical or academic). He is a first-year undergraduate who skips class.

[@michaelpisani5962]

Nice.

[@nhinjat6632]

Im a senior student in highschool studying the Romantic Movement and this was such an amazing watch! I dont regret it one bit and i learnt so much! Thankyou so much!

[@dogwithwigwamz.7320]

From reading the novel I get the impression that ( at least during the days it was written ) the most impressive thing about a being that resembles the human form is how beautiful - or ugly - it is. I don`t think much has changed in the intervening couple of centuries. Would being exceptionally nice as well as ugly do ? I doubt it. Would being exceptionally wealthy and ugly do ? Probably. One must remember that not only was Frankenstein`s creature outside ugly, he was also destitute. God knows what brought me here - I was trying to pick up a few clues on Linear Algebra...

[@archakgorai5181]

to looking and being looked at

[@davidcappello5530]

WHAT ABOUT HERMAN MUNSTER?

[@archakgorai5181]

rily looking at the visual way of lifeprima

[@archakgorai5181]

carl linnewes systematizing nature here

[@archakgorai5181]

lagons painting

[@archakgorai5181]

radical knwledge

[@archakgorai5181]

novum bonnum bacons natural philosophy

[@archakgorai5181]

dea;s with monster sees

[@archakgorai5181]

mauren mcleran a romantic scholar

[@archakgorai5181]

frankestien as the consequence of science

[@ImpartiallySpeaking]

As a doctor of science and with extensive expedience of anatomy, Frankenstein would never have been shallow enough to be offended by external superficial looks where decease and war led to a prevalence of physical abnormalities which would be all too well familiar to men of science without cause for outward feelings of revulsion or mortification

[@archakgorai5181]

homomonstruous

[@dianestallworthy7711]

What a boring lecturer! This is my subject but her voice and intonation sent me to sleep. Pity! Not all academics can teach!

[@stuartwray6175]

The "visual regime" of the Enlightenment in relation to the novel is very interesting, however, the speaker's withering, weary tone, and nasal drone, is a drag.

[@michaelpisani5962]

I got past that and also got past her attractiveness. Very good presentation and interestig ideas.

[@archakgorai5181]

repeat the first person pronoun significant trauma