Frankenstein (And Friends): a 200Th-Anniversary Course Fall 2018 Professor Sarah Willburn Mondays, 7:00-8:50 Pm, September 24 to November 12

Preliminary Syllabus

CS 43: Frankenstein (and Friends): A 200th-Anniversary Course Fall 2018 Professor Sarah Willburn Mondays, 7:00-8:50 pm, September 24 to November 12

Course Description

200 years ago, in 1818, Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein was first published. We will examine this novel in terms of contemporary gothic fiction and also look at it is literary impact on later nineteenth-century fiction. It is prescient in terms of its accounts of medical innovation and also a tale both mythological and modern. This eight-week course will situate Frankenstein in the literary context of the Shelley circle before looking at other gothic themes and texts that were enormously popular in the nineteenth-century. In addition to a central focus on Frankenstein, readings will include classic works by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Edmund Burke, Mary Wollstonecraft, Sheridan Le Fanu, Karl Marx, and R.L. Stevenson. Our class will examine themes of the sublime, the beautiful, horror, mysticism, invention, rebellion and revolution. It will also centrally consider concepts of education, human identity, ambition, and damnation. While firmly planted in the romance, or gothic, genre, Frankenstein holds an eerie realism that focuses on the ethics of discovery, artistry, invention and ambition in modern society.

Texts

P. B. Shelley, Zastrozzi (1810) Mary Shelley, Frankenstein(1818) Le Fanu, Carmilla (1872) Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848) R.L. Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) H. G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896)

Grade Options and Requirements:

No Grade Requested (NGR). This is the default option. No work will be required; no credit shall be given; no proof of attendance can be provided.

Credit/No Credit (CR/NC). Students must attend at least 80% of class sessions. More than two absences will result in NC if this option is chosen.

Letter Grade (A, B, C, D, No Pass). Students must attend at least 80% of class sessions and complete a 6-page essay. If you choose this option, please notify me by the third class meeting so that I can formulate an essay assignment for you that will be due week seven of class.

Preliminary Syllabus

Schedule of Readings: September 24-November 12

Week One. The Gothic. P. B. Shelley, Zastrozzi (1810).

Week Two. Frankenstein, framing narrative.

Week Three. Frankenstein, Victor’s narrative. Edmund Burke, “On the Sublime and the Beautiful.”

Week Four. Frankenstein, the Creature’s narrative. Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), excerpts.

Week Five. Nineteenth-century legacies. The Gothic. Le Fanu, Carmilla. (1872)

Week Six. Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto. (1848)

Week Seven. R.L. Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. (1886)

Week Eight. H. G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau. (1896)