Frankenstein’s Ghosts
2019; University of North Texas Press; Volume: 51; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/sdn.2019.0043
ISSN1934-1512
Autores Tópico(s)Rhetoric and Communication Studies
ResumoDespite being lauded by readers and critics for its departure from a “mere tale of spectres or enchantment,” Frankenstein remains enamored of the very supernatural sources it is said to transcend. In this essay, I expose Mary Shelley’s persistent references to ghosts and show that these references allow Shelley to resist, even as she embraces, the scientific sense of possibility that her husband and many later readers would associate with her tale. Even more specifically, I show that by locating these references within a singular rhetorical trope I call the “collapsing simile,” Shelley depicts various events and characters in Frankenstein as being simultaneously imagined and real. Doing so allows Shelley to dilate upon the advantages of being unable to distinguish between these states, thereby addressing a contemporary anxiety produced by the scientific advances that she records, and by the development of fiction that her own novel supports.
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