Table Of ContentFrankenstein and Its Classics
i
Bloomsbury Studies in Classical Reception
Bloomsbury Studies in Classical Reception presents scholarly monographs
off ering new and innovative research and debate to students and scholars in the
reception of Classical Studies. Each volume will explore the appropriation,
reconceptualization and recontextualization of various aspects of the Graeco-
Roman world and its culture, looking at the impact of the ancient world on
modernity. Research will also cover reception within antiquity, the theory and
practice of translation, and reception theory.
Also available in the Series:
Ancient Magic and the Supernatural in the Modern Visual and Performing Arts,
edited by Filippo Carl à and Irene Berti
Ancient Greek Myth in World Fiction since 1989, edited by Justine McConnell
and Edith Hall
Th e Codex Fori Mussolini, Han Lamers and Bettina Reitz-Joosse
Th e Gentle, Jealous God , Simon Perris
Greek and Roman Classics in the British Struggle for Social Reform, edited by
Henry Stead and Edith Hall
Imagining Xerxes, Emma Bridges
Ovid’s Myth of Pygmalion on Screen, Paula James
Victorian Classical Burlesques, Laura Monr ó s-Gaspar
Julius Caesar’s Self-Created Image and Its Dramatic Aft erlife , Miryana Dimitrova
Homer’s Iliad and the Trojan War , Naoise Mac Sweeney and Jan Haywood
ii
Frankenstein and Its Classics
Th e Modern Prometheus from Antiquity to
Science Fiction
Edited by
Jesse Weiner, Benjamin Eldon Stevens, and
Brett M. Rogers
iii
BLOOMSBURY A CADEMIC
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First published in Great Britain 2018
Copyright © Jesse Weiner, Benjamin Eldon Stevens, and Brett M. Rogers, 2018
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Weiner, Jesse, editor. | Stevens, Benjamin Eldon, editor. | Rogers, Brett M., editor.
Title: Frankenstein and its classics : the modern Prometheus from antiquity to science
fi ction / edited by Jesse Weiner, Benjamin Eldon Stevens and Brett M. Rogers.
Other titles: Bloomsbury studies in classical reception.
Description: London : Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. | Series: Bloomsbury studies in
classical reception | Includes index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2017056915| ISBN 9781350054875 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781350054882 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Science fi ction—Classical infl uences. | Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft,
1797–1851. Frankenstein. | Frankenstein's Monster (Fictitious character) | Frankenstein,
Victor (Fictitious character) | Prometheus (Greek deity)—In literature. | Frankenstein fi lms.
Classifi cation: LCC PN3433.6 .F68 2018 | DDC 809.3/8762—dc23 LC record available
at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017056915
ISBN : HB : 978-1-3500-5488-2
PB : 978-1-3500-5487-5
e PDF : 978-1-3500-5490-5
eBook: 978-1-3500-5489-9
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iv
Contents
Preface vii
List of Contributors x
List of Illustrations xiii
Introduction: Th e Modern Prometheus Turns 200
Jesse Weiner, Benjamin Eldon Stevens, and Brett M. Rogers 1
Part One Promethean Heat
1 Patchwork Paratexts and Monstrous Metapoetics: “Aft er tea M reads
Ovid” G enevieve Liveley 25
2 Prometheus and Dr. Darwin’s Vermicelli: Another Stir to the
Frankenstein Broth M artin Priestman 42
3 Th e Politics of Revivifi cation in Lucan’s B ellum Civile and
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Andrew M. McClellan 59
4 Romantic Prometheis and the Molding of F rankenstein
Suzanne L. Barnett 76
5 Why the ‘Year without a Summer’? D avid A. Gapp 91
6 Th e Sublime Monster: F rankenstein , or Th e Modern Pandora
Matthew Gumpert 102
Part Two Hideous Progeny
7 Cupid and Psyche in F rankenstein : Mary Shelley’s Apuleian Science
Fiction? Benjamin Eldon Stevens 123
8 Th e Pale Student of Unhallowed Arts: Frankenstein, Aristotle, and
the Wisdom of Lucretius Carl A. Rubino 145
9 Timothy Leary and the Psychodynamics of Stealing Fire
Neşe Devenot 153
v
vi Contents
10 Frankenfi lm: Classical Monstrosity in Bill Morrison’s S park of Being
Jesse Weiner 170
11 Alex Garland’s E x Machina or Th e Modern Epimetheus
Emma Hammond 190
12 Th e Postmodern Prometheus and Posthuman Reproductions in
Science Fiction B rett M. Rogers 206
Other Modern Prometheis: Suggestions for Further Reading and
Viewing S amuel Cooper 228
Bibliography 238
Index 267
Preface
In his then- anonymous preface to the fi rst edition of Frankenstein (1818), Mary
Shelley’s husband, Percy, writes about the story’s beginnings some eighteen
months earlier “in casual conversation” among Mary, Byron, himself, and others;
this conversation took place “in the majestic region” of Switzerland’s Lake
Geneva, and in a “season” that was “cold and rainy.” Th e present volume, too,
began in casual conversation, and if the region was arguably less majestic—a
Philadelphia department- store Starbucks—the weather was suitably gloomy. On
that “wet, uncongenial” January aft ernoon, during a break from paper sessions at
the annual meeting of the erstwhile American Philological Association, we set
our own “ghost story challenge”: to develop a collection of essays about classical
antiquity and modern monsters. We are excited to see that project come to
fruition and, like Mary Shelley in her preface to Frankenstein ’s third edition
(1831), we hope our own “hideous progeny” will “prosper.”
“[T]he accomplishment of [our] toils,” F rankenstein and Its Classics: Th e
Modern Prometheus from Antiquity to Science Fiction , is the fi rst collection
devoted to classical receptions in Frankenstein and its traditions. Many of the
essays found their own fi rst “spark of being” at an international symposium, “Th e
Modern Prometheus; or, Frankenstein ,” held in April 2016 at Hamilton College
in Clinton, NY , USA . Th ere was a charge in the air as the participants gathered
not long before the two- hundredth anniversary of the novel’s conception—a
charge increased by other coincidences, including the conference overlapping
with the two- hundred-and- fi rst anniversary of the eruption of Tambora; a late
snowfall that conjured the ‘Year without a Summer’; and a location not far from
a town called, of all things, Geneva.
Such historical and geographical coincidences aside, it was clear then that
the subject- matter remains of great interest. Two hundred years aft er its
fi rst publication, Frankenstein continues to captivate audiences, to inform
conversations about technological development and scientifi c ethics, to inspire
futuristic art—and, perhaps surprisingly, to encourage refl ection on classical
antiquity. As the conference organizers and now this volume’s editors, we are
excited to be able to usher these essays into print here. Some are drawn from that
symposium, while others were received in response to a subsequent call for
papers. Th ey range in scope from ancient myth and philosophy to Romantic
vii
viii Preface
neoclassicism to contemporary fi lm and the psychedelic experiments of
Timothy Leary. All together they off er an invitation—for readers of F rankenstein
and the traditions it has inspired, for viewers of the many fi lm versions and
adaptations, for scholars and students of Romanticism, Classics, and classical
receptions, and for others still—to explore some of the ancient roots of Mary
Shelley’s paradigmatic ‘modern’ monster.
Over the several years from that fi rst conversation to the appearance of
this volume, many people have played important roles in bringing Frankenstein
and Its Classics to life. We editors wish to thank, above all, the contributors
for sharing their insightful work and for allowing us to publish it here.
Special thanks go to the team at Bloomsbury, including Alice Wright,
Senior Commissioning Editor for Classical Studies and Archaeology; Clara
Herberg, Senior Editorial Assistant, and Emma Payne, Editorial Assistant, for
the same. We are also grateful to Hamilton College’s Winslow Lecture Fund
in Classics and to the NY 6 Th ink Tank for supporting the conference that
preceded this volume.
Weiner would like to thank his colleagues at Hamilton College—Anne
Feltovich, Barbara Gold, Shelley Haley, Nancy Rabinowitz, and Carl Rubino—for
their support throughout this project, especially during conference planning.
Th anks are also due to the brilliant students in his courses at Hamilton on science
fi ction and the classics (spring and fall 2016) for their thoughts on Frankenstein
and its classics. Special thanks are due to Julie for her steadfast love, support, and
wisdom; and to co- editors and partners in k atabasis , Ben and Brett, perfect
comrades in escape from a Montr é al cemetery.
Stevens would like to thank the students in his courses on classical traditions
and science fi ction at Bryn Mawr College (spring 2015) and Trinity University
(spring 2017) for truly galvanizing discussions of F rankenstein . Trinity’s
Department of Classical Studies was enthusiastic in its support throughout,
and two summer research students, Mellon fellow Ariana Fletcher-Bai and
Murchison fellow Isaiah Mitchell (both Trinity ‘20), were inspiring interlocutors
while the project neared completion. Special thanks are due to Jesse and Brett,
alchemical co- editors and sublime companions on travels international as well
as intellectual.
Rogers would like to thank the students in his courses on classical receptions
and science fi ction at the University of Puget Sound (spring 2015 and fall 2017)
for their electrifying ideas about F rankenstein and Prometheus , as well as the
Department of Classics for patiently tolerating such fevered madness. Special
thanks are due to Jennifer and Elinor, who remained stalwart at Chamounix
during his many Frankenstein- related journeys; and to Jesse and Ben, who
Preface ix
worked tirelessly to fi nd the best, most lustrous parts in our editorial charnel
house. “[Our] travels were long and the suff erings [we] endured intense”: may we
never drink Frankenwine again.
