Great Books: Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

Join presenter James Leiker, Professor of History and Chair of the History and Political Science departments, as he explores the political, ethical and moral ambiguities of what has been called the world’s first work of modern science fiction.

Videos played during the presentation:

[nagelamilena]

My brain just exploded hahaha very good!! Thank you for the availability of the video. From Brazil 🇧🇷

[jordanwarburton]

college student here, this is an awesome presentation. The questions/possibilities you pose here make me love this book 100x more and want to read it again to look for those possibilities.

[frostylunetta]

Wonderful lecture. Frankenstein is one of my all-time favourite works in English literature

[aguyfotso]

The best presestation ever. Duality is actually one of the most important gothic conventions. Used in frankenstein, private memoir of the justified sinner by Hogg and in the turn of the sreew by Henry James. ...

[nicole-lsjb]

A really interesting idea of Frankenstein as the monster - them sharing a soul; especially the idea of a repressed Id. I saw Victor as an unreliable narrator, and of course, almost the entirety of what the creature says comes through Victor's retelling. If it truly is the darker parts of himself that he wants to deny or disown, then this pairs well with the unreliable narrator.

[adriangaushausindahaus]

Props to this community college for doing this

[Ozgipsy]

James, that was a really bought provoking lecture. The concept of duality I had considered very basically, but the metaphysical linking of all the times Victor fades out and the monster runs free. Wow. Also placing it historically after the enlightenment adds so much depth to it. Whether Shelly was conscious of it or not.

Just an excellent lecture. 👍

[osiris_blanche]

I think sometimes story is given to a portrait after it's been created. Symbolism was probably more simple in Frankenstein as Man's greatest ego - is what kills man.

[ritaisabelpires]

Another mistake: Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley Et so stayed at Villa Diodatti, in Cologny, close to Geneva. That picture is of Château Chillon, in Veytaux. Although Lord Byron was impressed when he visited it, even writing the famous poem The Prisoner of Chillon, the castle is about 70 miles away from Geneva.

[tj-cogo]

29:50 For me this was obvious _the very first time I read it_. Why was the creature always present when Victor was alone? Why did it not talk with anybody else? Why was Victor always in a bad mood and why did it attack his closest friends and relatives?

[jahnali]

Wait a minute. From what I read, Victor was not trying to create he ideal man…. Victor set out to see if he can create a man, or give a being life through science, not birth.

That’s a very different point in which this lecture misses entirely.

[rjm]

sorry - the creature and victor were witnessed side-by-side by robert walton at the end of the story; and he saw victor pursuing the creature at the beginning. so while it might be fun to toy with the idea of them being "one", these are two discretely separate beings. and they must be separate for the primary predominate theme of a creation that exists unloved by its creator; and the responsibilities of that connection. otherwise a very enjoyable lecture with a few insights i had not dug into in my own research.

[AliHaider-lfse]

May I have the presentation in pdf please

[NicholasOsella]

Duality: Objectivity vs Subjective reason -Science is used as a method of creation, but those "imperfections" which are caused by subjectivity are flawed. Since humankind is inherently "flawed."

[alessandrocota]

Unfortunately, he is wrong about the practice of autopsy and dissection in the Middle Ages. He should have been more throrough with his research on this topic.

[barbarablonsky]

YES! I have also thought the Monster and Victor are the same person.

[ritaisabelpires]

To argue that Mary Shelley lived by the end of the Middle Ages is not only wrong, it is risibly so. We are closer to Mary Shelley than she was to the end of the Middle Ages. With respect, you may be a great truck driver, a historian? Not judging by this lecture.

[ImpartiallySpeaking]

It’s ironic. Students taking notes from ‘an expert’ who doesn’t even know which year the book was published! January 1818 guys (NOT 1816 as stated by ‘the historian’) Safe to say I switched off after his second mistake 🤣🤣🤣🤣