Academic literature on the topic 'Shelley, mary , 1797-1851'

Este artigo tem como propósito apresentar ao leitor uma possibilidade de análise do romance Frankenstein ou o Prometeu Moderno (1818), de Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851), tendo como foco os paratextos da edição publicada pela DarkSide em 2017, traduzida por Márcia Xavier de Brito. Justifica-se a escolha dessa edição, pois eleita, em 2019, como atraente pelos alunos do primeiro ano do curso de Letras da Universidade Estadual Paulista – UNESP, Câmpus de Assis-SP. Na análise da obra de Shelley, busca-se, a partir do aporte teórico da Estética da Recepção (JAUSS, 1994; ISER, 1996 e 1999), refletir sobre sua vitalidade, enquanto marco no cânone ocidental, pois se configurou, conforme José Paulo Paes (1985), como primeiro romance de ficção científica. Na análise dos paratextos da edição da DarkSide (SHELLEY, 2017), pretende-se detectar, em consonância com Roger Chartier (2014) e Gerard Genette (2009), se modificam a relação do leitor com o material escrito.

Este artigo visa apresentar a autora inglesa Mary Shelley (1797-1851) como iniciadora da ficção científica com a obra Frankenstein ou o Prometeu Moderno (1818), e esta como uma obra matricial de autoria feminina, para questionar a sua possível ausência no Museu Britânico e/ou os valores canônicos defendidos por Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), a partir de seus apontamentos sobre a mulher na ficção, no ensaio Um teto todo seu (1929). Para isso, observaram-se os pontos críticos assinalados por Woolf, contrapostos com a vida de Mary Shelley e a obra Frankenstein, para se buscar entender a não referência a Shelley diante dos diversos nomes de autores citados no ensaio. Woolf admite que a estrutura patriarcal barrou a mulher, no decorrer dos séculos, em uma vida sem condições materiais para pensar e contemplar no momento da criação. Contudo, Shelley, mesmo vivendo em uma sociedade vitoriana patriarcal do século XIX, na qual a mulher deveria ser submissa ao homem, teve condições adequadas à produção ficcional ativa, escrevendo obras como Frankenstein, que permanece presente 200 anos após sua publicação, desafiando a todos com um magnetismo que perpassa o campo das artes. Uma obra que deveria estar incandescente nas estantes do Museu Britânico.

Atentando-se ao fato de que a autora britânica Mary Shelley (1797 – 1851) viajou extensivamente por toda a Europa, é perceptível que a paisagem que compunha o cenário de suas viagens se matinha viva em sua imaginação. Logo, é possível afirmar que essas impressões desempenharam um papel importante na formação de sua ficção, principalmente na composição e na função de suas paisagens naturais. A partir dessa premissa, propõe-se, através da análise de suas obras Frankenstein ou o Prometeu Moderno (1818) e Proserpine (1820), situadas no início de sua produção textual, refletir acerca de como Shelley utiliza do espaço da natureza em suas narrativas de forma a ambientar a violação do sublime através da violência, seja pela inserção de sua criação monstruosa, seja pelo rompimento brutal da natureza pelo divino. Para tal, as teorias do sublime de Kant (2012) e os estudos acerca do uso do cenário natural de Parry (1964) e Hinds (1987) auxiliam na análise proposta. Assim, é notável que Shelley dispunha de um olhar crítico sobre a presença do indivíduo no meio natural, visível na descrição dos cenários naturais e pastorais que evocam o sublime de forma a refletir acerca do seu rompimento, seja pela inserção do grotesco, seja pela subversão da natureza em um ambiente de violência.

The intuitions and imagination of human visionaries about the infinite possibilities of scientific research and technology are creatively haunting the quest of our species to expand knowledge in the micro-cosmos and the vast space. Since 19th century French writer Jules Verne (1828-1905) and English writer Mary Shelley (1797-1851) had already traced the path to our days and beyond.They were followed by an infinite series of great intuitionists, who were not mere futurists like H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Isaac Asimov, Arthur Clarke, John Brunner and many more. Scientific endeavors and achievements transform the qualities of life and foster social institutions in various ways. The paper deals with a prevailing technological phenomenon, the scientific capacity of gene-editing, promoting thus the emergence of a virtual novel identity. The new achievements in sciences encourage the expression of human free-will allowing for physical and other enhancements or alterations, in reference to biological and technological features that may lead to a new bio-techno-identity (let us call it BTI). The paper reflects on the issue of “enhancing” the established concepts for defining a human being and a human person; it also puts forward the possibility of conducting a theoretical and field researchexamining -and evaluating- the issue and the mechanisms of BTI formation,reassessing all traditional qualities and novel characteristics attributed to humans by the applications of Biotechnology.The issue is eventually approached under the standpoints of Ethical Philosophy, Sociology, Biology, Orthodox Theology and Law. The analysis discusses intuitions in sci-fi literature and cinematography in comparison to reality i.e. the multitude of assisted reproduction technologies, embryonic and genetic labs, implants and even cloning in Western Societies.

SCULLY: I said, I got the lab to rush the results of the Szczesny autopsy, if you're interested.MULDER: I heard you, Scully.SCULLY: And Szczesny did indeed drown, but not as the result of the inhalation of ectoplasm as you so vehemently suggested.MULDER: Well, what else could she possibly have drowned in?SCULLY: Margarita mix, upchucked with about 40 ounces of Corcovado Gold tequila which, as it turns out, she and her friends rapidly consumed in the woods while trying to reenact the Blair Witch Project.MULDER: Well, I think that demands a little deeper investigation, don't you?SCULLY: No, I don't.— The X-Files, “All Things” (0717) IntroductionMikel J. Koven argues that “The X-Files [1993-2002, films 2005, 2010, revived 2016-2018] was the American television series that defined the zeitgeist of the 1990s” (337) by tapping into “pre-millenium paranoia and the collapse of traditional beliefs” (338). In each episode, “True Believer” and FBI agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and his partner, the skeptical and rational Dr Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), travel through a post-Cold War American landscape that is manifesting varying levels of anxiety about the century to come. The series is preoccupied with a series of questions that have, by the second decade of the twenty-first century, come to be answered fairly definitively. Have aliens visited Earth? (Well, if you believe a team of Harvard scientists, maybe [see Freeman], but there is no evidence of alien colonisation just yet.) Does the US government have its citizens’ best interests at heart? (In its current incarnation, no.) Will climate change have monstrous consequences? (Yes, we’re seeing them.) What do we do about the shady forces operating in post-Soviet Union Russia? (God knows, but they seem to be doing a good job of changing the shape of “democracy” in an increasing number of countries.)These broader socio-political aspects of The X-Files have been explored in a number of studies (see Koven; Moses; Wildermuth). In this article, I focus in more closely on some of the ways in which the character of Scully can be read as a complex engagement with a particularly 1990s version of third-wave feminism. I suggest that the type of feminism embodied in the character of Scully taps into the zeitgeist of the 1990s, a decade characterised not only by a growing media-driven “backlash” against feminism (see Faludi), but also by emergent third wave of feminism driven by movements such as “Riot Grrrl” (centred on openly feminist bands like Bikini Kill and Huggy Bear) and the various, and often contested, feminisms endorsed by a new generation of writers like Susan Faludi, Naomi Wolf, and even Katie Roiphe. Part of Scully’s longevity as a feminist icon can be attributed to the fact that while she is not without her own contradictions and complexities, she emerged from a televisual landscape dominated by particularly insipid representations of professional women. Scully, with her combination of lively wit and serious scientific mind, represented a radical imagining of professional femininity in the 1990s.Working against the Backlash: Scully and the Power of ProfessionalismBy the late 1980s, the political gains made by the second-wave feminism in the 1960s and early 1970s had come increasingly under fire in a “backlash” that “worked to revoke the gains made by the feminist movement” (Genz and Brabon 53). L.S. Kim argues this backlash is reflected in the fact that while strong female characters had always been a feature of US television (e.g. Mary Tyler Moore), in the 1990s televisual landscape feminism was often made popular in a type of “postfeminist discourse in which it is acceptable to be pro-woman but not to be feminist” (319). The quintessential example of this trend was David E. Kelley’s series about a Boston lawyer, Ally McBeal (1997-2002), in which McBeal’s primary dilemma is presented as being that she has “too many choices, too much freedom, and too much desire” which leads to “never-ending searching and even to depression and dysfunction” (Kim 319). McBeal’s professional success never seems to compensate for her various romantic disappointments and these remain the focal point of Kelley’s series.Part of what sets Scully apart from a character like McBeal is her unerring professionalism, and her strong commitment to equality in her relationship with Mulder. Scully displays none of McBeal’s neuroses, and she is unapologetically feminist in her disposition. She also understands implicitly the pivotal role she plays in the partnership at the heart of the X-Files. Scully is, then, a capable, professional woman who not only remains professional at all times, but who also works as a powerful grounding force to her partner’s more outlandish approaches and theories. As series creator Chris Carter has been forced to concede on numerous occasions, without the rational and practical figure of Scully in the morgue to (usually) prove and (sometimes) disprove Mulder’s theories, The X-Files as we know them would cease to exist. In fact, and somewhat paradoxically, in order to best understand Scully as a character, one needs to recognise the significance of the relationship between Scully and Mulder that lies at the heart of the series. The sheer force of Scully’s professionalism, and its resistance to being conscripted straightforwardly into a traditional romantic plot, becomes an important contributor to the powerful sexual tension between Mulder and Scully that came to define the series. Scully also, as critics and commentators were quick to point out, takes on the traditionally masculine role of skeptical scientist on the series, with Mulder positioned in the typically feminine role of intuitive “believer” (in, among other things, aliens, Chupacabra, big foot, and psychic powers). There are, of course, problems with this approach, but for now it is enough to simply point out that this positioning of Mulder and Scully is an important feature of the internal structure of The X-Files and speaks to an awareness of, and desire to challenge, the traditional association of women with intuition and men with rationality. Indeed, Linda Badley points out that the relationship between the two agents is “remarkably egalitarian, challenging traditional gender roles as portrayed on television” (63).Scully and Mulder’s relationship, a relationship that is at once personal and professional, is also grounded in genuine equality and respect. Mulder never undermines Scully, he (occasionally) knows when to bow to her superior scientific reasoning, and his eventual love for his partner is based in his understanding that Scully’s skepticism offers the perfect counterpart to his openness to the paranormal. In fact, one might say that Mulder, at least in part, falls in love with Scully’s professionalism and with her commitment to scientific reasoning. Mulder admits as much himself in the film The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998): “as difficult and frustrating as it’s been sometimes, your goddamn strict rationalism and science have saved me a thousand times over. You kept me honest. You made me a whole person.” In this calculation, Scully is not only Mulder’s equal, she is his missing piece. While she might sometimes grumble about merely playing Watson to Mulder’s Holmes (see “Fight Club” [0720]), Scully’s role is much more important than this, and Mulder (and the viewer) knows it.In the context of the televisual landscape of the 1990s, this representation of Scully as a character who is every bit as intelligent and as integral to the action of the series as her male partner, was incredibly powerful. It marked Scully as a third-wave feminist character in an era dominated by women who seemed to conform to the kind of problematic post-feminism embodied by Ally McBeal. In a recent interview, Gillian Anderson acknowledged the significant role Scully played in opening up possibilities for the representation of women on television in the 1990s. She observed, “a lot of women felt that they saw something recognisable for the first time [in Scully and] there were a lot of young women whose eyes were opened to feeling like they were finally represented in some way on television” (Anderson in Idato n.p.) Many women saw themselves in this character, and there can be little doubt The X-Files spearheaded a shift towards a more representative approach to the writing of female roles in US television in which layered and complex characters such as Scully became the norm rather than the exception. Rosalind Gill, for example, notes that “quality television” has “evolved since the 1990s into a site of rich and complex representations of gender including Homeland, Veep, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Transparent, and The Good Wife” (620).One of the other pervasive positive effects associated with the character of Scully is that she functioned, and indeed continues to function, as a role model for women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). A recent report commissioned by 21st Century Fox, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and J. Walter Thompson Intelligence found that “Scully’s media depiction of a high-achieving woman in STEM asked a generation of girls and women to imagine new professional options… Scully also influenced a generation of young women to study and pursue careers in STEM” (3). Although this report is not entirely impartial (21th Century Fox owns The X-Files), it found that “among women who are familiar with Scully’s character, 91% say she is a role model for girls and women” (5). This finding tallies with those of a variety of earlier online observers who noticed Scully had become a touchstone character “who inspired an entire generation of young women to pursue medical, scientific, and law enforcement degrees as positions” (Consalvi). To an extent not seen before in the history of television, Scully became an important role model for young women in the STEM professions. Scully’s fictional professionalism helped to create a new generation of real-life female STEM professionals.But it is worth remembering that in other respects, Scully is a complicated feminist heroine. This is largely because The X-Files’ production team’s own feminist credentials were often less-than-inspiring. The series was created by a man, and was written and directed predominantly by men in all of its various filmic and televisual incarnations. As Anderson herself pointed out on her Twitter feed for 29 June 2017, of the 207 episodes of X-Files produced, only 2 were directed by women (fig. 1). Famously, when the X-Files began in the early 1990s, Anderson was paid far less than her co-star Duchovny and was even asked to stand behind him on camera. The actor agitated successfully for equal pay after three years in the role, and for the right to stand beside her televisual partner, rather than behind him, even if, somewhat astonishingly, Twenty First Century Fox also offered Anderson less than Duchovny to reprise her famous role in 2016. (Anderson eventually received equal pay for equal billing.)Fig. 1: Gillian Anderson tweet, 29 June 2017.It ought to be remembered, then, that Scully’s feminism is predominantly a construction of men, overlaid with the undoubted feminine empowerment brought to the role by Anderson. As far back as 1998, Linda Badley noticed that for Scully/Anderson “the transference of ‘feminist’ characteristics between character and star is unusually strong—to the extent that a discussion of one must refer to the other. And Anderson/Scully is instantly recognisable as an icon of popular feminism” (62). But in more recent years, Anderson has made even clearer her own feminist leanings. She has done this through the publication (with Jennifer Nadel) of the explicitly feminist We: The Uplifting Manuel for Women Seeking Happiness (2017); by taking up more explicitly feminist roles, such as that of Stella Gibson in the acclaimed BBC series The Fall (2013-present); and through her Twitter feed. The significance of Anderson’s online feminist presence is highlighted by Lauren Modery, who notes: “the next time you’re having a day where you’re not sure if you’re being the best feminist you can be, just ask yourself “what would Gillian Anderson do?” and go to her Twitter account” (Modery). Scully’s 1990s Feminism in a Twenty-First Century ContextFor much of the series, Scully’s feminism can be viewed as a form of the “New Feminism” that Stephanie Genz and Benjamin Brabon associate with the late 1990s and with Natasha Walter’s book The New Feminism (1998). This “New Feminism” attempts to break from second-wave feminism by decoupling the personal from the political (64). Badley, for example, points out that Scully’s feminism is strictly based on individual empowerment: “rather than challenge patriarchy directly or join forces with women activists, Scully channels her anger/ambition into fitting into the system” (70). But equally, Scully’s feminism could be seen as a prototype of the kind of “neo-liberal” feminism that theorists such as Angela McRobbie associate with the present moment, a feminism which “discards the older, welfarist and collectivist feminism of the past, in favour of individualist striving” (4). Certainly, over the course of the 25 years, The X-Files has been in existence, we have seen little evidence that Scully has female friends (or indeed, that she interacts with anyone much outside of Mulder and her family).When other women do enter the picture, such as when Mulder’s one-time lover and co-founder of the X-Files, Diana Fowley appears in the fifth season of the series (see “The End” [0520]), Scully is often positioned in an antagonistic relationship with them. In this context, it is notable that “All Things,” a seventh-season episode directed and written by Anderson, places Scully’s interaction with Colleen Azar, a woman from the American Taoist Healing Centre, at the centre of the narrative. Azar’s exhortations to Scully to “slow down” are presented as the wise words of a female ally in this episode, and Scully does well to heed them. This episode, consciously I think, works as a counter to the more typical representation of Scully as being in competition with women for Mulder’s interest, evident in episodes like “Alpha” (0616) and “Syzygy” (0313). In this respect, Anderson appears to be aligning Scully with a feminism that is much more inclusive than it appears in other, male-written, episodes.From the vantage point of the second decade of the twenty-first century, one of the more problematic elements The X-Files has to do with its representation of sex and sexuality. Sex, in the world of The X-Files, is very 1990s in orientation. In fact, it echoes the way in which sex operated in the Clinton impeachment: denial, denial, denial, even in the face of clear evidence it took place. We see this most obviously in “All Things,” which begins with a shot of Scully getting dressed in front of a mirror, that pans to a shot of an undressed Mulder in bed. This opening seems to suggest the two had spent the night together, but nothing overtly sexual actually takes place in the episode. Indeed, any sexual activity that ever takes place in the X-Files happens off camera, but it is nonetheless worth pointing out that while the equally solitary Mulder is repeatedly characterised in the series by his porn fetish, Scully’s sexuality is repeatedly denied or diminished in the series. Moreover, any overt expression of Scully’s sexuality (such as in “Milagro,” [0618] where she falls for a writer living next door to Mulder) typically ends badly, with Scully placed in peril by her sexual desires.Scully’s continued presence in the twenty-first century, however, means that while her character is rooted in what we might call a “1990s feminist disposition” (she prides herself on being a “woman in a man’s world”; she demonstrates little interest in stereotypically feminine pursuits such as shopping or make up; her focus is on work, rather than romance), she has also been allowed the room to grow and develop. Perhaps most notably, the 2018 Scully is allowed to embrace her sexuality. Sexual activity still appears off screen, of course, but in “Plus One” (1103), we see her actively pursue sex with Mulder (twice!), while her vibrator makes an unapologetic cameo appearance in “Rm9sbG93ZXJz” (1107). Given that we live in a decade saturated in sexual imagery, it makes no sense for 2018 Scully to be as chaste and buttoned up as she was in the 1990s.Finally, in a series in which the wild speculation of the conspiracy theories is almost always true, Scully’s feminist commitment to rationality, science and the power of logic might appear to be undermined at every turn. Badley, for example, reminds us that while Scully may “have medicine and the law on her side ... Mulder’s vision is validated by Chris Carter, as the prologue to nearly every episode reminds us” (67). This is highlighted in “Field Trip” (0621) when Scully wonders, “Mulder, can’t you just for once, just ... for the novelty of it, come up with the simplest explanation, the most logical one instead of automatically jumping to UFOs or Bigfoot or…” Mulder simply counters with:Scully, in six years, how … how often have I been wrong? No seriously, I mean, every time I bring you a case we go through this perfunctory dance. You tell me that I’m not being scientifically rigorous and that I’m off my nut, and then in the end who turns out to be right like 98.95 of the time? I just think I’ve ... earned the benefit of the doubt here.Interestingly enough, however, it is Scully who solves the mystery at the heart of this particular episode of X-Files—Mulder and Scully are indeed trapped inside a giant fungus, being slowly digested by its gooey secretions.And while Mulder’s viewpoint is most often endorsed in the series, the chaos of the Trump administration illustrates perfectly the dangers behind the valorisation of the irrational over the rational. In a decade in which rationality itself is coming under increasing threat—by “fake news”; through a hostility towards the science of climate change; in the desire to wind back further the gains of the feminist movement—we need to remember the importance of the strong and abiding relationship between rationality and feminism. This is a relationship that goes at least as far back as Mary Wollstonecraft’s (1759-1797) Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), is at the heart of the feminist gothic writings of women like Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) and Mary Shelley (1797-1851). This commitment to the power of rationality lives on in the character of Dana Scully.Conclusion: Scully as Twenty-First-Century Feminist IconI have argued throughout this article that there are limitations of the kind of feminism embodied in Scully, but it is clear that she has come to represent a type of woman who refuses to let men dictate her behaviour, and who maintains her professionalism even under the most difficult of circumstances. A host of Scully memes now circulating on the web celebrate the character’s competence, intelligence, and compassion (figs. 2, 3, and 4). The character of Scully now exists far beyond the confines of the television screen and the imaginations of her predominantly male authors. Scully’s continuing relevance to twenty-first century feminists is reflected in this meme recently placed by Anderson on her Twitter account in response to the allegations of sexual misconduct directed at US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanagh (fig. 5). Rarely have the 1990s seemed so relevant to the present moment.Fig. 2: Scully meme, Meme Generator.Fig. 3: Rustnsplinters, “Scully Motivational.” Deviant Art.Fig. 4: E.H. Redlum, “Scully: Meme Style.” Deviant Art.Fig. 5: Gillian Anderson tweet.ReferencesBadley, Linda. “Scully Hits the Glass Ceiling: Postmodernism, Postfeminism, Posthumanism, and The X-Files.” Fantasy Girls: Gender in the New Universe of Science Fiction and Fantasy Television. Ed. Elyce Rae Helford. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. 61-90.Consalvi, Sydney. “The Scully Effect Continues: How The X-Files’ Dana Scully Changed Television Forever.” Odyssey. 9 Aug. 2016. 1 Dec. 2018 <https://www.theodysseyonline.com/scully-effect>.Faludi, Susan. Backlash: The Undeclared War against Women. London: Vintage, 1991.Freeman, David. “Scientists Say Mysterious ‘Oumuamua’ Object Could Be an Alien Spacecraft: Harvard Researchers Raise the Possibility That It’s a Probe Sent by Extraterrestrials.” NBCNews.com. 6 Nov. 2018. 1 Dec. 2018 <https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/scientists-say-mysterious-oumuamua-object-could-be-alien-spacecraft-ncna931381>.Genz, Stéphanie, and Benjamin A. Brabon. Postfeminism: Cultural Texts and Theories. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2009.Gill, Rosalind. “Post-Postfeminism? New Feminist Visibilities in Postfeminist Times.” Feminist Media Studies 16.4 (2016): 610-30.Idato, Michael. “Gillian Anderson on Why She’s Closing The X-Files after 25 Years.” The Sydney Morning Herald. 15 Jan. 2018. 1 Dec. 2018 <https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/times-up-gillian-anderson-on-why-shes-closing-the-xfiles-after-25-years-20180115-h0iapf.html>.Kim, L.S. “‘Sex and the Single Girl’ in Postfeminism: The F Word on Television.” Television and New Media 2.4 (Nov. 2001): 319-334.Koven, Mikel J. “The X-Files.” Essential Cult TV Reader. Ed. David Lavery. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2010. 337-343.McRobbie, Angela. “Notes on the Perfect: Competitive Femininity in Neoliberal Times.” Australian Feminist Studies 30:83 (2015): 3-20.Modery, Lauren. “Gillian Anderson Is the Feminist Twitter Hero We Need Right Now.” Birth. Movies. Death. 25 Jan. 2018. 1 Dec. 2018 <https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2018/01/25/gillian-anderson-is-the-feminist-twitter-hero-we-need-right-now>.Moses, Michael Valdez. “Kingdom of Darkness: Autonomy and Conspiracy in The X-Files and Millenium.” The Philosophy of TV Noir. Eds. Steven M. Sanders and Aeon J. Skoble. Lexington: U. of Kentucky P., 2008. 203-228.21stCentury Fox, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and J. Walter Thompson Intelligence. The ‘Scully Effect’: I Want to Believe… in STEM. 2018. <https://impact.21cf.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/ScullyEffectReport_21CF_1-1.pdf>.Wildermuth, Mark E. Gender, Science Fiction Television, and the American Security State: 1958-Present. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.X-Files: Fight the Future. Dir. Rob Bowman. Perf. Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. 20th Century Fox. 1998.

L'identité de Mary Shelley, fille et femme d'écrivains, s'est naturellement construite autour de la lecture et de l'écriture. On rencontre dans son oeuvre trois formes de subversion : 1°) celle des idéologies, sous la forme d'une reprise des théories et des thèmes radicaux de son entourage, théories qu'elle va discrètement subvertir à son tour ; 2°) une subversion de la nature (immortalité, monstruosité, inceste) qui traduit l'angoisse de Mary vis-à-vis de la maternité, son désir de détruire les institutions oppressives de la société patriarcale, ainsi qu'un désir de subversion de la morale et de la religion, deux instruments de la subordination des femmes par les hommes ; 3°) une subversion des conventions littéraires, caractéristique de l'écriture féminine. Ses romans, souvent inclassables ou hors normes, subvertissent la notion même de genre, même si son style très littéraire reste conventionnel. Ses écrits personnels témoignent de son désir constant de se définir comme un auteur
Mary Shelley, born and later married to celebrated writers, constructed her identity around the activities of reading and writing. Three forms of subversion can be found in her work : 1°) the subversion of ideologies : Mary takes up the radical themes and theories developed by her family circle, theories which she often subverts discreetly ; 2°) the subversion of nature (immortality, monstrosity, incest) shows an anxiety of motherhood, a desire to destroy the oppressive institutions of patriarchal society, and a subversion of moral codes and religious doctrine, which are two instruments used by men to subordinate women ; 3°) the subversion of literary conventions, characteristic of many women's writing. Mary Shelley' novels, which often defy classification or do not respect norms, subvert the very notion of genre, even though her very literary style remains conventional. Her personal writings testify to her constant wish to define herself as an author

This thesis examines selected prose fiction works of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in an effort to establish a clearer understanding of the creative principles informing her writing, based on more evidence than her well-known novel Frankenstein provides. Overturning the hitherto dismissive and/or reductive critiques of her lesser-known works, this thesis challenges negative assessments by reinterpreting the structure of Shelley's fiction. Concentrating particularly on the early Frankenstein(1818), Mathilda (written in 1819), and The Last Man (1826), with a focus on the use of insistent embedded quotations, this thesis begins by exploring Shelley's belief in textuality as a form of "grafting." As scholars have suggested, Shelley's literary borrowings are a result of her materialist-based views of human reality. The persistent use of embedded quotations is one way in which Shelley's fiction represents texts as collations of materials. The core of the argument posits that citational "grafting" has distinctive and striking effects in each of the works examined. In Frankenstein, quotations underscore existential alienation by pointing to the need for texts to fill in the lacunae of human understanding; in Mathilda, the narrator uses citations to create a sense of personal identity; and in The Last Man, citational excerpts are used with the assumption that they are shared pockets of meaning belonging to a community of human readers. This reconceptualization of Shelley's writing contributes to the generic taxonomies that are now being used to retheorize "the novel" in more inclusive and specific ways.

Magister Artium - MA
This thesis will examine the representation of the figure of Percy Shelley in the text of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). My hypothesis is that Percy Shelley represents to Mary Shelley a figure who embodies the contrasting and more startling aspects of both the Romantic Movement and the Enlightenment era. This I will demonstrate through a close examination of the text of Frankenstein and through an exploration of the figure of Percy Shelley as he is represented in the novel. The representation of Shelley is most marked in the figures of Victor and the Creature, but is not exclusively confined to them. The thesis will attempt to show that Victor and the Creature can be read as figures for the Enlightenment and the Romantic movements respectively. As several critics have noted, these fictional protagonists also represent the divergent elements of Percy Shelley’s own divided personality, as he was both a dedicated man of science and a radical Romantic poet. He is a figure who exemplifies the contrasting notions of the archetypal Enlightenment man, while simultaneously embodying the Romantic resistance to some aspects of that zeitgeist. Lately, there has been a resurgence of interest in the novel by contemporary authors, biographers and playwrights, who have responded to it in a range of literary forms. I will pay particular attention to Peter Ackroyd’s, The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein (2011), which shows that the questions Frankenstein poses to the reader are still with us today. I suggest that this is one of the main impulses behind this recent resurgence of interest in Mary Shelley’s novel. In particular, my thesis will explore the idea that the question of knowledge itself, and the scientific and moral limits which may apply to it, has a renewed urgency in early 21st century literature. In Frankenstein this is a central theme and is related to the figure of the “modern Prometheus”, which was the subtitle of Frankenstein, and which points to the ambitious figure who wishes to advance his own knowledge at all costs. I will consider this point by exploring the ways in which the tensions embodied by Percy Shelley and raised by the original novel are addressed in these contemporary texts. The renewed interest in these questions suggests that they remain pressing in our time, and continue to haunt us in our current society, not unlike the Creature in the novel.

Ce travail a pour objet de présenter et de traduire un ouvrage méconnu de Mary Shelley, The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, A Romance, roman historique souvent considéré comme alimentaire, qui aborde notamment la question de l'imposture. Après avoir étudié les circonstances de rédaction et de publication, puis, à partir notamment de l'indication " A Romance, " les liens de cette œuvre avec le genre gothique et le renouveau médiéval, ainsi que sa place dans l'évolution du roman historique, surtout par rapport à Walter Scott, on s'intéressera aux opinions politiques de Mary Shelley, en particulier féministes ; exprimées de façon souvent voilée, elles permettront de mettre en lumière les ambivalences d'une femme que l'on soupçonne souvent de conservatisme
This work aims at presenting and translating Mary Shelley's lesser-known historical novel, The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, A Romance, often considered as a mere potboiler, which, among other things, tackles the theme of imposture. A first part is devoted to its composition and publication. Then, thanks to its subtitle, "A Romance," are studied the links this implies with the Gothic novel and the medieval revival, as well as the place of this work in the evolution of the historical novel, with respect in particular to Sir Walter Scott. The last part deals with Mary Shelley's political and feminist opinions; expressed in an indirect, "veiled" way, they highlight the ambivalence of a woman many blame for her later-life conservatism

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Letras, Departamento de Teoria Literária e Literaturas, 2008.
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A experiência da maternidade tem suscitado complexos sentimentos desde os mitos existentes nas primeiras sociedades, que comparavam a capacidade reprodutiva das mulheres às forças da natureza. Durante os séculos, tal comparação foi distorcida pela sociedade patriarcal para satisfazer seus interesses, causando a opressão e o sofrimento de milhares de mulheres. Esse processo está presente também na literatura, que é capaz de refletir e perpetuar essas distorções ou desconstruí-las, contribuindo para novas visões dessa complexa experiência. Neste trabalho, analiso a representação da maternidade em romances de autoria feminina, mais precisamente, Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman e Mary, a Fiction, de Mary Wollstonecraft (escritora inglesa do século XVIII), e Fair Exchange, de Michèle Roberts (escritora inglesa contemporânea), auxiliada por exemplos em diversos textos teóricos de como o papel da mãe foi construído ao longo do tempo e pela contribuição dos estudos feministas para a desconstrução dos mitos patriarcais sobre a maternidade. _________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT
The experience of motherhood has roused complex feelings since the myths existing in the first societies, wich used to compare women’s reproductive capability to the forces of nature. Throughout the centuries, such comparison was distorted by the patriarchal society in order to satisfy its interests, causing the oppression and the suffering of thousands of women. This process is also present in literature, which is able to reflect and perpetuate these distortions or deconstruct them, contributing to new views on this complex experience. In this work I analyze the representation of motherhood in novels written by women, more precisely, Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman and Mary, a Fiction, by Mary Wollstonecraft (eighteenth-century English writer) and Fair Exchange, by Michèle Roberts (comtemporary English writer), assisted by examples in different texts of how the mother’s role has been constructed throughout time and by the contributions of the feminist studies for the deconstruction of patriarchal myths about motherhood.

A literatura romântica inglesa se constituiu basicamente de poesia, pois foi produzida em uma época em que ficção em prosa era vista como mero entretenimento. Alguns romancistas, excepcionalmente, são rotulados como “românticos”, mas Mary Shelley não aparece entre eles. Durante mais de um século, sua obra permaneceu restrita às sessões dos livros que tratam da exótica literatura gótica. A presente dissertação argumenta que a crítica literária não tem reconhecido a óbvia relação de Frankenstein com o romantismo inglês. Para evidenciar tal envolvimento, será apresentada uma análise do conjunto de imagens do romance que busque revelar os elementos românticos ali contidos. A análise se baseia, principalmente, nas idéias de Northrop Frye a respeito da natureza e função de imagens na literatura. O conceito de intertextualidade também será utilizado como ferramenta para a análise da inserção de imagens no romance e da inserção do romance no contexto do romantismo inglês. O trabalho é dividido em três partes. A primeira explora as relações de Frankenstein com a vida de Mary Shelley e com o romantismo inglês. A segunda expõe a base teórica em que esta dissertação se apóia. A última apresenta a minha leitura da teia de imagens do romance. Ao final, espero poder validar a tese proposta: que Frankenstein incorpora os valores estéticos e filosóficos do romantismo e merece, portanto, ser situado no seu devido lugar no cânone literário inglês como o representante legítimo do romantismo em prosa.
Romantic English literature – written at a time when prose fiction was predominantly a medium for sheer entertainment – is rooted in poetry. One or two novelists may exceptionally be granted the adjective “Romantic”, but Mary Shelley is not ranked among them. For centuries, her work has been restricted to that section in handbooks reserved for exotic Gothic literature. This thesis argues that literary criticism has failed to recognize Frankenstein’s obvious relation with the movement. The argument will be fostered by a brief look at such handbooks, and developed through the analysis of the imagery of the novel, so as to trace the Romantic elements there contained. The analysis relies mainly on the frame developed by Northrop Frye concerning the nature and function of imagery in literature. The concept of intertextuality will also be useful as a tool to account for the insertion of images in the novel, and for the novel’s insertion within the Romantic context. The work is divided into three parts. The first contextualizes the main issues set forth by Frankenstein, establishing connections with the life of the author and with the Romantic movement. The second exposes the theoretical basis on which the thesis is grounded. The last presents my reading of the novel’s web of images. In the end, I hope to validate the thesis proposed, that Frankenstein embodies the aesthetic and philosophical assessments of the English Romantic agenda, and therefore deserves to be situated in its due place in the English Literary canon as the legitimate representative of Romanticism in prose form.

L’œuvre romanesque de Mary Shelley est surtout connue pour le roman qui en forme l’ouverture, Frankenstein ; or, the Modern Prometheus (1818), qui possède une force esthétique et fantasmatique indéniable. L’une des scènes marquantes de ce roman est le baiser que Victor Frankenstein donne à sa cousine et fiancée Elizabeth lors d’un cauchemar, car ce baiser tue la jeune femme pour lui donner ensuite l’apparence du cadavre de la propre mère de Victor. Le baiser amoureux ou érotique semble en fait être une figure de choix dans la construction de la personnalité littéraire en devenir qu’est alors Mary Shelley puisqu’il est présent dès les brouillons d’un manuscrit qui connut pourtant de nombreuses manipulations jusqu’à sa publication. Le projet de cette thèse consiste à étendre cette hypothèse esthétique pour la faire rayonner vers les six autres romans, encore aujourd’hui peu connus, que Mary Shelley produisit pendant une vingtaine d’années : la figure du baiser se présentera, alors, comme une métaphore du parcours de la femme écrivain. Que nous dira la représentation d’une figure qui appartient à la fois au domaine de l’esthétique et de l’érotisme au sujet des relations que l’écrivain féminin entretient avec les catégories de pensée de son temps ? En mettant au jour l’idée que l’esthétique et l’érotisme tels qu’ils sont conçues par la société moderne ne sont plus des modes de pensée productifs mais, surtout, en proposant de réinvestir le sens du baiser à travers une éthique du souci du corps de l’autre, c’est la pensée littéraire d’un auteur, une œuvre romanesque, une anthropologie, mais aussi la finalité de la littérature qui seront redécouverts
Mary Shelley’s work as a novelist is best known for her first novel, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus (1818). This novel shows strong, graphic scenes which have had a deep impact on modern society’s imagination. One of the most striking scenes in Frankenstein is the moment when Victor gives a kiss to his cousin, who is also his fiancée, while having a nightmare, because this kiss kills Elizabeth and turns her into the corpse of Victor’s dead mother. It seems that the erotic kiss as a literary motif played a decisive role in the making of Mary Shelley as a novelist because it appears in the first drafts of Frankenstein, whose content, as we know, was heavily modified until the novel was published. The project underlying this study consists in displacing this aesthetic hypothesis and applying it to the other six novels which Mary Shelley wrote and which have been almost completely eclipsed by Frankenstein: the kiss as a literary motif will then be considered as a metaphor for the making of the woman writer. If the literary kiss can be considered as a motif belonging to the philosophical categories of aesthetics and eroticism, what can the kiss as it appears in the work of a female writer indicate about this writer’s relation to the conceptual categories of her time? As Mary Shelley’s novels suggest that aesthetics and eroticism as they are conceived by modern society are no longer productive, and as they reinvest the meaning of the literary kiss with an ethic of caring for the body of the other, bringing these novels together will help rediscover a writer’s vision of literature, her vision of Man, and most of all our own vision of what literature is about