Frankenstein as a Modern Cyborg? Essays -- Frankenstein essays

Frankenstein as a Modern Cyborg? The creature (demon) created by Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus occupies a space that is uncomplete quite masculine nor quite feminine, although he is clearly some(prenominal) created as a male and desires to be in the masculine role. Judith Halberstam describes this in-between-ness as world one of the primary characteristics of the Gothic monster-- universe in a space thats not easily classified or categorized, and therefore being rendered unintelligible and fantastical. Donna J. Haraway posits that the post-modern learning fiction cyborg occupies a exchangeable in-between space, or, perhaps, a non-space. Similarly, Cathy Griggs argues that the post-modern lesbian is linked to this notion of the cyborg. The lesbian is rendered monstrous in social hash out by her desire to ascend into the phallic privilege, connecting this in-between-ness as both a monstrous trait and a cybernetic one. Further, the transgender man (female-to-male) occupies a similar discursive space and provides us with a post-modern link to Frankensteins creature, as both be surgically constructed men, a construction that, in the eyes of society, renders them monstrous (particularly for trans-men who cant pass). Frankensteins creature embodies gender offense on two levels, both of which are the fuel for Victors horror the first being the creatures status as being a surgically constructed male, the second being Victors own gender transgression in co-opting the feminine trait of reproduction, transforming his laboratory into a virtual womb. accustomed the scientific origin of the creature, as well as both its and Victors dubious gender, is it possible that the modern Gothic monster pre-fi... ...th. Gender Trouble feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York Routledge, 1990. Griggers, Cathy. Lesbian Bodies in the Age of (Post)mechanical Reproduction. Fear of a Queer Planet. Ed. Michael Warner. Minne apolis U of Minnesota P, 1993. 178-192. Halberstam, Judith. Skin Shows Gothic Horror and the engineering of Monsters. Second ed. Durham Duke UP, 1995. Haraway, Donna J. The Promises of Monsters A Regenerative Politics for Inappropriate/d Others. heathen Studies. Eds. Lawrence Grossberg, Cary Nelson and Paula A. Treichler. New York Routledge, 1992. 295-337. Haraway, Donna J. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women The Reinvention of Nature. New York Routledge, 1991. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. 1983 ed. New York The Penguin Group, 1963. Zizek, Slavoj. The Sublime goal of Ideology. London Verso, 1989.