On the trail of Mary Shelley: Frankenstein and the Gothic

The purpose of my dissertation is to contextualize and analyze Mary Shelley’s Frankesntein; or, the Modern Prometheus from a peculiar point of view. In the first chapter I’m going to present the scientific atmosphere surrounding the composition of the novel: in order to understand Mary Shelley’s work it is essential to go deep into the cultural, social and scientific climate of the eighteenth and early nineteenth-century, to examine the controversies and the debates that were taking place at that time and to present some of the key figures who contributed to scientific progress. The second chapter introduces the figure of Mary Shelley: I’m going to reflect upon her biography and I find it particularly interesting to analyze the ways in which her own life finds an echo in Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus and its characters. Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus mirrors Mary Shelley’s life from different points of view and I believe it is stimulating to read the novel while searching for traces of its author. The third and final chapter focuses on the Gothic and on Mary Shelley’s rewriting of the Gothic.