Course Schedule
Readings without a link can be found in the required textbook, unless otherwise noted. Some readings may also be posted to our Blackboard site for the class. If a link does not work, please email me immediately!
Unit 1–Political & Scientific Origins
10.17 Thu
Listen to Class Overview Podcast; Listen to Unit 1 Overview Podcast
10.18 Fri
Read:
- From A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft:
Listen:
- Podcast on Mary Wollstonecraft and Early Feminism
10.21 Mon
Read:
- "Outlines of a View of Galvanism" by Sir Humphry Davy
- "Spontaneous Vitality of Microscopic Animals," From The Temple of Nature by Erasmus Darwin
- "Mary Shelley and the Power of Contemporary Science" by Richard Holmes
- "Frankenstein and Radical Science" by Marilyn Butler
Listen:
- Podcast on Science and Frankenstein
Unit 2–A Party by Lake Geneva
10.24 Thu
Read:
- "Blast from the Past"
- "Tambora, Indonesian Volcano"
- "The Year without a Summer"
- "The Composition of Frankenstein" by M.K. Joseph
Watch:
Listen:
- Podcast on The Composition of Frankenstein
10.25 Fri
Reading Journal Entry #1 Due
10.28 Mon
Read:
- "Mont Blanc" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- "[Sea of Ice]" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- "Darkness" by Lord Byron
- "Prometheus" by Lord Byron
- "From Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III" by Lord Byron
Listen:
- Podcast on Romanticism and Frankenstein
11.01 Fri
Reading Journal Entry #2 Due
Read:
- "Letter Prefaced to The Vampyre" by John William Polidori
- The Vampyre by John William Polidori
Listen:
- Podcast on The Vampyre
11.03 Sun
Listen:
- Podcast Introducing Frankenstein
- Podcast Introducing Assignment #1
11.08 Fri
Reading Journal Entry #3 Due
Read:
- "Introduction to Frankenstein, 3rd Edition" by Mary Shelley
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Listen:
- Podcast on Frankenstein
11.11 Mon
Listen:
- Podcast Introducing Assignment #2
11.12 Tue
Assignment #1 Due
Unit 3–Immediate Responses
11.15 Fri
Reading Journal Entry #4 Due
Read:
- Introduction to Presumption
- Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein (Acts I-III) by Richard Brinsley Peake
- Reception, Impact, Adaptation in Norton (pp. 213-270)
Listen:
- Podcast on Presumption
11.18 Mon
Assignment #2 Due
Listen:
- Podcast Introducing Assignment #3
Unit 4–Frankenstein on Film
11.22 Fri
Reading Journal Entry #5 Due
Read:
- "Approaches to Frankenstein [in Film]" by David Pirie
Watch:
Listen:
- Podcast on Early Frankenstein Films.
11.25 Mon
Watch:
-
Young Frankenstein (dir. Mel Brooks, 1974) - X-Files, "The Post-Modern Prometheus" (on Netflix), Season 5, Ep. 5
Listen:
- Podcast on Postmodern Frankenstein Films.
11.27 Wed
Assignment #3 Due
Unit 5–Feminist Frankensteins
12.01 Sun
Reading Journal Entry #6 Due
Read:
- "The Female Gothic" by Ellen Moers
- "Horror's Twin: Mary Shelley's Monstrous Eve" by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar
- "'My Hideous Progeny': The Lady and the Monster" by Mary Poovey
- "Possessing Nature: The Female in Frankenstein" by Anne K. Mellor
Listen:
- Podcast on Feminist Frankestein
- Podcast Introducing Assignment #4
12.04 Wed
Read:
- "No Woman Born" by C.L. Moore
- "That Only a Mother" by Judith Merril
Listen:
- Podcast on Feminist SF and Frankenstein
12.06 Fri
Reading Journal Entry #7 Due
Assignment #4 Due