Frankenstein: Defining the Monster

Mary Shelley’s classic has been a literary touchstone for generations, as well as an inspiration for myriad filmmakers, graphic novelists, and costume designers. For Heather Keenleyside, University of Chicago professor of English, this text is also one of modernity’s central myths, a unique lens through which to understand the anxieties and aspirations of a rapidly changing civilization. In the wake of Frankenstein’s publication in 1818, what it meant to be human was no longer clear. To give us added perspective, Keenleyside frames the novel within the intellectual context of the Enlightenment and contemporary society’s approach to issues of monstrosity and animal embodiment. This program is presented as part of the annual Karla Scherer Endowed Lecture Series for the University of Chicago.