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‘Mary Shelley’s Sublime Bodies: "Frankenstein", "Matilda", "The Last Man"'

Steven Vine

English, Volume: 55, Issue: 212, Pages: 141 - 156

Swansea University Author: Steven Vine

Abstract

Feminist readings of Mary Shelley have shown how her work critiques the values of ‘masculine’ Romanticism, in particular the transcendences of mind and the sovereignty of self. The essay examines how Shelley’s early fictions - 'Frankenstein' (1818), 'Matilda (1819) and 'The Last...

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Published in: English
Published: 2006
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa17984
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first_indexed 2014-05-16T01:30:07Z
last_indexed 2018-02-09T04:52:08Z
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spelling 2014-05-15T17:20:42.6437181 v2 17984 2014-05-15 ‘Mary Shelley’s Sublime Bodies: "Frankenstein", "Matilda", "The Last Man"' 8adad05ceecbaab7f4b2be512149b4d7 Steven Vine Steven Vine true false 2014-05-15 FGHSS Feminist readings of Mary Shelley have shown how her work critiques the values of ‘masculine’ Romanticism, in particular the transcendences of mind and the sovereignty of self. The essay examines how Shelley’s early fictions - 'Frankenstein' (1818), 'Matilda (1819) and 'The Last Man' (1826) - mount this critique on the privileged terrain of male Romantic transcendence: the ‘sublime’. It 'argues that Shelley does not reject the sublime, but appropriates it so as to disclose what the idealising masculine sublime - typified in Kant’s version - represses: woman and the body. The essay suggests that monstrosity in 'Frankenstein', melancholy in 'Matilda' and plague in 'The Last Man' construct a ‘feminist’ sublime that draws attention to what is ‘abjected’, in Julia Kristeva’s terms, from patriarchal Romanticism - to what, in Lyotardian manner, is ‘unpresentable’ within it. Mary Shelley’s ‘sublime bodies’ bear witness to the feminine repressed of patriarchal Romantic idealism. Journal Article English 55 212 141 156 29 8 2006 2006-08-29 COLLEGE NANME Humanities and Social Sciences - Faculty COLLEGE CODE FGHSS Swansea University 2014-05-15T17:20:42.6437181 2014-05-15T17:20:42.6437181 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Culture and Communication - English Language, Tesol, Applied Linguistics Steven Vine 1
title ‘Mary Shelley’s Sublime Bodies: "Frankenstein", "Matilda", "The Last Man"'
spellingShingle ‘Mary Shelley’s Sublime Bodies: "Frankenstein", "Matilda", "The Last Man"'
Steven Vine
title_short ‘Mary Shelley’s Sublime Bodies: "Frankenstein", "Matilda", "The Last Man"'
title_full ‘Mary Shelley’s Sublime Bodies: "Frankenstein", "Matilda", "The Last Man"'
title_fullStr ‘Mary Shelley’s Sublime Bodies: "Frankenstein", "Matilda", "The Last Man"'
title_full_unstemmed ‘Mary Shelley’s Sublime Bodies: "Frankenstein", "Matilda", "The Last Man"'
title_sort ‘Mary Shelley’s Sublime Bodies: "Frankenstein", "Matilda", "The Last Man"'
author_id_str_mv 8adad05ceecbaab7f4b2be512149b4d7
author_id_fullname_str_mv 8adad05ceecbaab7f4b2be512149b4d7_***_Steven Vine
author Steven Vine
author2 Steven Vine
format Journal article
container_title English
container_volume 55
container_issue 212
container_start_page 141
publishDate 2006
institution Swansea University
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Culture and Communication - English Language, Tesol, Applied Linguistics{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Culture and Communication - English Language, Tesol, Applied Linguistics
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description Feminist readings of Mary Shelley have shown how her work critiques the values of ‘masculine’ Romanticism, in particular the transcendences of mind and the sovereignty of self. The essay examines how Shelley’s early fictions - 'Frankenstein' (1818), 'Matilda (1819) and 'The Last Man' (1826) - mount this critique on the privileged terrain of male Romantic transcendence: the ‘sublime’. It 'argues that Shelley does not reject the sublime, but appropriates it so as to disclose what the idealising masculine sublime - typified in Kant’s version - represses: woman and the body. The essay suggests that monstrosity in 'Frankenstein', melancholy in 'Matilda' and plague in 'The Last Man' construct a ‘feminist’ sublime that draws attention to what is ‘abjected’, in Julia Kristeva’s terms, from patriarchal Romanticism - to what, in Lyotardian manner, is ‘unpresentable’ within it. Mary Shelley’s ‘sublime bodies’ bear witness to the feminine repressed of patriarchal Romantic idealism.
published_date 2006-08-29T03:20:58Z
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