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Welcome to Dr. Gross's ENG 312 Topics in the Novel class group!
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Mary Shelley, along with her Husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, spent time in Geneva while she wrote the novel Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus. In the novel, the Frankenstein family is from Geneva. In the preface of the novel Shelley says, “I passed the summer of 1816 in the environs of Geneva. The season was cold and rainy, and in the evenings we crowded around a blazing wood fire” (Shelley). The couple spent a great amount of time at the Villa Diodati in Geneva with Lord Byron due to the inclement weather hindering their travel. According to Bill Phillips, the weather Shelley experienced at Lake Geneva while writing Frankenstein greatly impacted the story and motivated her to write. He says the “gothic gloom of the novel may well be a reflection of the meteorological conditions under which the novel was conceived and written” (Phillips 66). The dark and stormy weather may have also prompted the disastrous consequences the creature experiences. Knowing that the weather...
more(or just about as far north as I can place my dot)
The nineteenth century was a time of exploration and great discovery on a number of fronts. One of the most prominent forms of exploration was geographical exploration of the arctic. Those exploring the arctic in the nineteenth century typically had at least one of four major goals: (1) discovery of the Northwest Passage, (2) reaching the North Pole, (3) navigating across Greenland, (4) finding out what happened to the 1845 John Franklin Expedition (Benjamin). This last goal would not have been one featured in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, as it was written prior to 1845. However, the first two goals were aims of Robert Walton’s expedition party.
The North Pole was not reached by an expedition until 1833, and the Northwest Passage was not navigated until 1906 (“Arctic Exploration Timeline”).
By including Walton’s character as an explorer in a historical context, Shelley creates a point of...
moreCastle Frankenstein is a medieval hilltop castle in the Odenwald overlooking the city of Darmstadt in Germany. “The castle was built before 1250 by Lord Conrad II Reiz of Breuberg” (Castle Frankenstein). He later called himself Frankenstein. His family lived in the castle for 400 years until the seventeenth century when the castle acted as barracks for retired soldiers. The castle then served as a US army base post World War 2. While this castle is not directly mentioned in the novel, the castle was used in the 1931 film adaptation. This is where the doctor had supposedly made his creature instead of the apartment the text mentions. From this point on, the Castle Frankenstein became a must have in all film adaptations of Frankenstein. Not only film, but also in children’s books and other parodies of the novel, the castle is included. While Mary Shelley likely never visited the castle, it was recorded that she took a boat ride down the Rhine River, which...
moreKing Leopold II of Belgium had brutally seized the Congo for resources such as rubber, ivory, and precious metals in the late nineteenth century. Leopold declared the Congo, the "Congo Free State" during its time of Belgian occupation. Rather than colonize the territory as other imperialist countries did, Leopold conquered and privately owned the entire region. His ownership of the land and its native people was determined by the United States and the European powers of the time (Cox).
The Congolese natives were massacred for their land and resources. Though they were cooperative to the Belgian colonizers, they were forced to work as slaves for rubber harvesting. The colonizers also took advantage of the supply of Ivory, and killed masses of the native African forest elephant. The exploitation of the Congolese would continue for approximately two decades, until the atrocities of King Leopold II and his soldiers were revealed to the world ("Belgian Congo").
The...
moreLesotho is a country in Southern Africa that gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1966. The country was occupied by Britain starting in the early nineteenth century as a means of protection from war violence and occupation. The country held a relationship with Britain and France because of its chief, Moshoeshoe, who was a skilled diplomat and politician. Moshoeshoe ushered in the era of the Sotho Kingdom, which lasted until a year prior to Moshoeshoe's death ("Lesotho"). The cross cultural influence between Lisotho and England caused a shift to Christianity in the country, as well as the English language and literature. Thomas Mofolo is one of the most notable modern Basotho authors, publishing adaptations of Basotho stories that were translated into English, allowing the world to become familiar with the culture ("Thomas Mokopu Mofolo"). Chaka, Mofolo's most popular novel, is a semi-historical telling of the major Basotho figure Chaka. As stated by Thomas...
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