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Cultural Study Unit 3&4-CS is applied in the reading- “Frankenstein”

   Cultural Study

                      Unit 3&4 


This blog is written on the ground as a task assigned by H.O.D Dilip Barad sir Department of English M.K.B.U. In this particular blog  write about Cultural study is applied in the reading of the novel “Frankeinstein”. 




Cultural study


Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field of academic inquiry that emerged in the late 20th century and encompasses a wide range of topics related to culture, society, and power. It draws on theories and methods from various disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, literary theory, media studies, and cultural anthropology, to analyze and interpret the ways in which culture shapes and is shaped by social, political, economic, and historical factors.



Cultural study is applied in the reading of the novel “Frankenstein”



Cultural Studies, as an interdisciplinary field, provides a valuable lens through which to analyze and interpret literary works such as Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." By employing Cultural Studies in the examination of this classic novel, we can explore the intricate connections between the text and the socio-cultural context in which it was written. 


This approach allows for a nuanced understanding of the novel's themes, characters, and overall narrative, as well as its broader implications within the cultural landscape of the time.


One aspect of Cultural Studies that proves particularly insightful in the analysis of "Frankenstein" is the examination of the historical and social milieu in which Mary Shelley lived. The early 19th century was marked by significant scientific and technological advancements, as well as profound societal changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. 


These developments deeply influenced the novel, as evidenced by Victor Frankenstein's ambitious pursuit of scientific knowledge and his creation of the creature through unconventional and morally ambiguous means.


Moreover, Cultural Studies invites us to consider the novel's engagement with broader cultural discourses of its time, including debates surrounding ethics, morality, and the consequences of unchecked scientific progress. 


Victor Frankenstein's creation of the monster raises ethical questions about the limits of human ambition and the responsibilities that come with scientific discovery. The creature's experiences and struggles, such as his alienation and quest for identity, reflect broader societal anxieties and challenges during the Romantic era.


Cultural Studies also allows for an exploration of how "Frankenstein" has been received and interpreted over time. The novel has become a cultural touchstone, inspiring various adaptations in literature, film, and other media. Analyzing these adaptations through a cultural lens enables us to understand how the themes of the novel continue to resonate and evolve within different cultural and historical contexts.


Furthermore, Cultural Studies facilitates an examination of the novel's treatment of gender roles and relationships. Mary Shelley, as a woman writing in a predominantly male literary landscape, subtly challenges and engages with contemporary gender norms. The character of Elizabeth, for instance, provides an avenue for exploring societal expectations placed on women during the Romantic era.


In conclusion, applying Cultural Studies to the reading of "Frankenstein" enriches our understanding of the novel by situating it within its historical, social, and cultural context. This approach allows us to appreciate the complexities of Mary Shelley's work and its enduring relevance, as well as the ways in which it contributes to ongoing cultural conversations about science, ethics, and human nature.



"Frankenstein, " explores Shelley's conflicted and ambivalent relationship to both her parents, one dead and the other very much alive. Knoepflmacher states: "Frankenstein resurrects and rearranges an adolescent's conflicting emotions about her relation both to the dead mother she idealized and mourned and to the living, 'sententious and authoritative' father-philosopher. She admired and deeply resented his imperfect attempts at 'moulding' Mary Wollstonecraft's two daughters."


 His psycho-biographical approach to the work widened its readership by aligning it with the psychomachias written by such canonical male romantic poets as Percy Shelley, William Blake, and even Samuel Taylor Coleridge. By seeing the novel as essentially a "war within the mind" of the central character, in this case Victor functioning as a stand-in for Mary Shelley herself, literary critics like Knoepflmacher placed the work clearly within a recognizable Romantic framework. In 1979, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar also published their groundbreaking study of nineteenth-century women writers.



 The Madwoman in the Attic. Gilbert and Gubar interpret Frankenstein as a "Romantic 'reading' of Paradise Lost," with Victor alternately playing the roles of Adam, Satan, and Eve. The first two roles had become fairly standard topics of discussion in the criticism of the novel, but the last role, "Victor-as-Eve," was to assume a distinctly important function in the evolution of American feminist approaches to the work. 


Gilbert and Gubar's theory about the anxieties that plague a woman writer informs their approach to Frankenstein as "a waking dream . .. a Romantic novel about- among other things Romanticism, as well as a book about books and perhaps, too, about the writers of books." With this approach, the specter of Mary Wollstonecraft - a woman plagued by her attempts to reconcile the needs of her mind with her body  begins to haunt their account: "For this orphaned literary heiress, highly charged connections between femaleness and literariness must have been established early, and established specifically in relation to the controversial figure of her dead mother." 


Gilbert and Gubar coined the term "bibliogenesis " to capture their sense of Shelley's  "fantasy of sex and reading," that she brought herself to birth not through a human mother, but through the reading and consumption of books which" functioned as her surrogate parents."



Cite : 


Open AI. "Chat GPT-3.5".


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