Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is neither the first nor the only tale of the artificial human, but it is certainly the most influential fictional exploration of that theme. The first half of our seminar will be reserved for an in-depth reading of Shelley's novel, attending to a range of formal, ideological and ethical issues raised by that text. In the second part of the semester we will discuss a number of contemporary adaptations and rewritings including Jeannette Winterson's Frankissstein, Ahmed Saadawi's Frankenstein in Baghdad, and Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun. In the course of our readings of these recent rewritings, we will try to find out what aspects of Shelley's original appear to be most relevant, challenging or pertinent to present-day speculations on what it means to be (a) human.
Compulsory readings include:
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Jeannette Winterson, Frankissstein
Ahmed Saadawi, Frankenstein in Baghdad
Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun.
- Kursleiter*in: Dirk Wiemann