Frankenstein as a Modern Cyborg? Essays -- Frankenstein essays

Frankenstein as a Modern Cyborg? The creature (demon) created by Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus occupies a space that is neither quite masculine nor quite feminine, although he is clearly both created as a male and desires to be in the masculine role. Judith Halberstam describes this in-between-ness as being one of the primary characteristics of the Gothic monster--being in a space thats not easily sort or categorized, and therefore being rendered unintelligible and monstrous. Donna J. Haraway posits that the post-modern science fiction cyborg occupies a similar in-between space, or, perhaps, a non-space. Similarly, Cathy Griggs argues that the post-modern sapphic is linked to this notion of the cyborg. The lesbian is rendered monstrous in social discourse by her desire to ascend into the phallic privilege, connecting this in-between-ness as both a monstrous trait and a cybernetic one. Further, the transgender man (female-to-male) occ upies a similar discursive space and provides us with a post-modern link to Frankensteins creature, as both are surgically constructed men, a construction that, in the eyes of society, renders them monstrous (particularly for trans-men who cant pass). Frankensteins creature embodies gender transgression on two levels, both of which are the fuel for Victors horror the first being the creatures status as being a surgically constructed male, the second being Victors own gender transgression in co-opting the feminine trait of reproduction, transforming his laboratory into a virtual womb. addicted the scientific origin of the creature, as well as both its and Victors unstable gender, is it possible that the modern Gothic monster pre-fi... ...th. Gender Trouble Feminism and the corruption of Identity. New York Routledge, 1990. Griggers, Cathy. Lesbian Bodies in the Age of (Post)mechanical Reproduction. Fear of a Queer Planet. Ed. Michael Warner. Minneapolis U of Minnesota P, 1993. 178 -192. Halberstam, Judith. Skin Shows Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters. Second ed. shorthorn Duke UP, 1995. Haraway, Donna J. The Promises of Monsters A Regenerative Politics for Inappropriate/d Others. Cultural Studies. Eds. Lawrence Grossberg, Cary Nelson and Paula A. Treichler. New York Routledge, 1992. 295-337. Haraway, Donna J. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women The Reinvention of Nature. New York Routledge, 1991. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. 1983 ed. New York The Penguin Group, 1963. Zizek, Slavoj. The Sublime Object of Ideology. London Verso, 1989.