Dr. Harriet Kramer Linkin
117 English Building
Office Hours for Spring 2000:
MW 1:30-2:30 (walk-in)
TTH 1:30-3:00 (appointments)
646-2240, hlinkin@nmsu.eduEnglish 424/524--Advanced/Graduate Study in a Major Text
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Spring 2000 Syllabus
Course Description: On a dark and stormy night in 1816 Mary Shelley sat before the fireplace reading ghost stories aloud with Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, Claire Clairmont, and Dr. John Polidori. They decided to have a contest to see who could write the best horror tale. When Mary Shelley woke up terrified by a nightmare vision of a "pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together . . . the hideous phantasm of a man," she knew she had a winner. The next morning she began composing Frankenstein. This class offers a rare opportunity to focus on the texts and contexts of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: the 1818 version, the 1831 version, other works it prompted Shelley to write (including The Last Man), the literary works that inspired her writing (by friends and family like Wollstonecraft, Godwin, Byron, and Shelley), and the works she inspired.
Required Texts at Bookstore:
Shelley, Frankenstein (1818), ed. Macdonald and Scherf, 2nd ed. (Broadview, 1999)
Shelley, The Last Man (1826), ed. McWhir (Broadview, 1999)
Wollstonecraft, Mary and Maria (1788, 1798), Shelley, Matilda (1819), ed. Todd (Penguin, 1993)
Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), (Dover)
Godwin, The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794), ed. Hindle (Penguin, 1988)
Godwin, Memoirs of Mary Wollstonecraft (1798), (Woodstock, 1993)
Bishop, Brittle Innings (Bantam,1995)
Roszak, The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein (Bantam, 1996)
Required Text at Corbett Center Copy:
Aldiss, Frankenstein Unbound (1973), out of print xerox copy
Required Texts Available on the Web:
Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/index.html
Coleridge, Kubla Khan (1816) http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Kubla_Khan.html
Coleridge, Christabel (1816) http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Christabel.html
Wordsworth, Tintern Abbey (1798) http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww138.html
Wordsworth, Nutting (1800) http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww145.html
Wordsworth, Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known (1800) http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww146.html
Wordsworth, She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways (1800) http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww147.html
Wordsworth, I Travelled Among Unknown Men (1800) http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww148.html
Wordsworth, Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower (1800) http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww149.html
Wordsworth, A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal (1800) http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww150.html
Wordsworth, She Was a Phantom of Delight (1807) http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww259.html
Percy Shelley, Alastor (1816) http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/shelley1b.html
Percy Shelley, Mont Blanc (1817) http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/shelley4.html
Byron, Fragment of a Novel (1816) http://www.sff.net/people/DoyleMacdonald/l_frag.htm
Byron, Manfred (1817) http://www.siue.edu/~jvoller/Texts/manfred.html
Polidori, The Vampyre (1817) http://www.sff.net/people/doylemacdonald/l_vampyr.htm
Shelley, The Mortal Immortal (1834) http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/mws/immortal/
Course Assignments and Policies: Graded assignments for the course will consist of two short papers, approximately 5-6 pages in length (each worth 30%) and one longer paper, approximately 8-10 pages (worth 40%). Full details will follow for each of the papers assigned and scheduled below, but please note that I take deadlines very seriously (late papers lose one full grade per class meeting) and find intellectual dishonesty unacceptable (plagiarism means failure). Because the heart of this course is discussion, I expect (and note) timely attendance. Missing more than two classes can affect your final grade adversely; missing three weeks of class can result in failure. Please inform me of any assistance you need to fulfill these requirements or of any circumstances that will affect your ability to give this class your best academic effort (if you have or believe you have a disability, please contact the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities at Garcia Annex for appropriate accommodations). You are responsible for acquiring additional handouts or hearing class announcements on course policies.
Syllabus for Class Meetings, MW 2:30-3:45 in EN 124:
W Jan 12 Introductions
M Jan 17 Martin Luther King Holiday
W Jan 19 Wollstonecraft, Mary, a Fiction (1788) in Todd
M Jan 24 Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
W Jan 26 Godwin, Caleb Williams (1794), vol. 1
M Jan 31 Godwin, Caleb Williams (1794), vol. 2
W Feb 2 Godwin, Caleb Williams (1794), vol. 3
M Feb 7 Wollstonecraft, Maria; or, The Wrongs of Woman (1798) in Todd
W Feb 9 Godwin, Memoirs of Wollstonecraft (1798)
M Feb 14 Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798), Kubla Khan (1816), Christabel (1816)
W Feb 16 Wordsworth, "Tintern Abbey" (1798), "Nutting" (!800), "Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known" (1800), "She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways" (1800), "I Travelled Among Unknown Men" (1800), "Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower" (1800), "A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal" (1800), "She Was a Phantom of Delight" (1807)
M Feb 21 Shelley, Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude (1816), "Mont Blanc" (1817)
W Feb 23 Byron, Fragment of a Novel (1816), Manfred (1817), Polidori, The Vampyre (1817)
**PAPER #1 DUE**
M Feb 28 Shelley, Frankenstein (1818), vol. 1
W Mar 1 Shelley, Frankenstein (1818), vol. 2
M Mar 6 Shelley, Frankenstein (1818), vol. 3
W Mar 8 Shelley, Matilda (1819), in Todd
M Mar 13 Shelley, The Last Man (1826), vol. 1
W Mar 15 Shelley, The Last Man (1826), vol. 2
M Mar 20 Shelley, The Last Man (1826), vol. 3
W Mar 22 Shelley, Frankenstein (1831), in Macdonald & Scherf,
Shelley, The Mortal Immortal (1834) **PAPER #2 DUE**
M Mar 27 Spring Break Holiday
W Mar 29 Spring Break Holiday
M Apr 3 Whale, Frankenstein (1931)
W Apr 5 Whale, Bride of Frankenstein (1934)
M Apr 10 Aldiss, Frankenstein Unbound (1973)
W Apr 12 Branagh, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)
M Apr 17 Bishop, Brittle Innings (1995)
W Apr 19 Bishop, Brittle Innings (1995)
M Apr 24 Roszak, Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein (1996)
W Apr 26 Roszak, Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein (1996)
M May 1 Presentations
W May 3 Presentations **PAPER #3 DUE**
W May 10 Presentations 1:00-3:00
Selected Web Sites:
The Mary Shelley and Frankenstein Resource Center (Kim Woodbridge)
http://www.desert-fairy.com/maryshel.shtml
Online Store | What's New | The Life of Mary Shelley | The Summer of 1816 | Percy Bysshe Shelley | Mary Wollstonecraft | Literary Sources of Frankenstein | The "Birth" of a Monster | Mary Shelley and Knowledge | The Author Is Become a Creator God | Bibliographic Studies on the Work of Mary Shelley | Frankenstein - A Cautionary Tale of Bad Parenting | Links | Sources | Awards | Survey | Home
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Chronology & Resource Site (Shannon Lawson)
http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/mschronology/mws.html
About This Site | Chronology | Reviews | Bibliography | Other Web Resources
Resources for the Study of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Martin Irvine)
http://www.georgetown.edu/irvinemj/english016/franken/franken.html
Electronic Text Editions of the Novel | Works by Mary Wollestonecraft and William Godwin, Mary Shelley's Parents | Works by Percy Shelley, Mary's Husband | Romantic Literature and Cultural Contexts | Film and Video
Fictional Representations of Romantics and Romanticism (Melissa Sites and Neil Fraistat)
http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/ficrep/nassr-sf.html
Frankenstein in Film and Elsewhere (Melissa Sites and Neil Fraistat)