Traumatic Procreations: Frankenstein, Heterophobia, and the Fear of (Re)production
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Frankenstein, birthed within an extraordinary sequence of pregnancy, childbirth, and child loss for its author Mary Shelley, has long been placed alongside Shelley’s biography to discuss how issues of reproduction and parental responsibility inflect the “creation” of human life. Procreation in Frankenstein is complex: whether the creation of humans involves electricity, magnetism, or any number of electric human emotions such as lust, “the cause of generation and life” remains mysterious and ineffable. Procreation also carries ongoing responsibilities—childcare, education, a creator’s responsibility toward his progeny—which not all creators are willing to acknowledge. Victor Frankenstein, in a particularly bad case of fathering, flees from his “baby” the first time he sets eyes on it. As soon as the creature is animated, Victor feels a tremendous revulsion, against the science that led him to his act, against the acknowledgement of his paternity, and against the creature itself. What might be the causes of Victor’s revulsion? Such causes can be found, I suggest, in the creature’s incarnation of difference (racial, sexual, and otherwise), and Victor’s own heterophobia.
Abstract
Frankenstein, birthed within an extraordinary sequence of pregnancy, childbirth, and child loss for its author Mary Shelley, has long been placed alongside Shelley’s biography to discuss how issues of reproduction and parental responsibility inflect the “creation” of human life. Procreation in Frankenstein is complex: whether the creation of humans involves electricity, magnetism, or any number of electric human emotions such as lust, “the cause of generation and life” remains mysterious and ineffable. Procreation also carries ongoing responsibilities—childcare, education, a creator’s responsibility toward his progeny—which not all creators are willing to acknowledge. Victor Frankenstein, in a particularly bad case of fathering, flees from his “baby” the first time he sets eyes on it. As soon as the creature is animated, Victor feels a tremendous revulsion, against the science that led him to his act, against the acknowledgement of his paternity, and against the creature itself. What might be the causes of Victor’s revulsion? Such causes can be found, I suggest, in the creature’s incarnation of difference (racial, sexual, and otherwise), and Victor’s own heterophobia.
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