Open AccessDr. Frankestein and the Birth of Horror
Author(s) -
Andrey Vaganov
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
upravlenie naukoj: teoriâ i praktika
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2686-827X
DOI - 10.19181/smtp.2021.3.3.10
Subject(s) - genius , archetype , literature , narrative , theme (computing) , natural (archaeology) , rhetoric , plot (graphics) , art , philosophy , aesthetics , art history , history , linguistics , computer science , statistics , mathematics , archaeology , operating system
In the spring of 1818, a novel was published in England, which became the starting point of a new literary genre. The name of the discovered type of literature is sci-fi horror. The creator of sci-fi horror – Mary Shelley – was at that time only 21 years old. Even the title of the novel became today the common noun is “Frankenstein, or Modern Prometheus”. “Archetype of horror”– this is how literary critics say about this work. The article attempts to prove and show that the entire plot of the novel is based on discoveries made at that time in the science of electrical phenomena. The article also tells about experiments with electricity, conducted by scientists in the 18th – early 19th centuries, and their perception by contemporaries. Thewhole structure, narrative of the novel, its rhetoric and even expressive artistic means are all works on the idea of bringing the natural-scientific basis under the absolutely seemingly fantastic plan. But, moreover, the novel can be viewed as a work of genius, foreseeing the emergence of what will be called molecular biology and genetic engineering.