William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelly, and Their offspring, Victor Frankenstein

169 Pages·2016·36.38 MB·English

by  Gonul Bakay

WILLIAM GODWIN,
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT,
MARY SHELLEY, AND THEIR OFFSPRING,
VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN
A Family of Rebels

WILLIA~'I GODWIN,
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT,
MARY SHELLEY, AND THEIR OFFSPRING,
VICTOR FRANI<:ENSTEIN
A Family of Rebels
Gonlil Bakay
With a Foreword by
Mihaela Irimia
The Edwin Mellen Press
Lewiston* Lampeter
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bakay, Gonnl.
Title: William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, and their
offspring, Victor Frankenstein : a family of rebels I Gonnl Bakay ; with a
foreword by Mihaela lrimia.
Description: Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2016. I Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 20160108101 ISBN 9781495504525 (hardcover) I ISBN
1495504522 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Godwin, William, 1756-1836-Family. I Wollstonecraft,
Mary, 1759-1797-Family. I Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851.
Franlcenstein. I Authors, English-18th century-Biography. I Anarchism in
literature. 1 Frankenstein, Victor (Fictitious character). I Frankenstein's
monster (Fictitious character).
Classification: LCC PR4723.B35 20161 DDC 828/.609 [B]--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.aov/2016010810
hors serie.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
o
Copyright 2016 Gonnl Bakay
All rights reserved. For information contact
The Edwin Mellen Press The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd
Box450 Lampeter,
Lewiston, New York Ceredigion, Wales
USA 14092-0450 UNITED KINGDOM SA48 8LT
Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents
Foreword by Prof. Mihaela Irimia I
m
Preface
Introduction 6
Chapter 1: The Apostle of Philosophical Anarchism: William
Godwin 20
Godwin's General Philosophy 24
An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice 28
Reception ofP olitical Justice 38
Other Works 41
47
~m
Chapter 2: Mary Wollstonecraft 52
A Vindication oft he Rights ofWoman 58
Other Works 75
Chapter 3: Mary Shelley 85
Life 87
Other Works 92
Chapter 4: Frankenstein 105
Victor Frankenstein: The Making of a Fallen God 109
us
Frankenstein's Monster or Victim?
The Monster and His Creator 122
Feminist Criticism of Frankenstein 127
Conclusion 138
Works Cited .149
Index 151

FOREWORD
Tile Long Eighteenth Century has been approached from such an
amazing number and variety of critical stances and viewpoints
1hat even outstanding names like that of William Godwin, Mary
WoUstonecraft, Mary Shelley and, indeed, Percy Bysshe Shelley
have witnessed exciting revaluations in recent years. More than
ever since the late 1990s, these have been of the engage critical
agenda nature, whether in terms of Colonila!Postcolonial,
Feminist or Cultural Identity Studies. Little wonder works by anti
Establishment writers like the ones apprOOched in this book have
kept leading positions on the current critical list.
Tile present study carries as direct a title as it is indicative of
cultural mutations at the individual and collective level: A Family
of Rebels: William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley
and Their Offspring, Victor Frankenstein. Its author, the
distinguished intellectual and academic GooUl Bakay based in
Istanbul and culturally alert to West(em)-East(ern) cultural
relations, takes on board facts and details of the lives of the
above-mentioned authors' only to pursue their surfucing and role
in the literary life of their works, with special emphasis on
subversive, progressive and alternative views advanced by their
"family of rebels". Thus, the celebrated thinker and political
philosopher William Godwin, his beloved fWlcee and, for too
short a while, wife, Mary Wollstonecraft, their daughter, the
remarkable Mary Shelley (nee Wollstonecraft Godwin) and the
literary-cultural son of their symbolic family, Victor Frankenstein
feature as a set of historical-cultural specimens able to impress
and stir audiences at a time of revived gothic interest and curiosity
fo:r the dark side of humanity's existence.
I
In so doing. OOOUI Bakay's book brings up the issue of
anarchism, so much on the daily agenda of intemati~ life these
days, the demographic question, again, from our vantage point,
the problematic of political justice and, by the same token,
feminine and fetninist identity issues in the context. These,
alongside renewed fascination with gothic subjects, have kept
critical attention and general awareness awake and have not fililed.
to increase the numbers of those desirous to pursue their
~ mctual and actual deployment in our lives. It is from
this particular perspective that this book can be read with a view
to making the Long Eigbteefttb. Centmy an even longer and more
exciting interval in our cultural history.
I do not doubt but it will meet with exciting responses from its
readers and critics and would like to recommend it to a variegated
potential readership.
Pntt: Milaaela lrimia, PhD
University ofBadum.st
n