Paper Topic:

mary shelleys creation of Frankenstein

MACROBUTTON NoMacro [Insert Names of Author (s )]

MACROBUTTON NoMacro [Insert Course Identification information here]

MACROBUTTON NoMacro [Insert Submission date here]

Writing from the Center and Margin

An Analysis of Mary Shelley 's Creation of Frankenstein

Women are sociological chameleons they take on the class , lifestyle and culture of their male counterparts . However , it can also be argued that women themselves have formed a subculture within the framework of a nascent society unified by the values , conventions , experiences and behaviors impinging on each individual . Such a subculture is custodial although

a thriving and positive entity (Robbins 13 . It is custodial as it enables the perpetuation of a group 's subordination [it contains a set of opinions , prejudices , tastes , and values prescribed to a subordinate group that enables the perpetuation of its subordination] . A thriving and positive entity , on the other hand , as it enables the formation of self-awareness [such a subculture is seen as fostering the creation of a collective identity outside the conceptual framework of the male culture] . Women , in this sense , may be seen as possessing what Chela Sandoval refers to as an oppositional consciousness : the ability to read and write culture on multiple levels (qtd in Kaplan 187 . Within this situation , the woman is placed on the edge . The edge in this sense , may be seen as a region where there is a potential for isolation and despair but most importantly growth and liberty . Such a situation is captured succinctly by Bell Hooks as she states

Living as we did-on the edge-we developed a particular way of seeing reality . We looked both from outside in and from inside out . We focused our attention on the center as well as on the margin [and hence] we understood both (23

The political situation of margin and center relies on the existence of a conceptual framework where marginal perspectives are perceived not as passive recipients of ready made images and structures (but as complex , sophisticated views ' which filter and mediate other perspectives (Kaplan , 358 . In the process of recreation , local meanings are created which in turn lead the way for the formation of hybrid cultural relics and subjects . Such an occurrence leads to the displacement of identities , persons and meanings . Deleuze and Guattari refer this as the process of deterritorialization (62

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari use the term to locate the moment of alienation and exile in language and literature . In the process of deterritorialization , one is able to achieve the effects of the radical distanciation of the signifier and the signified resulting to the estrangement of meanings and utterances . This defamiliarization enables imagination , even if it produces alienation `to express another community , to force the means for another consciousness and another sensibility (Kaplan , 358 . In the process , we no longer delineate ourselves to specific literatures , which we consider as the works of masters , but what we designate is the revolutionary condition for the formation of a new form of literature which travels and moves between centers and margins...

6 pages

41.0 KB

Free sing-up