“From Monster to Cultural Icon: A Cultural Studies Reading of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”
Frankenstein Through the Lens of Cultural Studies: From Revolutionary Births to Popular Culture
Introduction
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was first published in 1818. It is usually read as a Gothic novel, a science-fiction narrative, and a story about a scientist who creates a living being. However, the novel can also be studied through the perspective of Cultural Studies. Cultural Studies examines the relationship between literature and society. It focuses on questions of power, class, identity, race, gender, technology, ideology, and popular culture.
The ResearchGate thinking activity, “A Cultural Studies Approach to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,” encourages us to look at the novel beyond its traditional Gothic interpretation. The activity mainly discusses two areas: “Revolutionary Births” and “The Frankenpheme in Popular Culture.” These sections help us understand the Creature as a figure connected with social inequality, oppression, Othering, scientific development, and cultural anxieties. They also show how the image of Frankenstein has travelled from the original novel into films, popular culture, technology, and contemporary discussions.
A Cultural Studies reading therefore changes a simple question such as “Who is the monster?” into larger questions: Who has power? Who is excluded? Who decides what is normal? What happens when science develops without responsibility?
Frankenstein as a Cultural Text
A literary text is not separate from the society in which it is produced. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein during a period of major political, scientific, and social change. The French Revolution had challenged traditional systems of power, while developments in science encouraged people to think about the possibilities of controlling nature and life.
Victor Frankenstein represents the desire to obtain scientific knowledge and discover the secret of life. He believes that he can achieve something that has never been achieved before. However, after creating the Creature, he becomes frightened and abandons him.
This is important from a Cultural Studies perspective because it raises the question of responsibility and power. Victor has the power to create life, but he does not accept responsibility for what he has created. The Creature, who has no social power, becomes the victim of this irresponsible act.
Therefore, the novel is not simply about a monster. It is also about the relationship between powerful creators and powerless creations.
Part I: Revolutionary Births
The Creature as an Oppressed Figure
The first major area of the activity, “Revolutionary Births,” encourages us to think about the Creature in relation to social and political changes. The Creature can be read as a figure representing people who are socially excluded or oppressed.
Victor creates the Creature, but he does not give him a family, social identity, or place in society. The Creature is immediately abandoned because of his appearance. He is physically different from ordinary human beings, and people react to him with fear.
However, the Creature is not naturally evil. In the beginning, he wants affection, friendship, knowledge, and acceptance. He observes human beings and tries to understand their behaviour. He learns language and develops emotional awareness.
His experience shows that society plays an important role in creating identity. The Creature becomes violent after repeated rejection and suffering. This does not excuse his actions, but it helps us understand the social conditions that influence his development.
Thus, Cultural Studies encourages us to see the Creature not simply as a villain but as a social outsider.
The Creature and the Proletariat
The Creature can also be connected with the idea of the proletariat, or the socially and economically powerless class. Victor belongs to a privileged world of education, wealth, scientific knowledge, and social status. The Creature has none of these advantages.
He has no property, family, employment, or recognised social position. He must secretly observe other people in order to learn about human society.
His relationship with the De Lacey family is especially important. By observing them, he learns language, history, relationships, and human emotions. He hopes that education will help him become accepted.
However, when he reveals himself, he is rejected because of his physical appearance.
This shows that education alone cannot remove social inequality. The Creature can acquire knowledge, but society still refuses to recognise him as an equal human being.
The novel therefore raises questions about class, privilege, social acceptance, and inequality.
Othering and the Creature
One of the most important concepts in Cultural Studies is Othering. The “Other” is a person or group that is represented as different from the dominant group. The Other may be described as strange, dangerous, inferior, or abnormal.
The Creature is a clear example of the Other. He is physically different, and society immediately identifies him as something outside the boundaries of normal humanity.
The people he meets rarely try to understand him. They judge him according to his appearance.
This makes the novel relevant to contemporary issues of discrimination. In real society, people may be treated differently because of their appearance, class, race, nationality, disability, language, or social background.
The Creature therefore makes us question the idea of “normality.”
Who decides what is normal?
Who has the power to define another person as abnormal?
These questions demonstrate why Frankenstein can be studied through Cultural Studies.
Race, Imperialism and the Other
The Creature can also be examined through questions of race and imperialism. Cultural Studies often studies how dominant groups construct identities by representing other groups as inferior or threatening.
Colonial ideology frequently created a distinction between the powerful “Self” and the supposedly inferior “Other.” The colonised people were often represented as primitive or uncivilised.
A similar pattern can be observed in the treatment of the Creature. He is denied membership in the human community because he is seen as different and frightening.
Although the Creature is not literally a colonised person, his position allows us to discuss how societies construct outsiders. His lack of social power makes him dependent on the dominant society for recognition.
This interpretation also connects with postcolonial ideas about voice, identity, exclusion, and representation.
Science, Technology and Responsibility
Another important Cultural Studies issue in Frankenstein is the relationship between science and society.
Victor Frankenstein wants to discover the secret of life. His ambition represents the possibilities of scientific progress. However, Shelley also shows the dangers of scientific knowledge when it is separated from ethical responsibility.
Victor is interested in the process of creation, but he does not consider what will happen after the Creature comes to life.
This idea is still relevant today. Modern society is developing rapidly in areas such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, genetic engineering, robotics, and cloning.
Frankenstein does not simply say that science is bad. Instead, it asks an important question:
What responsibilities come with scientific power?
The central problem is not knowledge itself but the failure to think about the consequences of knowledge.
Victor’s greatest failure is therefore his lack of responsibility towards his creation.
Part II: The Frankenpheme in Popular Culture
Meaning of the Frankenpheme
The second major part of the activity focuses on the “Frankenpheme in Popular Culture.” The idea of the Frankenpheme helps us understand how elements of Frankenstein have become cultural symbols that appear in different forms of media.
Today, Frankenstein is much more than the title of Mary Shelley’s novel. The word can suggest a scientist, a laboratory, a monster, artificial creation, dangerous technology, or an experiment that has gone wrong.
The original literary story has therefore become part of popular cultural imagination.
This shows how literature can move beyond the original text and develop new meanings.
Frankenstein in Film
Film has played an important role in transforming the image of Frankenstein.
Many people know Frankenstein through films rather than through Shelley’s original novel. Film adaptations have created different visual images of the Creature and Victor Frankenstein.
Some adaptations emphasise horror and fear, while others focus on science, comedy, identity, or ethical questions.
For example, Young Frankenstein transforms the story through comedy, while other adaptations present the Creature as a tragic or sympathetic figure.
This demonstrates an important principle of Cultural Studies: meanings change according to cultural context.
An adaptation does not simply reproduce the original story. It interprets the story according to the concerns of a particular time.
Frankenstein and Modern Technology
The Frankenstein idea is also used in contemporary discussions about technology.
When a new technology creates unexpected or dangerous consequences, people sometimes use the idea of “Frankenstein” to describe it. This can be seen in discussions about artificial intelligence, biotechnology, genetic modification, and other forms of technological development.
The connection exists because Shelley’s novel raises a basic question about human creation:
If human beings create something powerful, who is responsible for its consequences?
This question is particularly important in the modern technological world.
For example, artificial intelligence can be useful in education, communication, research, and many other fields. At the same time, society must consider questions of responsibility, control, privacy, bias, and ethical use.
In this way, the Frankenstein story continues to provide a cultural framework for discussing technological anxiety.
The Creature and Education
Education is another important theme in the novel.
The Creature learns by observing the De Lacey family and by reading. Through education, he learns language, history, emotions, and social relationships.
His education makes him more human in his understanding, but society still refuses to accept him.
This creates an important contrast:
The Creature becomes educated, but he does not become accepted.
This suggests that social equality requires more than individual education. It also requires society to question prejudice and exclusion.
From a Cultural Studies perspective, this can be connected with questions about who has access to knowledge and who is allowed to participate in society.
Who Is the Real Monster?
One of the most important questions raised by the novel is the question of the real monster.
Victor sees the Creature as a monster. Society also sees him as a monster. However, the Creature's story shows that he initially wants companionship and acceptance.
At the same time, Victor's actions create suffering because he creates life without considering his responsibilities.
Therefore, the novel does not offer a simple division between good and evil.
The Creature's violence is wrong, but his suffering cannot be ignored. Victor is not simply a hero because he is human, and the Creature is not simply evil because he is physically different.
This complexity makes the novel especially useful for Cultural Studies.
Instead of accepting society's definition of the “monster,” readers are encouraged to examine the social and cultural processes that produce exclusion.
Frankenstein and Contemporary Culture
The continuing popularity of Frankenstein demonstrates the power of literature to adapt to changing cultures.
In Shelley’s period, the novel reflected concerns about scientific discovery, political revolution, industrial change, and human ambition.
Today, the same story can be connected with artificial intelligence, biotechnology, genetic engineering, robotics, environmental problems, and technological responsibility.
The meaning of Frankenstein therefore changes according to the questions of each generation.
This is why the concept of the Frankenpheme is important. The Frankenstein story has become a cultural idea that can be reused in new contexts.
It can appear in films, television, advertisements, literature, science discussions, political debates, and internet culture.
The story survives because it represents a universal human concern: the desire to create something new and the responsibility that follows creation.
Conclusion
A Cultural Studies approach to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein allows us to understand the novel from a wider social and cultural perspective. Instead of reading it only as a Gothic story about a scientist and his monster, we can examine its connections with class, power, Othering, identity, race, imperialism, science, technology, education, and popular culture.
The idea of “Revolutionary Births” helps us understand the Creature as a figure of social exclusion and powerlessness. His experience can be connected with the proletariat, the Other, and people who are rejected by dominant society.
The idea of “The Frankenpheme in Popular Culture” shows how the story has moved beyond the original novel. Frankenstein has become a cultural symbol used in films, literature, technology, and contemporary debates.
The most significant lesson of the novel is that creation must be accompanied by responsibility. Victor Frankenstein creates life but refuses to take responsibility for his creation. His failure creates suffering for both the Creature and himself.
At the same time, the Creature teaches us about the dangers of social rejection. He is not born with a simple identity of “monster”; his identity develops through his experiences with society.
Therefore, Frankenstein continues to be relevant because it asks questions that are still important today:
Who has the power to create? Who has the power to define what is normal? Who is allowed to belong? And who is responsible for the consequences of human progress?
Through Cultural Studies, Frankenstein becomes more than a story of horror. It becomes a study of society itself. Its continuing presence in popular culture proves that literature can cross historical boundaries and acquire new meanings in changing cultural contexts.
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