Monsters of modernity: Frankenstein and modern environmentalism

Abstract

The story of Frankenstein is often interpreted and mobilized as a powerful and popular symbol of concerns over the risks and dangers of science, progressive modernity and its ensuing technological creations, and - as in the recent GM ‘Frankenstein food’ debate - the dangers of ‘messing with nature’ or ‘playing God’. Shelley’s narrative is seen to symbolize Romantic fears, offering a dystopic tale of certain demise, one that demonizes technology in the form of Frankenstein’s ‘monster’. Such interpretations and mobilizations align the myth of Frankenstein with the neo-Romantic, conservative, nostalgic and counter-modern currents of elements of deep green, ecobiocentric ideology. In contrast, and in the context of contemporary environmental discourses, this paper offers a reading of Frankenstein as a critical questioning of both anti-Enlightenment Romanticism and anti-Enlightenment science that provides a framework for evaluating contemporary ecobiocentric ideals. Frankenstein is not an outdated tale. Shelley’s novel is characterized and punctuated by a subtle and sophisticated appreciation of the vital role of social relations in determining the nature, direction, products and consequences of science and technology. The tale of Frankenstein presents a challenge to the usual anti-modernist, anti-science, pro-nature alignments of the Frankenstein myth, drawing our attention instead to important questions about what kind of socio-nature we want produced, by whom, for what purposes and under what conditions.