{"id":60769,"date":"2019-10-24T14:01:45","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T18:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=60769"},"modified":"2025-10-20T10:32:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T14:32:37","slug":"frankensteins-monster","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/frankensteins-monster\/","title":{"rendered":"Frankenstein’s Monster"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n
\n\n
<\/div>\n \n
\n
\n\n

\n Frankenstein's Monster\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Halloween is a time for monsters, and this year more than most.  It\u2019s been 200 years since Mary Shelley created one of the greatest of them all: Dr. Frankenstein\u2019s monster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carleton is celebrating Shelley\u2019s creation with an interdisciplinary conference at Carleton\u2019s Dominion-Chalmers Centre<\/a> from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, 2019 and the public is welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Frankenstein's
Prof. James Wright<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted to look at what this classic gothic tale has to teach us today, 200 years later,\u201d says James Wright, a Carleton music professor who is co-chairing the conference with colleagues Alexis Luko and James Deaville.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cThe Frankenstein story reaches into so many domains. It\u2019s one of the original gothic novels, and it contributed to launching an entire art movement. Obviously it influenced literature, but the gothic has also had an enormous impact on film, music and architecture.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The conference kicks off Oct. 31 at 6:30 p.m., with a lecture on the evolving meaning of Gothic architecture by Art History Prof. Peter Coffman, followed that evening and the next by a performance of Andrew Ager\u2019s Frankenstein: the Opera<\/a> with Toronto-based baritone Constantine Meglis in the role of the monster.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Frankenstein's<\/figure>\n\n\n

Frankenstein’s Message Resonates Through the Ages<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of Frankenstein\u2019s key themes continue to resonate in the 21st<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

“The monster of Mary Shelley\u2019s Frankenstein is a great example of a character who is both feared and loved, monstrous and civilized,” says Luko.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

“His transformation is complex.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scholars from Canada, Greece, the United Kingdom and the United States will examine the novel\u2019s impact and implications from diverse perspectives. In Friday\u2019s keynote lecture, Kevin Donnelly of the University of Southampton will explore the aesthetic of psychology in screen Frankensteins, while Saturday\u2019s keynote by Marie Mulvey-Roberts of the University of the West of England will shine a spotlight on sexuality and place in Frankenstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conference will explore many other angles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Frankenstein's
Prof. Alexis Luko<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“It is a text that many people have read or are familiar with from films,” says Deaville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As Mary Shelley wrote it, it provides material for thought about artificial intelligence, automations, robots and cyborgs. It raises questions about life, humanity and disability \u2013 about bodies that function differently.”<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Frankenstein's<\/figure>\n\n\n

Exploring Synesthesia, Mirrored Identities and More<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One surprising type of difference represented in the novel relates to a form of neurodiversity known as synesthesia, in which sensory stimuli are perceived by several senses at once. There are many forms of synesthesia. Some synesthetes experience notes of music as visual colours, others can feel spoken words as touch.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cI was delighted to find that the first-person experiences of Dr. Frankenstein\u2019s monster seem to correlate with a neonatal hypothesis about the origins of synesthesia,\u201d says River Doucette, a recent graduate of Carleton\u2019s Master of Arts in Music and Culture<\/a> program who will present a paper at the event.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cOne theory, developed in the 1980s, posits that the senses of infants are fused together at birth.  As people get older, around the ages of six to nine, their senses typically become more distinct from one another, until they only hear specific sounds as opposed to seeing them or tasting them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Frankenstein's
Composer Andrew Ager<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mary Shelley\u2019s Frankenstein explores a similar idea in a conversation between Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. Asked to reflect on his coming into the world, Dr. Frankenstein\u2019s monster recalls having to learn to distinguish between his senses. In the early days after he\u2019d been created, he had seen, smelled and heard all at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Synesthesia was not well-known in the 19th<\/sup> century, and Doucette\u2019s presentation will also explore how that\u2019s changed.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cWith shifts in contemporary society, we have seen a lot more research on synesthesia,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI’ve also seen it in media representations of individuals with superpowers, especially in film and TV. It\u2019s interesting to explore the idea of mirrored identities captured in these representations. I’m also looking into cases where children are being institutionalized when synesthesia is misdiagnosed as psychosis, or when other instances of neurodiversity continue to be understood as deviance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Halloween is a time for monsters, and this year more than most.  It\u2019s been 200 years since Mary Shelley created one of the greatest of them all: Dr. Frankenstein\u2019s monster. Carleton is celebrating Shelley\u2019s creation with an interdisciplinary conference at Carleton\u2019s Dominion-Chalmers Centre from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, 2019 and the public is welcome. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":60780,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[1933],"cu_story_tag":[1920],"class_list":["post-60769","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-art-culture","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-arts-and-social-sciences"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/60769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/60769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98466,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/60769\/revisions\/98466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=60769"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=60769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}