Considering Reception: The Definition of What an Artist is Not in Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus

Samia Ounoughi (1)

1 LERMA - Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherche sur le Monde Anglophone

Once Frankenstein has completed his creation, he becomes the first recipient of his work and he faces failure after months of hard work. This feeling, he has not anticipated. Besides, every single character the creature shall meet will see it/him as a monster, no matter how hard the creature tries not to appear monstrous. Why is it so? Mary Shelley accepted the challenge from Lord Byron and afterwards wrote with the aim to render the story thrilling. Writing Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, she had to anticipate the reception of her text. Thus Frankenstein conveys seminal questions related to the reception of art. Mary Shelley's 'hideous progeny' as she calls her book, recounts the experience of reception she wanted to avoid for her text. The creative process and the rejection of the creature by Victor demonstrate how he ignored the reception of his creature. Mary Shelley's novel shows us how and why reception does not come after a work is achieved, but that it lays at the foundation of an artist's work. If reception is not considered, neither art, nor the artist can be complete. By going through the various aspects of this incompleteness, I will show how Mary Shelley defines the work of an artist, which involves the precedence of reception over creation. In Frankenstein, the figure of the artist is embodied by Robert Walton and by Victor Frankenstein. The former, who dreams to become a great writer, meets Frankenstein and secretly writes his story. He constantly refers to the readers and addresses them to convince them they will love his text. Walton once failed as a writer, but listening to Frankenstein, he learns to take the recipient into account. Indeed, Frankenstein never takes his creature's potential recipients into account-not even himself, hence the 'How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form?' (61)

Domaines: Linguistique; Littératures

Samia Ounoughi. Considering Reception: The Definition of What an Artist is Not in Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. Frankenstein Galvanized, 2012, 9781909086012. ⟨hal-01912632⟩