Thinking Activity: A Cultural Studies Approach to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Thinking Activity: A Cultural Studies Approach to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

This blog is created as part of thinking activity given by Prof. Dilip Barad from MKBU. It explores Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein and examines its impact on cultural studies. For additional details, please refer to the Teacher’s Blog.

Part 1: Revolutionary Births

The Creature as Proletarian

How does the Creature’s paradoxical nature—simultaneously an innocent and a vengeful force—comment on societal fears of revolution and sympathy for the suffering masses?

The creature’s mix of innocence and anger kind of mirrors how society views revolutions and the struggles of people who’ve been oppressed. Because he looks and acts differently, society immediately sees him as a threat. This idea taps into how the world can be quick to label anyone who doesn’t fit in as dangerous or rebellious.

But if we look at him from a postcolonial angle, his innocence becomes clear. He’s just reacting to the way the world treats him, with hardly any real choices. When his creator leaves him alone, it’s a lot like how marginalized groups—like enslaved people or colonized communities—are treated as outsiders. Society often stereotypes them as “dangerous” just because they’re different. So, the creature ends up representing how the oppressed might react, not out of inherent anger but out of a real need to be seen and understood.

A Race of Devils 

How does Shelley’s narrative engage with concepts of race and empire, and how might these issues be relevant today in global discourses on race and privilege?

In Frankenstein, Shelley digs into ideas of race and empire by making the creature an “Other”—someone everyone fears and isolates just because he looks and acts differently. This idea reflects how colonial powers have historically treated racial and ethnic groups, dehumanizing them simply for being different. Victor Frankenstein’s reaction to his creation is a lot like the attitude of colonizers: he’s focused on gaining knowledge and power but doesn’t care about the responsibilities that come with it. He’s afraid of the creature because he’s unfamiliar, and this mirrors how colonial societies rejected and marginalized other races and cultures.

Shelley’s story brings out how treating certain people as “outsiders” often leads to isolation, which can spiral into rebellion. In history, marginalized groups who were alienated and treated unfairly often pushed back, resisting the systems that labeled them as less than human. These themes still hit home today, as conversations about race, privilege, and power are still very much alive. Systemic racism and the exclusion of marginalized groups show that the effects of colonialism are still around, shaping how power and privilege are distributed. Shelley's story pushes readers to think about empathy, inclusion, and taking responsibility for those we view as “other,” which are essential values if we want to address today’s racial inequalities.

From Natural Philosophy to Cyborg 

How do modern scientific advancements parallel the novel's cautionary tale of human hubris, and what lessons can we learn from it?

Today’s big leaps in science reflect the warnings in Frankenstein about what can happen when human ambition isn’t kept in check. The novel shows the risks of pushing limits without considering the consequences, and we’re seeing similar issues now with advances in things like gene editing and AI. As we start to modify genes to potentially shape future generations or develop AI that could someday operate beyond our control, people are becoming worried about where this might lead. There’s this feeling that, even though these advancements seem exciting, they could end up causing serious problems if not handled responsibly.

A lot of stories—books, movies, and more—have been made that deal with the same ideas, like robots taking over or genetically modified humans creating issues we can’t fully predict. This idea is similar to Frankenstein: if we create something powerful or intelligent, we also take on the responsibility to make sure it doesn’t end up causing harm. In pursuing new tech, we need to think not just about what we can do, but what we should do, making sure we don’t create things that could come back to harm society.