Allan Lloyd Smith "'This Thing of Darkness': Racial Discourse in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein"

Discussion Questions:
549:

• What, according to Smith, is the significance of the Shelleys' refusal to use sugar?

550:

• What connections does Smith identify between the Creature and Caliban in Shakespeare's The Tempest?

552:

• What, according to Smith, is the significance of Mary Shelley's reading of Mungo Park's Travels in Africa?
• What, according to Smith, is the significance of Mary Shelley's choice to have the Creature made up of different species?

553:

• What connections does Smith make between Frankenstein and Oroonoko?

554:

• In what ways, according to Smith, does the Creature resemble a domestic slave?

555:

• How, according to Smith, does the Creature's narrative resemble a slave narrative?
• What, according to Smith, is the significance of the Creature's self-education?

556:

• How, according to Smith, does Du Bois's concept of double consciousness connect to the novel?

557:

• In what ways, according to Smith, is the Creature like Olauduh Equiano?

559:

• Explain Hegel's conception of the "entanglement of mastery and slavery" (559).

560:

• Explain Smith's claims regarding the Creature's demonstration of the "supposed insatiable desire of black men for white women" (560).

561-62:

• What connections does Smith make between Frankenstein and contemporary views on the San Domingo Rebellion/Haitian Revolution? How is reader-response criticism involved here?

564-65:

• How does Smith incorporate the psychoanalytic perspective at the end of the essay?