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 betweenFrankenstein
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?