On Frankenstein and How (Not) to Be a Queer Parent

Abstract

Reflecting on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) nearly two centuries after its original publication, Ernest Larsen observes that Shelley ‘opened the lid on a new way of thinking about pregnancy – the narrative in which a male gives birth to a monster’ (236). And while we might regard such a narrative as inherently queer, the queerness of Victor Frankenstein’s methods for cultivating life are rarely explored. This article aims to remedy this gap in the abundant scholarship surrounding the novel. In negotiating feminist readings (which have historically highlighted the role of reproduction in the novel while ignoring or indemnifying Victor Frankenstein’s queerness) and queer and trans readings (which better recognise the novel’s alternative affirmations), this work ultimately highlights the novel’s exploration of queer generativity – an effort that is muddied not by the protagonist’s methods but by his own irresponsibility and failures in character. Although the focus of this work remains on the critical response to Frankenstein, it concludes by suggesting ways in which future scholarship might adopt the analytical framework outlined here in further engagement with the text.