Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley were both famous and infamous in their own time for their writing as well as for the lives they lived. Today, thanks to feminist criticism in the 1970s, Mary Shelley’s novel, /Frankenstein,/ is a canonical text for any English major. Percy Shelley, previous to 1970s always one of the “big six” Romantic (read male) poets, is perhaps himself not less famous, but his works are certainly less read. In this seminar, participants will read the famous /Frankenstein/ and the much less well known play by Shelley, /The Cenci./ Both works are about family and monstrosity; both are tragedies. Studied together they comprise a primer in what is called British Romantic literature as well as a way to understand this famous and complex literary couple.
Seminar led by Mary Finn, Northwestern University