“Georeferencing” and Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s narrative strategy (on the material of “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”)

The article approaches the narrative strategy employed by a famous American horror-writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft in his only novel “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” (1927) and introduces new terms – “georeferencing” and “georeference.” By the latter we mean a toponymical allusion, i. e. an implicit reference to the precedential text incorporated in a toponym (e. g. the author mentions Transylvania to make a georeference to Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”). Lovecraft employs georeferencing and other forms of literary allusions to medieval legends, as well as to famous gothic novels written by his predecessors Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, Gustav Meyrink, Bram Stoker, etc. to create a meaningful context for his own novel. His goal is to create a common hypertextual universe, which can and will be productively navigated by a prepared reader. This strategy makes it possible for the reader to uncover hidden logics behind the fragmentary discourse and even foresee the outcome of the central battle between the principal characters. Lovecraft’s sophisticated intention and expert plot-structuring allows us to view “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” as a daring Modernist writing of the period, as well as to reassess Lovecraft’s reputation and cultural impact on the US literature of his time.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley conceived of the central idea for Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus—most often referred to simply as Frankenstein—during the summer of 1816 while vacationing on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. It is her first and most famous novel. Although the assertion is debatable, some scholars have argued that Frankenstein is the first work of modern science fiction. Shelley was inspired to write Frankenstein in response to a “ghost story” writing contest between herself, Percy Shelley, Percy Shelley’s physician and friend John Polidori, and Lord Byron, who were trapped indoors reading German ghost stories as the result of inclement weather. Polidori’s contribution to this contest, “The Vampyre: A Tale” (1819), influenced the development of Gothic literature. According to Shelley, she drew inspiration from a nightmare she had, which she attributed to discussions she overheard between Percy and Byron regarding experiments with electricity and animation. Shelley began working on the novel when she returned home to England in September, and the book’s first edition was published anonymously in 1818. Shelley’s father William Godwin made minor revisions for a second edition in 1821; and Shelley herself made more substantial changes for the third edition in 1831. The story is told through an epistolary frame, and follows Victor Frankenstein, a university student of the “unhallowed arts” who assembles, animates, and abandons an unnamed human-like creature. The creature goes on to haunt his creator both literally and metaphorically. Over the past two hundred years, the story has been widely influential, and re-interpreted in various forms of culture and media. In literary studies, scholars have discussed which edition of the text is the “truest” to Mary Shelley’s intended vision. The novel has been analyzed for its messages about human pride and hubris, the pursuit of knowledge, the nature/nurture question, as put forth by Rousseau, ethical questions in medicine and science, and family, gender, and reproduction, among other topics.

Cânone e mercado editorial: uma reflexão sobre a vitalidade de Frankenstein, de Mary Shelley

Este artigo tem como propósito apresentar ao leitor uma possibilidade de análise do romance Frankenstein ou o Prometeu Moderno (1818), de Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851), tendo como foco os paratextos da edição publicada pela DarkSide em 2017, traduzida por Márcia Xavier de Brito. Justifica-se a escolha dessa edição, pois eleita, em 2019, como atraente pelos alunos do primeiro ano do curso de Letras da Universidade Estadual Paulista – UNESP, Câmpus de Assis-SP. Na análise da obra de Shelley, busca-se, a partir do aporte teórico da Estética da Recepção (JAUSS, 1994; ISER, 1996 e 1999), refletir sobre sua vitalidade, enquanto marco no cânone ocidental, pois se configurou, conforme José Paulo Paes (1985), como primeiro romance de ficção científica. Na análise dos paratextos da edição da DarkSide (SHELLEY, 2017), pretende-se detectar, em consonância com Roger Chartier (2014) e Gerard Genette (2009), se modificam a relação do leitor com o material escrito.

Introduction

Of what strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind, when it has once seized on it, like a lichen to the rock. —Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus (uncensored 1818 edition) ON FEBRUARY 22, 1841, Dr. Thomas Nelson boarded a vessel that had just been escorted into the harbor of Guanabara by HMS ...