Hello
I'm currently studying
Frankenstein, and one of the things I've noticed is that much of the criticism leveled against the text, shortly after its publication, focused on the femininity of the writing. For instance,
The British Critic stated that the female author 'is an aggravation of that which is the prevailing fault of the novel; but if our authoress can forget the gentleness of her sex, it is no reason why we should'. It intrigues me that not only is this deemed an unforgivable flaw and a cause to 'dismiss the novel without further comment', but also that critics detected something irrefutably feminine within the text.
If we are to understand gender - and 'femininity' - as seperate from biologically determined sex, and as performative and socially influenced, what constitutes 'feminine' writing? What makes it inherently feminine? One point, raised by Marguerite Duras, is that feminine writing has been 'translated from darkness' and that all female writers have emerged from obscurity and oppression. I don't believe that this quality was what critics deemed as a flaw within the text though, and was wondering what everyone else thought.
What is it about
Frankenstein that is fundamentally 'feminine' and how can we define 'feminine' in a literary sense?
I can't wait to hear everyone else's thoughts on the novel!!