Your next essay in this class, Essay Two on Frankenstein’s
Legacy, is not due until Sunday, April 10, though you have some
preliminary work on it due on Monday, April 4. Nevertheless, read
through the assignment now so that you can keep it in mind as you keep
reading Frankenstein. As you read, you may want to mark down page numbers and selections from the book you might want to refer to in Essay Two.

Essay Two: Frankenstein’s Legacy

The Situation: Just like in your first “think on
your feet” essay assignment, in this assignment you aren’t writing a
traditional essay, exactly. Imagine that you are presenting at a
conference on the legacy of Frankenstein in art, culture, and
philosophy. Your job is to write a presentation speech that you will be
presenting to your fellow scholars in which you draw connections
between Frankenstein and other works of art and ideas. Because
this is a speech you are writing, imagine how you’d set it up to engage
your audience. You may want to use “I” and at times you may want to
speak directly to the audience, just as you would if you were making a
presentation in class.

Please note: in your first think on your feet assignment you were
meant to write your assignment within a two hour window. There is NO
TIME LIMIT that you can take to write this assignment (other than making
sure you turn it in by the due date/time J). Your completed essay
should be around 3 double spaced Times New Roman pages in length (about
750 words).

The Purpose: You have three key responsibilities in the speech you write.

First, you will need to select one of the following topics
related to Frankenstein: specific philosophical principles; heroes and
heroism; science (“bad science” and/or technology) and
the gothic, or parents and children. Then make an argument about how
the topic is represented or shown in the novel Frankenstein.
This should be the main part of your essay (think about laying this
out in your introduction and spending a few body paragraphs on this–use
plenty of textual evidence from Frankenstein to prove your point!). This
argument and your support of it with a few body paragraphs with textual
evidence supporting it should comprise about 60% of your speech.

Second, somewhere in your essay you will need to make an
argument in which you compare or contrast how your paper topic or theme
from Frankenstein is connected to another source from our class
(such as a reading from the unit on the Enlightenment), or a source
connected to our class (such as a relevant work of art or architecture
that you’ve found using the resources suggested in class) or a
contemporary work of fiction or film that connects to Frankenstein. If you really prefer to focus on Frankenstein
and not focus on another source, that’s fine, but do at least briefly
mention a different source in your introduction or conclusion…or spend
a body paragraph making this connection. This reference should be given and its connection explained and should make up about 20% of your speech/essay.

Third, you’ll want to make an argument about why your
observations matter and why it is worth paying attention to what you
have to say. This is a good way to wrap up your conclusion in your
essay. A good way to approach this is to connect how your observations
are still relevant (important) in today’s world. For example, are
technological developments of today ever problematic or do they ever
have unintended negative consequences? I’ve provided some links below
to help you think of present-day connections. This section about why
your observations matter might take up about 20% of your speech/essay.

**You do not need a Works Cited page for this assignment if
you are using sources provided below or our regular class texts. If you
use other outside sources, please just provide links to them so that I
can check them out.”

The Details: The topic of your written speech should be on one of the following topics:

1. philosophical principles and ideas connected to our unit on the
   Enlightenment and truth (what makes a human human? What is ‘the truth’
   in the novel?) Etc.
2. Who is a good person/hero or villain in the novel? Are there any good people? Who are they?
3. gender (especially the ways men and women are represented in the text)
4. science/ethics/and scary science aka “the techno-gothic”

Here are some additional resources to get you started for your assignment. Remember
that at some point in your essay you will need to reference at least
one source from our class such as the ones listed below or a related
source…

For Topic 1 (philosophy in Frankenstein):
Remember that you can use any of the readings we’ve already looked at in
our class, especially if you are writing about philosophy. There are many connections to writers and thinkers like Descartes

, Kant, and Wollstonecraft

(Shelley’s mom!)

For Topic 2 (heroes and heroism): If you write about heroes
and heroism please make sure to mention a video or source used in our
class such as this or this.

For Topic 3 (science, technology, the techno-gothic): A good
painting to think about using that I’ve referenced in class might be
Benjamin West’s painting of Benjamin Franklin performing the kite experiment which helped him harness electricity. (Links to an external site.)

You could also compare Dr. Frankenstein’s creature to
different 21st century topics connected to science and ethics. Here are
some fun ones to get you started:

• Doctor’s Plan for Full-Body Transplants Raises Doubts Even in Daring China https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/world/asia/chin… (Links to an external site.)
• China’s CRISPR twins: A time line of news https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613007/chinas-c… (Links to an external site.)
• Building a Better Human With Science? The Public Says, No Thanks https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/upshot/building… (Links to an external site.)
• Articles about genetically modified foods
• Articles about specific examples of animal and human cloning
• Information about Theranos including the HBO documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley and “The Talented Ms. Holmes” or the podcast “The Dropout” or the TV show “The Dropout” https://search.proquest.com/pqrl/docview/1826246067/D71EEB0FFF6B4E7DPQ/1?accountid=27372 (Links to an external site.) Theranos: The Silicon Valley’s Biggest Disaster https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=theranos+silicon+valley%27s+greatest+disaster&view=detail&mid=D05BA98101B88BC7DC07D05BA98101B88BC7DC07&FORM=VIRE (Links to an external site.)

For Topic 4 (parents and children): you might look back at the Powerpoint slides on Frankenstein that touch on parenting.