A conversation about Mary Shelley - FRANKENSTEIN

Classics of literary history 1'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley, originally 'Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus', was first published anonymously in 1818. At the time, it was not received very enthusiastically by critics, but later became famous through theatre and film. Today, this Bildungsroman of a special kind is regarded as a pioneer of the horror genre: a young scientist, Doctor Frankenstein, combines alchemy with modern science and creates a creature from dead material that comes to life by means of electric shocks. The face of this creature shocks the creator, who rejects the 'monster' while it longs only to be loved. Mary Godwin, mistress of the well-known poet Percy Shelley, who was married to another woman, develops the novel as a 19-year-old during a holiday with Shelley and other writers on Lake Geneva. It was raining as if they were in England and they agreed that everyone should invent and recite a horror story. Mary Godwin was inspired, among other things, by the then novel experiments of galvanists, who used electricity to trigger muscle movements in dead animals and human corpses, thus causing general horror. Writer Ulrike Draesner and dramaturge and author John von Düffel will discuss this classic and its author. A series of events organised by LpZ Stuttgart and Diwan Hörbuchverlag, sponsored by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.