Harvester of hearts : motherhood under the sign of "Frankenstein"

In the period between 1815 and 1820, Mary Shelley wrote her most famous novel,__Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus__, as well as its companion piece,__Mathilda__, a tragic incest narrative that was confiscated by her father, William Godwin, and left unpublished until 1959. She also gave birth to four—and lost three—children.In this hybrid text, Rachel Feder interprets__Frankenstein__and__Mathilda__within a series of provocative frameworks including Shelley’s experiences of motherhood and maternal loss, twentieth-century feminists’ interests in and attachments to Mary Shelley, and the critic’s own experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood.__Harvester of Hearts__explores how Mary Shelley’s exchanges with her children—in utero, in birth, in life, and in death—infuse her literary creations. Drawing on the archives of feminist scholarship, Feder theorizes “elective affinities,” a term she borrows from Goethe to interrogate how the personal attachments of literary critics shape our sense of literary history. Feder blurs the distinctions between intellectual, bodily, literary, and personal history, reanimating the classical feminist discourse on__Frankenstein__by stepping into the frame.The result—at once an experimental book of literary criticism, a performative foray into feminist praxis, and a deeply personal lyric essay—not only locates Mary Shelley’s monsters within the folds of maternal identity but also illuminates the connections between the literary and the quotidian. In the period between 1815 and 1820, Mary Shelley wrote her most famous novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, as well as its companion piece, Mathilda, a tragic incest narrative that was confiscated by her father, William Godwin, and left unpublished until 1959. She also gave birth to four - and lost three - children. In this hybrid text, Rachel Feder interprets Frankenstein and Mathilda within a series of provocative frameworks including Shelley's experiences of motherhood and maternal loss, twentieth-century feminists' interests in and attachments to Mary Shelley, and the critic?s own experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood. Harvester of Hearts explores how Mary Shelley's exchanges with her children - in utero, in birth, in life, and in death - infuse her literary creations. Drawing on the archives of feminist scholarship, Feder theorizes "elective affinities," a term she borrows from Goethe to interrogate how the personal attachments of literary critics shape our sense of literary history. Feder blurs the distinctions between intellectual, bodily, literary, and personal history, reanimating the classical feminist discourse on Frankenstein by stepping into the frame. The result - at once an experimental book of literary criticism, a performative foray into feminist praxis, and a deeply personal lyric essay - not only locates Mary Shelley's monsters within the folds of maternal identity but also illuminates the connections between the literary and the quotidian In the period between 1815 and 1820, Mary Shelley wrote her most famous novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, as well as its companion piece, Mathilda, a tragic incest narrative that was confiscated by her father, William Godwin, and left unpublished until 1959. She also gave birth to four-and lost three-children.0In this hybrid text, Rachel Feder interprets Frankenstein and Mathilda within a series of provocative frameworks including Shelley's experiences of motherhood and maternal loss, twentieth-century feminists' interests in and attachments to Mary Shelley, and the critic's own experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood. Harvester of Hearts explores how Mary Shelley's exchanges with her children-in utero, in birth, in life, and in death-infuse her literary creations. Drawing on the archives of feminist scholarship, Feder theorizes "elective affinities," a term she borrows from Goethe to interrogate how the personal attachments of literary critics shape our sense of literary history. Feder blurs the distinctions between intellectual, bodily, literary, and personal history, reanimating the classical feminist discourse on Frankenstein by stepping into the frame.0The result-at once an experimental book of literary criticism, a performative foray into feminist praxis, and a deeply personal lyric essay-not only locates Mary Shelley's monsters within the folds of maternal identity but also illuminates the connections between the literary and the quotidian Contents 10 Preface 12 1. Forgetting 20 2. Channel 26 3. Erasure 34 4. Clarity 42 5. Elective Affinities 48 6. Self 56 7. Mouth 64 8. Rest 70 9. Identity 76 10. Infant Vows 82 11. Imagination 86 12. Lost 92 13. Unearthly 98 14. Under the Sign 104 15. Catastrophe 110 16. Created 116 17. Mix 124 18. Broken 130 19. Taken 136 20. Will 142 21. Brevity 146 22. Clarity 148 23. Fox's Heart 152 24. Lost 156 25. Afterbirth 158 26. The Madre 160 Acknowledgments 166 Notes 168 Bibliography 188 Index 194 Explores how Mary Shelley's exchanges with her children - in utero, in birth, in life, and in death - infuse her literary creations. Drawing on the archives of feminist scholarship, Rachel Feder theorizes ""elective affinities"", a term she borrows from Goethe to interrogate how the personal attachments of literary critics shape our sense of literary history.