The Author and Frankenstein

Foucault's essay "What is an Author?" describes the function of the author in relation to the text as a mode of classification. He states "A name can group together a number of texts and thus differentiate them from others. A name also establishes different forms of relationships among texts." (1481) By knowing that Frankenstein was authored by Mary Shelley, an entire window of literary interpretation and criticism opens up surrounding her authorial presence. As we saw from the first initial reviews of the novel, before it was discovered that a woman had actually wrote the book, the criticism differed from when they discovered she was a woman. In a January 1818 review in the Quarterly Review, John Wilson Croker stated:
"The author has powers, both of conception and language, which employed in a happier direction might, perhaps, (we speak dubiously,) give him a name among those whose writings amuse or amend their fellow-creatures; but we take the liberty of assuring him, and hope that he may be in a temper to listen to us, that the style which he has adopted in the present publication merely tends to defeat his own purpose, if he really had any other object in view than that of leaving the wearied reader, after a struggle between laughter and loathing, in doubt whether the head or the heart of the author be the most diseased."

Upon the discovery of Shelley's gender,however, the critical view turned significantly:

"The reader must not suppose, from these remarks, that we intend any thing derogatory to the high reputation of the tale. Indeed it merits strong commendation. There never yet, within the pages of a romance, was a plot more startling and wildly and intensely interesting. The imagination is immediately aroused, and hurried on impetuously toward the conclusion. The style of the writer also is easy, artless, and graceful. The most stupendous events and sublimest scenes are narrated and described in unaffected yet powerful language; and, indeed, one of the most striking merits of the author, independent of the invention of the story, is the total absence of verbiage and bathos, when a more elevated and turgid style would not, by any critics, be considered as inappropriate to the lofty and exciting character of the subject. The tale is doubtless destined to immortalize the accomplished writer, and quite sanctions the remark of Mr. Moore, that it is “one of those original conceptions that take hold of the public mind at once and for ever.” ("Review of 'Frankenstein." The New-York Mirror 10.49 (8 June 1833))

If it was never discovered that Frankenstein was authored by the individual Mary Shelley, the criticism towards it would lack a depth that has brought the novel under such precise dissection. This is one of the few times that I would disagree with Roland Barthes in regards to his "Death of the Author." In a way, Mary Shelley's life is part of what is incredibly captivating about the story (however, I do believe some people take it too far). If the story remained published under the guise of a man, it would be difficult to view the motherhood concept within the story, and almost all female interests within the story would be non-existent. Also, the legacy of the Shelley family's literary presence within the world would have been stunted, had we not known that their daughter continued on with their tradition and also exercised the teachings of her parents within her own works.

I'm sorry I'm posting this so late. I have been completely sick for over a week now and was diagnosed today with whooping cough...of all things. See you in class ;)