The Myth of Creation in Reverse or the Disavowal of Genius in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
The Myth of Creation in Reverse or the Disavowal of Genius in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Summary/Abstract: According to Freud, disavowal implies the denial of a frightening reality, a defense mechanism that is triggered in the initial phase of psychosis. The term may also imply, like in the fiction I propose to analyze, a refusal to assume responsibility for the consequences of one’s deeds and, as such, it certainly leads to disastrous consequences. If Mary Shelley’s novel was intended as a critique of Romantic self-indulgence and as a vision of the destructive implications of a creative mind, it is no less certain that the authoress intended to point out the inevitability of such a fate for the visionary who disconnects himself from reality in order to pursue the fantasy of omnipotence. In my paper, I intend to link several psychoanalytical concepts – such as the uncanny or the theme of the double – to the development of Gothic fiction as a subgenre of Romanticism, while attempting a psychoanalytical re-reading of Victor Frankenstein’s actions and their terrible results.

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