Frankenstein, Science Fiction, and the Poetry of Science

While Frankenstein has recently received criticism weighted heavily in politics,
gender, and feminist studies, what gets overlooked in these discussions is that Mary
Shelley's novel remains a story about science--not about empirical science, necessarily,
but about abstract science. As science fiction, Frankenstein incorporates fictional science
to posit truths about the human experience. Shelley's metaphor for the novel, ''my
hideous progeny," reminds readers to respect the uncertain elements in invention in the
arts and sciences. The problem for Frankenstein that I address has to do with an
uncertainty of the terms, "science'' and "science fiction ,'' which results in further
uncertainty when discussing the novel's genre and meaning. This essay defines
"science," "science fiction," and other important tenns relevant to a critical discussion of
the novel. This essay further argues that readers should not overlook the poetry of
science in Frankenstein.