Scholar Lance Rhoades' multimedia presentation considers how Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" addresses mankind’s greatest concerns about technology and human rights, while taking on a life of its own.
Who controls life and death? Does a man-made being have (human) rights issues? Although regarded as Gothic sensationalism when first published – both for its lurid tale of a scientist driven mad by his obsession to animate the dead and for the surprising news that the author was nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley – Frankenstein has resonated widely in the popular imagination, most notably in theater and cinema. Over the two centuries since its publication, the work has also served as a vivid allegory in debates about technology, slavery, and universal suffrage.
Led by scholar Lance Rhoades, this multi-media presentation considers how Shelley addressed some of mankind’s greatest concerns with a creation that took on a life of its own. Explore and discuss these complicated and complex issues.
Lance Rhoades is a multifaceted Seattle-based scholar who completed his graduate studies in Comparative Literature and Cinema Studies at the University of Washington, where he has taught in the Department of Comparative Literature, and in the Cinema Studies, Comparative History of Ideas, and American Indian Studies programs, and was a recipient of the UW’s Excellence in Teaching award. Rhoades has presented talks throughout North America, Asia and Europe on cultural history in film. Each year he teaches a course in the humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Close to home, Lance regularly lectures on the history of literature and film, and he serves as a Program Director for the Mercer Island Library and Arts Council.
Library events and programs are free and everyone is welcome. Registration is not required.
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