Birthing Rhetorical Monsters: How Mary Shelley Infuses Mêtis with the Maternal in Her 1831 Introduction to Frankenstein

Abstract

According to Mary Shelley’s 1831 Introduction, her great novel is her “hideous progeny.” This proclamation along with numerous birthing metaphors place her Introduction within the obstetric discourse field of the maternal imagination, a theory which claimed that pregnant women’s imaginations had the power to deform their fetuses. More importantly, the maternal imagination, and thus Mary Shelley’s Introduction, is a form of mêtic rhetoric with a distinctly maternal flavor.

Notes

1. ¹I thank RR peer reviewers Jay Dolmage and Lindal Buchanan for their helpful suggestions for revision.

2. ²See Amber Jacobs for a discussion of the myth of Metis as “foundational matricide.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lydia McDermott

Lydia McDermott is Assistant Professor of Composition and Director of the Center for Writing and Speaking at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. She welcomes any feedback to [email protected].