Elizabeth Young - Black Frankenstein: The Making of an American Metaphor

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Black Frankenstein

America and the Long 19th Century

GENERAL EDITORS
David Kazanjian, Elizabeth McHenry, and Priscilla Wald

Black Frankenstein:
The Making of an American Metaphor Elizabeth Young

Elizabeth Young

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York and London

www.nyupress.org

2008 by New York University

All rights reserved

Extract from Dreaming Frankenstein from Dreaming Frankenstein and Collected Poems by Liz Lochhead is reproduced by permission of Polygon, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd. (www.birlinn.co.uk).

A portion of chapter 4 originally appeared in Here Comes the Bride: Wedding Gender and Race in Bride of Frankenstein, Feminist Studies 17:3 (fall 1991): 40337.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA young, Elizabeth.

Black Frankenstein : the making of an American metaphor /

Elizabeth Young.

p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN13: 9780814797150 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN10: 0814797156 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN13: 9780814797167 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN10: 0814797164 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. American literature White authors History and criticism.

2. American literature African American authors History and criticism. 3. African Americans in literature. 4. Race in literature. 5. Race relations in literature. 6. Frankenstein (Fictitious character) in literature. 7. Frankenstein (Fictitious character) Political aspects. 8. Monsters in literature. 9. Metaphor in literature. 10. Monsters in motion pictures. I. Title.

PS173.N4Y68 2008 810.9'352996073 dc22 2008008049

New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.

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c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Laura M. Green and William A. Cohen

1. Frank Bellew, The Modern Frankenstein

3. Atlanta University Bulletin

16. Jerry Yulsman, Dick Gregory photograph

Many friends, colleagues, and institutions have supported this project over the long period of its gestation. I began thinking about Frankenstein many years ago, under the expert tutelage of Catherine Gallagher, and I thank her for this. Most recently, New York University Press has welcomed this project, and I am grateful to Eric Zinner, Emily Park, Despina Papazoglou Gimbel, Andrew Katz, Martin Tulic, two anonymous readers, and others at the Press. A fellowship from the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation provided crucial sabbatical support. Along the way, others have published, reprinted, or otherwise encouraged my writing on topics related to Frankenstein, most of which is not in this book but all of which influenced it: Rhona Berenstein, Ken Gelder, Barry Keith Grant, Jon Lewis, Eric Smoodin, and the editors of Camera Obscura and Feminist Studies.

Many people at Mount Holyoke College have advanced this project. I thank the office of the Dean of Faculty including Donal OShea and Penny Gill for substantial support, including a Faculty Fellowship. I thank my colleagues in English, Gender Studies, Film Studies, and American Studies, particularly Christopher Benfey, Robin Blaetz, Anthony W. Lee, Amy Martin, Mary Renda, Ajay Sinha, Paul Staiti, Thomas Wartenberg, and Donald Weber. Local colleagues Bettina Bergmann, Anna Botta, Darcy Buerkle, Barbara Kellum, and, especially, Dana Leibsohn greatly assisted with the analysis of visual material. The Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers Study Group has provided great collegiality. Staff at the Mount Holyoke College Library, Smith College Library, American Antiquarian Society, Atlanta University Library, Harvard Theatre Collection, British Library, and Museum of Modern Art have been very helpful. Invaluable assistance was provided by James Gehrt and Aime DeGrenier of Mount Holyoke Library and Information Technology Services and by Hamenth Swaminathan.

Double thanks go to Judith Frank for her indispensable friendship and support of this and previous projects. For assistance of various kinds, I am grateful to the following colleagues and friends: Awam Amkpa, Sabrina Barton, Lisa Beskin, Ian Conrich, Simone Davis, Don Dingledine, Elizabeth Garland, Nina Gerassi-Navarro and Ernesto Livon-Grosman, Susan Gillman, Teresa Goddu, Bruce L. Hay, Karen Jacobs, Amy Kaplan, Carolyn Karcher, Jonathan D. Katz, Annette Kuhn, Caroline Levander, Robert Levine, Mary Loeffelholz, Lisa Long, Susan Lurie, Tania Modleski, Christen Mucher, Samuel Otter, Shirley Samuels, Karen Snchez-Eppler, Jackie Stacey, Michelle Stephens, and Trysh Travis. I greatly appreciate the vital encouragement given by Janice Dumond, Elissa Forman, Karen Heath, Lisa Hunter, Marion Kozak, Candida Lacey, Bridget Ryan, the Systors, and Dorothy Wedderburn. I have received much sustenance from family: Alfred, Marilyn, Sarah, Thomas, Emily, Jeff, Noah, Ruby, Davia, Isabel, and Frankie.

The dedication is to Laura M. Green and William A. Cohen brilliant readers, steadfast supporters, excellent friends without whom this book would never have come to be.

You can teach an old metaphor new tricks. In the Frankenstein story, first introduced in the novel by Mary Shelley in 1818 and made famous on film by James Whale in 1931, a monster, assembled from corpses and reanimated, rebels violently against his creator. The Frankenstein story has a long history of being used as a political metaphor, and at the start of the twenty-first century, it continues to shape political debate. Consider, for example, critiques of U.S. foreign policy in the wake of 9/11. In We Finally Got Our Frankenstein, filmmaker Michael Moore compares Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to the Frankenstein monster: We had a virtual love fest with this Frankenstein whom we (in part) created. And, just like the mythical Frankenstein, Saddam eventually spun out of control. He would no longer do what he was told by his master. Saddam had to be caught. Moore considers Hussein one of many monsters created by the U.S. government, including Osama bin Laden Our other Frankenstein and a roster of right-wing dictators: We liked playing Dr. Frankenstein. We created a lot of monsters the Shah of Iran, Somoza of Nicaragua, Pinochet of Chile and then we expressed ignorance or shock when they ran amok and massacred people.

Moore uses the Frankenstein metaphor to condemn the U.S. government for playing Dr. Frankenstein, conducting a scientific experiment that is also a love fest gone wrong. Novelist Carlos Fuentes offers a similar cautionary tale but links The monster to a familial metaphor: Saddam Hussein was Saddam Hussein because the United States gave him all possible support. The United States is extraordinarily gifted in creating monsters like Frankenstein. Then one fine day they discover that these Frankensteins are dreadful. However, for twenty years they were the spoilt children, their proteges, and the babies of the United States.