메리 W. 셸리의 『프랑켄슈타인』: 운하임리히(unheimlich) 서사

Mary W. Shelley s Frankenstein: The Narrative of the Unheimlich

As a sequel to my previous paper on the uncanny,1) I try, in this paper, to explicate the feeling and aspects of the unheimlich2) of the novel, Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelly. The word, unheimlich , is one of the three English translations of the German word with uncanny and unhomely. Due to the component heim(home), the unheimlich looks more comprehensive and covers all the spectrum of the meanings of three translations. This paper confirms again the dynamic mechanism of the unheimlich as follows: the first stage of the settling of the unheimlich figure, mostly the father figure, the second stage of ambivalence and repetition of the doubles. the third stage of fatal accident and death, and the fourth stage of sublimation and creation. This paper also looks into Frankenstein s castration anxiety as well as its subsequent regression toward the desire for his mother. Overcoming the fatal accident of death in the Northern Arctic ocean, Frankenstein seems to be cured thanks to the talking cure 3) of Walton, his double and father imago, and reach the sublimation of his desire.