Frankenstein: uma leitura contemporânea

Abstract

The thesis aims to analyze Frankenstein Or the Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley, in order to understand how it dialogues with contemporary issues, such as: how far can science go in the name of progress?; is it possible to say that human society is being pushed to existential chaos?; what is the place of human condition in a world inhabited by creatures with high-developed cognitive and emotional skills?; and where does the scientific accountability for these new existences lie? The thesis is aligned with the argument posed by the historian Yuval Noah Harari in his work Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (HARARI, 2020). He suggests that Frankenstein Or the Modern Prometheus foreshadows new life possibilities by estaging the existence of a body designed by science (HARARI, 2020, p. 433). These new life possibilities may be closer than humanity would like to accept. Harari also affirms that human beings are improving their skills as designers by replacing the law of natural selection for the laws of intelligent design. Thus, Harari points out a disturbing aspect that appears in the future: more daunting than to be punished for playing god is the fact that the replacement of human species for other ones with different cognitive and emotional conditions is closer than we think. Within Harari’s perspective, Shelley’s novel, by exposing a scenery in which a scientist uses his technical and scientific framework to give light to a deviating body, it presents key poetic images that pave the way to representations of a disruptive human body and instigates reflections on context of a world inhabited by these creatures with super expanded abilities. Therefore, the thesis endeavors to articulate the mentioned contemporary issues with a view to provide critical thinking about the future of the human species and also the human society in the light of biotechnological tools