Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1997

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Collins, Robert A.

Abstract

Brian Aldiss's Frankenstein Unbound is both a tribute to and exegesis of Mary Shelley's novel. The central figure, Joseph Bodenland, the 'everyman' of modern technological society, emerges as a composite of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature; he is the pivotal character through whom Aldiss revises and reinterprets Shelley's themes. Bodenland's role as a double reveals how Aldiss has updated Shelley's biographically inspired atheism and psychological orphanhood. As an atheist, Bodenland symbolizes technology and modern society's increasing separation from faith and God. Bodenland's sense of orphanhood suggests humanity's separation from the natural world, and by extension, the loss of individual identity in a technological, scientific world. Bodenland's status as the last man on Earth symbolizes Aldiss's concern that modern society has not been responsible for its actions.

Extent

63 p.

Comments

FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1997.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Identifier

FADT15414

Format

pdf

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