Dr Mary Fairclough  of the University of York, UK, will present a research seminar, Frankenstein, Electricity and Revolutionary Chemistry, on Friday 13 March, from 3.30pm to 5pm in the Noel Stockdale Room of the Central Library.

Her paper investigates the importance of chemistry for Victor’s creation in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein (1818), in particular Victor’s apparent use of electricity, a chemical and anatomical tool whose operations are themselves unsettling and obscure. She examines the significance of Shelley’s appropriation of contemporary theories of electricity in her novel.

A lecturer in English and Related Literature and member of the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at the University of York, Dr Fairclough is the author of The Romantic Crowd: Sympathy, Controversy and Print Culture and several articles exploring the intersection of literary, political and scientific culture in the eighteenth century and Romantic period.

She is visiting Adelaide as an ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (Europe 1100-1800) Visiting Research Fellow.