Underground Manchester as urban palimpsest in Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein: A Love Story (2019)
In her 2019 novel Frankissstein: A Love Story, Jeanette Winterson repatriates Mary Shelley’s myth to Britain, and more precisely to Manchester, the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. The visionary in this case is an AI-specialist called Victor Stein, who is striving to push back the limits of the...
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| Publicado en: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles, |
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| Formato: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Lenguaje: | Anglais |
| Publicado: |
Angles
2023
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_6207 |
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| record_format |
openedition |
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OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
palimpseste Manchester Jeanette Winterson Mary Shelley Frankenstein transhumain posthumain intelligence artificielle fiction urbaine palimpsest Manchester Jeanette Winterson Mary Shelley Frankenstein transhuman posthuman artificial intelligence urban fiction |
| spellingShingle |
palimpseste Manchester Jeanette Winterson Mary Shelley Frankenstein transhumain posthumain intelligence artificielle fiction urbaine palimpsest Manchester Jeanette Winterson Mary Shelley Frankenstein transhuman posthuman artificial intelligence urban fiction Wrobel, Claire Underground Manchester as urban palimpsest in Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein: A Love Story (2019) |
| description |
In her 2019 novel Frankissstein: A Love Story, Jeanette Winterson repatriates Mary Shelley’s myth to Britain, and more precisely to Manchester, the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. The visionary in this case is an AI-specialist called Victor Stein, who is striving to push back the limits of the human condition in a secret underground laboratory. Subterranean Manchester presents itself as an urban palimpsest in which different historical strata coexist, and whose meaning is defined by a process of cultural accretion involving history, local culture and literature. Winterson contributes a fictional layer by interweaving the urban text that is underground Manchester and her rewriting of Shelley’s myth. Building on Jens Martin Gurr’s suggestion that the notion of the urban palimpsest may be extended to post-industrial cities, the first section seeks to analyse how Winterson represent urban complexity – i.e. the coexistence of layers of urban memory – by mobilizing textual strategies centred on the figure of Victor Stein. The paper then demonstrates how the structure of the novel performs urban complexity, encouraging readers to engage in time travel and hypertextual reading. Finally, the last section shows how the challenge which lies in representing urban complexity is also an opportunity, as the time travel allowed by underground Manchester enables Winterson, like Mary Shelley before her, to contemplate the possibilities opened up by science, probing not just the future of the city, but that of humanity. The constant shifts between the nineteenth century and the present time reflect Winterson’s conviction that Shelley’s novel is a prophecy announcing the advent of the posthuman. Drawing on the collection of essays which Winterson recently published under the title 12 Bytes. How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next (2021), the article examines how the novel’s reflection on the human and its boundaries invites us to question the contemporary polis and its monstrous Others. |
| author |
Wrobel, Claire |
| author_facet |
Wrobel, Claire |
| author_sort |
Wrobel, Claire |
| title |
Underground Manchester as urban palimpsest in Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein: A Love Story (2019) |
| title_short |
Underground Manchester as urban palimpsest in Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein: A Love Story (2019) |
| title_full |
Underground Manchester as urban palimpsest in Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein: A Love Story (2019) |
| title_fullStr |
Underground Manchester as urban palimpsest in Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein: A Love Story (2019) |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Underground Manchester as urban palimpsest in Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein: A Love Story (2019) |
| title_sort |
underground manchester as urban palimpsest in jeanette winterson’s frankissstein: a love story (2019) |
| publisher |
Angles |
| publishDate |
2023 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.6207 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/angles/6207 |
| _version_ |
1877292929527054336 |
| spelling |
openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_6207 https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.6207 urn:doi:10.4000/angles.6207 en https://journals.openedition.org/angles/6207 2023-01-11T01:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/9n29 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Underground Manchester as urban palimpsest in Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein: A Love Story (2019) Angles Société des Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2274-2042 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles Wrobel, Claire palimpseste Manchester Jeanette Winterson Mary Shelley Frankenstein transhumain posthumain intelligence artificielle fiction urbaine palimpsest Manchester Jeanette Winterson Mary Shelley Frankenstein transhuman posthuman artificial intelligence urban fiction In her 2019 novel Frankissstein: A Love Story, Jeanette Winterson repatriates Mary Shelley’s myth to Britain, and more precisely to Manchester, the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. The visionary in this case is an AI-specialist called Victor Stein, who is striving to push back the limits of the human condition in a secret underground laboratory. Subterranean Manchester presents itself as an urban palimpsest in which different historical strata coexist, and whose meaning is defined by a process of cultural accretion involving history, local culture and literature. Winterson contributes a fictional layer by interweaving the urban text that is underground Manchester and her rewriting of Shelley’s myth. Building on Jens Martin Gurr’s suggestion that the notion of the urban palimpsest may be extended to post-industrial cities, the first section seeks to analyse how Winterson represent urban complexity – i.e. the coexistence of layers of urban memory – by mobilizing textual strategies centred on the figure of Victor Stein. The paper then demonstrates how the structure of the novel performs urban complexity, encouraging readers to engage in time travel and hypertextual reading. Finally, the last section shows how the challenge which lies in representing urban complexity is also an opportunity, as the time travel allowed by underground Manchester enables Winterson, like Mary Shelley before her, to contemplate the possibilities opened up by science, probing not just the future of the city, but that of humanity. The constant shifts between the nineteenth century and the present time reflect Winterson’s conviction that Shelley’s novel is a prophecy announcing the advent of the posthuman. Drawing on the collection of essays which Winterson recently published under the title 12 Bytes. How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next (2021), the article examines how the novel’s reflection on the human and its boundaries invites us to question the contemporary polis and its monstrous Others. Dans son roman Frankissstein: A Love Story, paru en 2019, Jeanette Winterson rapatrie le mythe produit par Mary Shelley en Grande-Bretagne, et plus précisément à Manchester, berceau de la Révolution industrielle. Le visionnaire cette fois-ci est un spécialiste de l’Intelligence Artificielle nommé Victor Stein, qui s’efforce de repousser les limites de la condition humaine dans un laboratoire secret. L’espace souterrain de Manchester se présente comme un palimpseste urbain dans lequel différentes strates historiques coexistent, and dont la signification est définie par un processus d’accrétion culturelle faisant intervenir l’histoire, la culture locale et la littérature. Winterson apporte une strate fictionnelle en entremêlant le texte urbain que constitue le Manchester souterrain et sa réécriture du mythe de Shelley. S’appuyant sur la suggestion de Jens Martin Gurr selon laquelle la notion de palimpseste urbain peut être étendue aux villes post-industrielles, le premier mouvement cherche à analyser la façon dont Winterson représente la complexité urbaine, c’est-à-dire la coexistence de strates de mémoire urbaine, en mobilisant des stratégies textuelles centrées sur la figure de Victor Stein. L’article démontre ensuite comment la complexité urbaine est rendue par la structure du roman, qui encourage les lecteurs à voyager dans le temps et à pratiquer une lecture hypertextuelle. Enfin, la dernière partie voit dans la complexité urbaine non seulement un défi pour la représentation mais aussi une opportunité qui permet à Winterson, comme Mary Shelley avant elle, d’envisager les possibilités ouvertes par la science et de sonder l’avenir – pas celui de la ville uniquement mais celui de l’humanité. Les allers-retours incessants entre le dix-neuvième siècle et l’époque contemporaine reflètent la conviction de Winterson que le roman de Shelley est une prophétie annonçant l’avènement du posthumain. La dernière partie s’appuie sur le recueil d’essais que Winterson a récemment publié sous le titre 12 Bytes. How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next (2021) pour examiner la façon dont la réflexion engagée par le roman sur l’humain et ses frontières nous invite à interroger la polis contemporaine et ses Autres monstrueux. |