FRANKISSSTEIN

The novel was written by Jeanette Winterson and published in 2019 and therefore is a Postmodernist novel with typical Postmodernist features, as the use of quotations, intertextuality, a simultaneous concept of time, self-reflexivity and so on. 

Considering the title Frankissstein, the intelligent reader can immediately be reminded of  Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Indeed, the novel, in a way or another, is an original renovation and remake of the Romantic novel Frankenstein. But in the rivisied title, there is the  word “kiss” more and sort of a subheading “a love story” which suggest the novel will speak also about love.

Considering now structure, Jeanette Winterson decided to juxtapose two plots. So, it is a dual narrative which juxtapposes two different storylines. The first one is about a holiday in 1816 at Lake Geneva where Mary Shelley decided to write her Frankenstein and the second one is about the love story between the transgender doctor Ry that supplies body parts to his/her lover, professor Victor Stein. Therefore, both from the structure and the main character of the second plot, the intelligent reader can understand the novel is based on doubleness, as the quotation at the back cover shows quoting Ry's words.

According to what said before, there are also two main separate settings. On one side, the first storyline is set at Villa Diodati, at lake Ginevra, as well as many cities in Italy, where Mary Shelley went with her husband and places in Germany, where the woman found inspiration from her novel thta also makes reference to the English psychiatric hospital of Bedlam. On the other side, the second storyline is set in a 21st century  Manchester and in particular in the secret tunnels built during the 50s and are today's Victor Stein’s workplace, together with the International Robotics Exhibition in Memphis, and in Phoenix, at Alcor Life Extension Foundation, where the two main characters meet.

Taking now into account characters, there are evident character parallelsbetween the original Frankenstein and Ms:Winterson's : Mary Shelley is today's Ry and Victor Frankenstein (the doctor who created the monster) is the present Victor Stein. The novel,has also secondary characters: Polidori (Mary Shelley’s friend and physician) corresponds to Polly D (a Vanity Far journalist), Lord Byron (another Mary Shelley’s friend) corresponds to Ron Lord (the seller of sex bots), Mary Shelley’s stepsister Claire Clairmont corresponds to Rob’s reference person Claire.

The narrator is a 1^st person one who speaks from Mary’s and from Ry’s point of view, who shares what happens to them with the reader. As a consequence, the reader's knowledge of events  is limited to what Ry or Mary think and know because he/she can only see them from their point of view. In addition, there are also different narrative techniques and Postmodern features linked to the use of the 1^st person narrator: self-reflexivity, interior monologue, the technique of telling and showing, temporal distortion and the use of flashbacks.

Last, but not least the possible messages are more than one. First of all, the main message is the exploration of human identity/ies and the reflection on the real substance whereof people are made of and on what being human means. For example, before reading the novel, I used to associate the concept of human being to the concept of being a male or a female person, but the novel offered me also two alternative interpretations of what being human may mean. One answer is provided by Ry, who lives with doubleness and provides  the proof that one person cannot be only a male or a female person and this makes the reader overcome a binary way of thinking.A further answer is provided by Victor Stein who claims that our brain is what makes people what they really are and therefore our mind is our substance.

Other possible messages conveyed by the novel is the idea that everything you experience, feel and know is in your head. Also the novelist invites reflection on what happens when a creation outlives and surpasses its creator or when a creation is more than human and to reflect on where the human race will be led by Artificial Intelligence. Indeed AI offers plenty of questions and food for thought to contemporary readers and that is why it is worth reading it.