Frankenstein: 200th Anniversary Celebration

Happy 200th Birthday, Frankenstein

Cabrillo Honors Program Honors Mary Shelley at the MAH
Wednesday, April 18th at the MAH and Nickelodeon

2018 marks the 200th publication anniversary of Frankenstein, the most widely-taught novel in American colleges and universities due to its complex, timeless and interdisciplinary approach to essential questions such as: How does technology define us? What does it mean to be human? How do women resist marginalization? What can we learn from the outcast?

The Cabrillo celebration of the anniversary is just one among many at universities and colleges all over the world, including Santa Clara, San Jose State University, USF and Stanford. Mary Shelley's brilliance as the author and creator of the Frankenstein myth, a myth that many people only know through films.  Shelley was only 19 years old when she wrote the novel and did so without the benefit of a formal education, an astonishing accomplishment.  The novel has become enmeshed in our culture so much so that those who have not read the novel think they know the original story, but they don't!      

The flash lectures will cover Shelley's composition process, the creative and political philosophies of the Romantics, the influence of science and technology in the novel and our own times and even commentary from a Cabrillo anatomy professor.  The film presentation of the National Theatre production of Frankenstein with Benedict Cumberbatch as the creature is amazing and we are very fortunate as a community that the Nickelodeon has made this viewing possible. There is a bit of something for everyone.  


 “Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful.” The Creature in Frankenstein

“Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.” 
 Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein