Black Frankenstein – Elizabeth Young

This moment confirms the place of Frankenstein in The Sport of the Gods, but that place is a perplexing one. Why does Dunbar recast Victor Frankenstein as Hattie Sterling? In the Berry Hamilton plot, the master- slave dynamics of Frankenstein precisely parallel relationships between white and black men; the white men in the Continental Bar, like Dr. Melville in “Jube Benson,” are versions of both Victor Frankenstein and slavemasters.

But in the Hattie Sterling plot, Dunbar displaces authority across both race and gender, from the white slaveowner to the black actress. It is significant that Hattie is “yellow-skinned,” since that designation partially identifies her with white femininity. Yet Hattie is a light-skinned black woman, not a white woman. As a black woman, and as an actress of fading glamour, whatever authority she has over men is declining rapidly. The murder scene similarly reanimates Frankenstein in unexpected ways.

In “Jube Benson,” Dunbar translates the triangle of Victor, monster, and the murdered Elizabeth into the triangle of Melville, Jube, and the murdered Annie. But in The Sport of the Gods, Dunbar conflates The monster’s rage against his maker with his murder of Elizabeth. The imagery of this paragraph—Hattie’s choked scream, open robe, and praying eyes— recalls The monster’s sexualized violation of Elizabeth, but here these traits are associated with The monster’s maker. This adaptation undercuts the most prominent legacy of Frankenstein for antiracist critique: sympathy for The monster.

In “Jube Benson” and in the Berry Hamilton plot, Dunbar exploits this legacy, since Jube and Berry are innocent. Here, however, Joe is guilty of murder, and his crime seems to reinforce the stereotype that Beachfield Davis, earlier in the novel, terms “total depravity.” Paradoxically, then, Dunbar’s Frankenstein plot assigns the role of Victor Frankenstein to its least powerful character and deepens rather than undercuts the monstrosity of his black male protagonist. There are several possible explanations for these changes. Dunbar’s marriage was apparently riven by conflict over his wife’s higher class position and her lighter skin.

According to biographer Eleanor Alexander, Dunbar was physically abusive to his wife: he raped her during their courtship and beat her throughout their marriage, which ended after a particularly severe beating one night when Dunbar was drunk.

Thank you for buying this ebook, published by NYU Press. Sign up for our e-newsletters to receive information about forthcoming books, special discounts, and more! Sign Up! About NYU Press A publisher of original scholarship since its founding in 1916, New York University Press Produces more than 100 new books each year, with a backlist of 3,000 titles in print.

Working across the humanities and social sciences, NYU Press has award-winning lists in sociology, law, cultural and American studies, religion, American history, anthropology, politics, criminology, media and communication, literary studies, and psychology. 1kitap1.com/en Black Frankenstein 1kitap1.com/en America and the Long 19th Century GENERAL EDITORS David Kazanjian, Elizabeth McHenry, and Priscilla Wald Black Frankenstein: The Making of an American Metaphor Elizabeth Young 1kitap1.com/en Black Frankenstein The Making of an American Metaphor Elizabeth Young 1kitap1.com/en NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London www.nyupress.org © 2008 by New York University All rights reserved Extract from “Dreaming Frankenstein” from Dreaming Frankenstein and Collected Poems by Liz Lochhead is reproduced by permission of Polygon, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd.

(www.birlinn.co.uk). A portion of chapter 4 originally appeared in “Here Comes the Bride: Wedding Gender and Race in Bride of Frankenstein,” Feminist Studies 17:3 (fall 1991): 403–37. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA young, Elizabeth. Black Frankenstein : the making of an American metaphor / Elizabeth Young. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN–13: 978–0–8147–9715–0 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN–10: 0–8147–9715–6 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN–13: 978–0–8147–9716–7 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN–10: 0–8147–9716–4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. American literature — White authors — History and criticism.

2. American literature — African American authors — History and criticism. 3. African Americans in literature. 4. Race in literature. 5. Race relations in literature. 6. Frankenstein (Fictitious character) in literature. 7. Frankenstein (Fictitious character) — Political aspects. 8. Monsters in literature. 9. Metaphor in literature. 10. Monsters in motion pictures. I. Title. PS173.N4Y68 2008 810.9’352996073 — dc22 2008008049 New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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