April 4th
Dr. Melissa Bailes (English, Tulane University) will present “The Psychologization of Geological Catastrophe in Mary Shelley’s The Last Man.” In this talk she explores the connection between science and Romantic writers, focusing specifically on Mary Shelley. Rather than looking at Shelley’s well-known novel Frankenstein, Dr. Bailes argues that this novel critiques scientific generalizations, such as the homogenizing notion of species extinction, that ignore the date of individuals. Shelley interrogates lastness by associating this concept with Romantic interiorization that takes individualism to the point of isolation. In The Last Man, both of these extremes alter characters’ physical and psychological worlds, dramatizing geological discourse.