Eidolscope by Latham in late 18th century. (Edmund)

    A public showing of a four-minute film takes place in a storefront at 153 Broadway, New York on May 20. It was a boxing match which had been filmed by Woodville Latham and his sons Otway and Grey. The staged fight had been filmed on the roof of Madison Square Garden. The boxers were known as 'Young Griffo' and 'Battling Barnett'. When asked by son Otway Latham whether a scene could be projected on a screen like in the Kinetoscope parlours, father Woodville answered, "You can project anything on a screen that you can see with the naked eye and which can be photographed."
    One month earlier to this event, the Latham men showed off their Eidolscope. The scenes were of children and one man smoking his pipe. The Eidolscope was a co-invention between Woodville Latham and William Dickson. Some commentators however have attributed the Eidolscope to one Eugene Lauste.

Source: Encyclopedias
                                                                                                         
http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/1937/The-Lathams-Build-a-Projector.html

Origin of Gothic

Gothic Literature, also known as Victorian Literature, is a literary genre that is believed to have been started by a man named Horrace Walpole. He is the first author to have ever written gothic literature with his novel The Castle of Ortranto. Horrace dreamed that he was in a dark castle and creepy castle, and standing on the uppermost banister of a long and winding staircase was a gigantic hand in full armor. This was the inspiration for the first ever gothic novel. The word "Gothic" was invented by writers of the Italian Renaissance who blamed the general “ugly” nature of 15th century art and architecture on people from the northern tribes of Germany barbarian tribes known collectively as “the Goths”.

The typical characteristics of a graphic novel are terror and mystery. Themes of death and decay especially that of the human body, are a big part of gothic literature as well. Ghosts, haunted houses, family curses, and insanity also play a part in gothic literature. They add a sense of suspense and fear. Edgar Allen Poe is considered the "master" of gothic literature with his stories such as "The Black Cat" and "A Tell Tale Heart". A more modern gothic author would be Stephen King. For example his short novel Christine and the movie The Shining are considered to be pure Goth. It just goes to show that gothic literature has not died and is still relevant in today's society. (Source: Eerie Books)

The Enlightement Philosopher thinker Hume David

• The scientific approach led many European Philosophers to believe in the power of of human reason and the perfectibility of mankind.
• Enlightenment  thinkers urged religious toleration.
• sought to "discover" the law of human behavior
• The Enlightenment thinkers trusted nature and human reason but distrusted institution.

The Enlightenment was partly the product of continued social, political, and religious tension.

David Hume-Scottish philosopher
One of the  enlightment thinkers in the early 18th century, was David Hume. He was a philosopher and in the area of
skepticism.  It seems he questions Gods divinity, and also humans beings imperfection and our trustworthiness.
This simply means that we are born with certan traits which effects our actions, and therefore may not
be reality.  This was in opposite to rationalist thought, and was "instrumental in the shift away from rationalist thought that ended the Enlightenment".

(http://www.sparknotes.com/history/europeans/enlightenment/terms.html)http://www.sparknotes.com/history/europeans/enlightenment/terms.html

Romantisism , Shamequa Durrant

Romance and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley go hand in in hand. In fact the relationship between Shelley and her husband was a perfect example of the 18th and 19th century romance.   According to http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.html  "Romanticism has very little to do with things popularly thought of as "romantic," although love may occasionally be the subject of Romantic art. Rather, it is an international artistic and philosophical movement that redefined the fundamental ways in which people in Western cultures thought about themselves and about their world." Romance seemed to be more of a political and matter of the mind than what we would think. I guess business and pleasure did work in this situation because. Percy worked along side Mary in her publishing of Frankeinstein. In Frankeinstein The monster and Victor display a pretty weird relationship we may not realize it unless this is our motive but they display each others feelings and this is romance. Chapter 11

The Irish Frankenstein

'The Irish Frankenstein', 1882. 'The Irish Frankenstein', 1882. An awestruck Charles Parnell of the Irish Nationalist Party is crouching before his Creature which is depicted with the usual simian features of the Irishman in Punch cartoons. Fully armed, the Creature is powerful and ready for violence. Following the sudden and angry resignation of the Chief Secretary for Ireland, William Forster, Lord Frederick Cavendish had been appointed to the vacancy. However, on 6th May 1882, Cavendish and his Permanent Irish Under-Secretary, Mr Thomas Burke, were attacked by members of an Irish extremist group whilst walking in Phoenix Park, Dublin. They were slashed with long knives, and their throats were cut. Because of his support for the aims of the Irish Land Leaguers, Parnell was seen as largely responsible for the increasing violence of the Creature he had helped to create. From "Punch, or the London Charivari", May 20, 1882.. Stunning Photo Gifts From Heritage Images © Copyright Heritage-Images 2008 - All Rights Reserved The article is basically about the “Irish Land League” which was supported by Charles Parnell. The purpose of this revolution was to abolish tenant farming. The extremists’ violence got out of hand, and Charles Parnell did not wanted it go this far. In the cartoon above you can see that Parnell pushed in to the corner by his own monster i.e. Irish Land League. One can also connect this to the British Empire. The main justification the British used to control other countries was that they considered they were keeping order and not allowing their “Frankenstein” to get out of control.

Luddite influence in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

While the Industrial Revolution was intended to increase prosperity, some, like the anti-machine protesters of the early 19^th century, saw it as a de-humanizing movement. In the novel, the monster is feared by the people he encounters because of his appearance and greater strength. When the monster tries to become a part of the community, in a parallel with the introduction of machines, Felix, like the Luddite protesters, fights back against his infiltration. Felix then moves away from his cottage with his family because he feels unsafe and doesn’t want to subject them to the monster’s influence. In the novel, mechanization is associated with the horrific aspects of the story, while the natural world represents the monster’s idyllic respite from his problems and the possibility of acceptance by the family he observes. This fear of mechanization reflects the ambivalence towards the use of machines in peoples’ lives in the 19^th century, and is echoed in subsequent science fiction stories about artificial beings, as well as film adaptations of Frankenstein. This interpretation shows how the novel reflects on real-life events in England, with which Mary and Percy Shelley were directly associated. The natural world is valued over the mechanized world due to its more authentic associations and perceived increased worth.

Enlightenment thinker John Locke

John Locke was one of the most important Enlightenment thinkers of the 17^th century. A proponent of reason as man’s most important tool, his writings on human knowledge, social interaction, property rights, the self, and religious toleration helped pave the way for the decline of absolutism and the rise of classical liberalism and republicanism.
One of Locke’s most influential work was his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, in which he attempted to discover how we acquire knowledge. Published in 1690, Essay communicated his belief that humans have a “God-given obligation to obtain knowledge and not always to acquire our beliefs by accepting the word of authorities or common superstition.” Locke also believed that human beings were born without any innate knowledge; with what he referred to as a blank slate, or tabula rasa. He determined that we gather knowledge through our experience and interpretation of facts.

(Source: IEP)

Definition of Social History

Social history examines the lives of everyday people, generally combining women’s history, African American history, immigration studies and working-class history. (Source: CSU/Fullerton)

The pic above, by Théodore Géricault, is called "A Paraletic Woman" (1820). It's part of the "Images of London's Poor" exhibit at The London Museum.  (Source)

Social History/Women

In the 1700s in England, women considered "troublesome" could be punished by being forced to wear something called a "scold’s bridle" in public, and were also sometimes beaten. The use of the scold's bridle was abolished in 1856. (Source: My Learning) (Source for Image)

Science: Luigi Galvani & "animal electricity"

In the late 1786, Italian surgeon Luigi Galvani was experimenting with electricity and dead frogs. By applying sparks of static electricity to the legs of dead frogs, he discovered he could make frog legs twitch. He would also hang dead frogs from brass hooks during thunderstorms (so the metal would conduct electricity), which would also result in twitching. He called this "animal electricity," but it was soon renamed "galvinism."

In the early 1800s, Galvani's nephew toured Europe, demonstrating galvinism on ox heads and even on recently executed criminals. In one case, a London paper reported that the man's the whole body quivered, the right arm raised, and one eye opened, and that it looked as though the whole body were coming back to life. (Source: Frankenstein, a Cultural History)

The image above is a political cartoon from the United States in 1836. So, galvinism was known in the U.S. as well. ("In this 1836 American political cartoon, Jacksonian newspaper editor Francis Preston Blair rises from the grave after receiving a jolt from a galvanic battery." (Source: U.S. National Library of Medicine)

The British Empire.

The British Empire was the empire consisting of Britain and the territories it controlled. It began in the early 1600's and peaked around the end of World War I, around 1920. At its height it included the British Isles, parts of the West Indies, Canada, Guyana, parts of West Africa, parts of East Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand. (Princeton)

By 1815, Britain had become the dominant world power--it's power and wealth having been built on the slave trade and on the growing world demand for crops grown in British colonies, like sugar, tobacco, cotton, tea, and coffee. (George Mason University)

Definition of Romanticism.

Romanticism is a mix of beliefs about art and life--sometimes called a "philosophical movement"-- that started to become popular, especially in England and Germany, around the late 1700's. Both the American (1776) and the French (1789) revolutions happened around then--so change was in the air.

Romantics generally believed:

1) that imagination was the greatest thing a human was capable of (as opposed to reason)

2) in addition to imagination, a human's ability to feel and express emotion was also very, very important, and both emotion and imagination were necessary for great art

3) that nature could be a healing power, a safe escape from society, or the subject of art, and was best described in sensual, emotional language. (While the rationalist/Enlightenment view of nature was scientific--nature could best be described as a system of mechanical laws.)

4) that the interior journey of the self was very important.

(Source: Brooklyn College)

Definition of The Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement that happened in the 17th and 18th centuries, influenced by 17th-century philosophers Descartes, Locke, Newton, and others. Prominent supporters of The Enlightenment included philosophers and/or writers Kant, Goethe, Voltaire, and Adam Smith. The movement emphasized reason over tradition. (Source: Oxford Dictionary)

According to general Enlightenment beliefs included:

1) The ability to reason is the most important ability a human has.

2) Reason allows one to break free from primitive and superstitious beliefs; through reason, one betters him- or herself, learning to think and act correctly.

3) Reason will make the world better and better.

3) No belief should be accepted just because a priest (or a similar figure) said it, or because it's what people have always believed. Beliefs should only be accepted on the basis of reason.

4) Knowledge is more important than emotion.

(Source: PBS)

Definition of Gothic.

"Gothic" is a genre of fiction with an atmosphere of mystery, horror, and usually a pseudo-medieval setting. It was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. (Source: Oxford Dictionary)

Gothic writing creates feelings of dread and mystery, and usually contains at least some of the following elements: a castle, a ruined building, a dark corridor, shadows, extreme landscapes (extreme cold, say, or thick forests), crypts, spooky attics, shadows, a flickering candle, a passionate, driven hero (and maybe a passionate, driven villain as well), a woman who needs to be rescued, horrifying events or the threat of horrifying events. (Source: Brooklyn College)