| Patchen Markell offers a critique of the political pursuit of recognition in Bound by Recognition. In this thesis, I respond directly to Markell's central argument in order to rethink, rather than abandon, the political pursuit of recognition through a textual interpretation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I read Frankenstein as an exemplary tale of the struggle for identity recognition, wherein Victor Frankenstein's Creature--- his famous "Monster"--- attempts to "un-monster" himself by demanding that others recognize his positively affirmed self-identity as a "kind and feeling friend." Ultimately, the tragedy of Frankenstein is that the Creature cannot see himself as anything other than a monster---he is never afforded the recognition he desperately desires. Contra Markell, I argue that the Creature's pursuit of recognition fails because he cannot single-handedly overcome the asymmetrical power relations that underlie the social construction of identity, and that are reinforced through the construction of his identity as monster. |
