This year 2018 marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein. This proposed course aims to introduce students to Mary Shelley and the literary culture of the first half of the nineteenth century. Particular attention will be paid to two novels by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818) and The Last Man (1826). This course will situate her works in the traditions of Gothic, Enlightenment, and Romanticism. Topics to be discussed in this course will include the Gothic, passion, revolution, Romanticism, Enlightenment rationality, intellectual aspiration, among others.