ABSTRACT
The nineteenth-century imagination of Arctic wilderness is engendered by the infinitely fictionalizable blank space of the unknown. In Frankenstein, wildness and wilderness are intricately entwined in masterfully psychologized and geo-politicized topoi of transgression, involving Walton, Victor, and the Creature. The conundrum of smooth space is well summarized in Melanie Lorke’s study of Romantic liminal phenomena: Smooth space is an ambiguous concept in Romantic texts. Frankenstein’s elaborate conceptualization of wilderness is essentially transgressive—on discursive, philosophical, and ethical as well as narrative levels. In cartographic terms, Frankenstein’s Arctic wilderness is the politically and ecocritically charged terra nullius—no man’s land—uncharted, hostile, and unknown. Clairval’s and Victor’s leisurely trip along the Rhine and across Britain stands in sharp contrast to the Creature’s experience of wilderness. In the case of Victor and Walton, the pull towards smooth space is marked by their quest for scientific discovery—signifying “the period’s heady sense that the powers of nature might be appropriated for humanity”.
