Film and Media Reviewers Needed (Especially for Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein) (4/3/2026)

Film and Media Reviewers Needed (Especially for Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein)

deadline for submissions:
April 3, 2026

full name / name of organization:
The Incredible Nineteenth Century: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Fairy Tale (I19)

contact email:
jpc0018@uah.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2026/01/03/film-and-media-reviewers-needed-especially-for-guillermo-del-toros-frankenstein


The Incredible Nineteenth Century: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Fairy Tale (I19) seeks to publish the best scholarship on the century that was, in many ways, the time period in which the modern genres of science fiction and fantasy began, and in which the academic study of fairy tale and folklore has its roots.

The editors of I19 also welcome thoughtful, critically engaged 1500-2500 word media reviews of classic and contemporary films, streaming tv shows, video games and more that incorporate "incredible nineteenth-century" elements into both their forms and/or content. Blended historical genres like steampunk, neovictorianism, and magical realism are welcome. The media text might be set in the nineteenth century (ex. Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, dir. Timur Bekmambetov [2015]) or 'haunted" by facets of nineteenth-century culture such as its legacy of slavery (Get Out, dir. Jordan Peele [2017]), its settler colonialism (Blood Quantum, dir. Jeff Baranaby [2019]), its fairy tales (the Bluebeard narratives of The Piano or In the Cut, dir. Jane Campion [1993, 2003] or its literary traditions (The Invisible Man, dir. Leigh Wannell [2020]). Recent issues have featured reviews of several garden-focused titles in the "Cozy Victorian" video game genre, orientalism in House of Dragons, and a French/British co-production of War of the Worlds, and a Turkish adaptation of Frankenstein set in early twentieth-century Istanbul.

For the Spring 2026 issue, we already have a reviewer for Ryan Coogler's Sinners (2025), but we are very interested in having someone review monster-movie auteur Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for Netflix. Please contact me if you are interested - ideally someone would not just review the film but place its adaptation in dialogue with Shelley's original.

We are always happy to accept individual reviews of a classic or new film, video game, or streaming series, but we are also very excited to work with contributors who might want to provide an "overview" of some cultural trend that can be traced across several media texts or multiple works by an individual director. Contributors working on cultural texts from marginalized communities or focused on media productions in global contexts beyond the Anglosphere are especially encouaged to submit.

Please reach out to Joe Conway (jpc0018@uah.edu) for inquiries and submissions. Draft of submissions are needed by April 3 for the next issue.


categories
american
film and television
popular culture
romantic
victorian

Last updated January 6, 2026

CFP Monstrous Bodies: From Frankenstein to the Posthuman (2/13/2026; Madrid 4/23-24/2026)

Monstrous Bodies: From Frankenstein to the Posthuman

deadline for submissions:
February 13, 2026

full name / name of organization:
Saint Louis University Madrid

contact email:
olivia.badoi@slu.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/11/03/monstrous-bodies-from-frankenstein-to-the-posthuman

Monstrous Bodies: From Frankenstein to the Posthuman

Saint Louis University Madrid, April 23-24, 2026

Two centuries after Mary Shelley's Frankenstein first posed urgent questions about creation, responsibility, and what constitutes the human, we find ourselves once again confronting transgressive bodies that challenge boundaries—and monsters that reflect our deepest anxieties about the essence of humanity. Classic monsters are being reimagined with renewed urgency: Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein (2025) explicitly rejects AI and digital technology in favor of "old-fashioned craftsmanship" and practical effects, while Robert Eggers' Nosferatu (2024) and Luc Besson's Dracula (2025) resurrect the vampire to explore psychological trauma, isolation, and the burden of immortality—Eggers through the lens of female agency and Victorian pathologization, Besson through existential tragedy and centuries of alienation.

Meanwhile, body horror has emerged as a dominant mode of cultural critique, from films like The Substance (2024) that weaponize visceral transformation to expose ageism and misogyny, to literary works like Rahel Yoder´s Nightbitch (2021), Cassandra Khaw's The Salt Grows Heavy (2023), or Jade Song's Chlorine (2023).

These works arrive at a crucial juncture: the Age of AI has intensified anxieties about what defines human intelligence, creativity, embodiment, and consciousness. In an era when machines can generate art, hold conversations, and simulate human thought, the figure of the monster—whether Frankenstein's creature, the vampire, or the body-in-transformation—becomes a powerful lens for examining the boundaries of the human.

This conference brings together foundational and emerging scholarship in monster studies, posthumanism, and body theory. Drawing on Jeffrey Jerome Cohen's "Monster Theory" (1996), Susan Stryker on trans monstrosity as resistance, and N. Katherine Hayles on posthuman embodiment, we examine how contemporary monsters challenge boundaries of the human. The conference engages established critical posthumanist frameworks (Haraway, Braidotti, Alaimo, Wolfe) alongside emerging voices pushing these conversations forward—including Oxana Timofeeva's work on the "non-human as such" that challenges posthumanism's own anthropocentrism, and Maria Hlavajova's explorations of art's role in posthuman futures. We particularly welcome papers that analyze how monstrous bodies function as sites of struggle, medical intervention, and cultural inscription—or that explore how monstrosity offers modes of resistance, reimagining boundaries of the human.

Possible Topics Include:

Monster Theory and the Posthuman Condition

• The monster as cultural symptom in contemporary posthuman theory (Alaimo, Braidotti, Haraway)
• Viral monsters and contagion narratives in the wake of pandemic experience
• AI anxiety and the return of the created monster in 21st-century Gothic

Bodies Under Capitalism

• Beauty terror and age horror in The Substance and contemporary body horror cinema
• Monstrous transformations as critiques of late capitalism and neoliberal body politics
• Wellness culture, optimization, and the production of the "failed" body

Gothic Feminisms and Queer Monstrosity

• Victorian anxieties reimagined: female agency and pathologization in Eggers' Nosferatu
• Trans embodiment and monstrous becoming in contemporary speculative fiction
• Reproductive horror and the monstrous-feminine from Rosemary's Baby to Titane

Disability and Monstrous Embodiment

• Crip monstrosity and the rejection of cure narratives
• Prosthetic bodies and cyborg identities in science fiction
• Mad studies approaches to the "monstrous" mind

Race, Colonialism, and the Monstrous Other

• Decolonizing monster studies: indigenous perspectives on shapeshifting and transformation
• The zombie as racial metaphor from Haiti to Get Out
• Afrofuturist reimaginings of monstrous embodiment

Technology, Creation, and Responsibility

• Laboratory life: from Shelley's workshop to CRISPR and synthetic biology
• Digital ghosts and virtual monsters in the age of deepfakes
• The ethics of creation "without responsibility" in AI and biotechnology

Environmental Monsters and Multispecies Encounters

• Climate horror and monstrous ecologies in the Anthropocene
• Fungal networks, viral agencies, and more-than-human monsters
• Toxic bodies and chemical transformations in environmental justice narratives

Submission Guidelines

We welcome proposals for:

• Individual papers (20 minutes)
• Pre-formed panels (3-4 papers)
• Creative presentations and performances
• Roundtable discussions

Please submit abstracts of 250-300 words, along with a brief biographical note (100 words), to olivia.badoi@slu.edu by February 13.


Last updated November 3, 2025

CFP Reimagining Frankenstein in the 21st Century: Cross-Cultural Adaptations in Visual Culture (12/1/2025)

Please note, this call has educational and employment restrictions for applicants.

REIMAGINING FRANKENSTEIN IN THE 21ST CENTURY: Cross-Cultural Adaptations in Visual Culture

deadline for submissions:
December 1, 2025

full name / name of organization:
Cenk Tan and Defne Ersin Tutan

contact email:
adaptingfrankenstein@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/10/01/reimagining-frankenstein-in-the-21st-century-cross-cultural-adaptations-in-visual

CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS

REIMAGINING FRANKENSTEIN IN THE 21ST CENTURY: Cross-Cultural Adaptations in Visual Culture

Edited by Cenk Tan & Defne Ersin Tutan

Editors’ Introduction

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus (1818) has endured for over two centuries as one of the most mutable and culturally vibrant texts, continually reinvented through shifting global anxieties and paradigms. Despite transcending its original historical and cultural context, Shelley’s narrative has been utilized to mirror contemporary fears and concerns, thereby keeping its initial core. Whether it be fears of technological overreach, social alienation, and the ethical boundaries of human ambition, or concerns over science, identity, and power in the broader sense, Frankenstein still retains its global allure and timeless appeal, owing significantly to its adaptations on screen and on television.

Grounded in innumerable and invaluable novel-to-film analyses, Adaptation Studies has recently expanded its boundaries in innovational directions, and, as Sarah Cardwell contends, “[j]ust as adaptations have moved away from their source books, so too must the approach through which we consider them. […] [N]ovel-adaptation comparison is an inadequate starting point for the interpretation, analysis and evaluation of individual adaptations” (205-206). In line with this perspective, contemporary scholarship addresses adaptations as rewritings, appropriations, modernizations and/or localizations that shed light not necessarily on the source texts they adapt but on “the circumstances of their creation” (Murray 5). Viewed in this manner, adaptations of Frankenstein do more than retell a familiar story—they refract Shelley’s foundational questions through local narrative traditions, demonstrating the text’s remarkable adaptability to different cultural contexts and crises.

In this framework, this edited volume sets out to examine how 21st-century films and television series adapt Frankenstein across diverse cultural contexts—from Hollywood blockbusters to local cinema traditions—to reanimate Shelley’s core themes for modern audiences. Through case studies spanning Guillermo Del Toro’s anticipated Gothic reimagining, German refractions, South Korean thrillers, and beyond, the volume aims to reveal how the Frankenstein lore speaks to urgent contemporary concerns. By doing so, it also aspires to formulate theoretical stances on localization.

As such, the chapters are expected to demonstrate an argumentative framework and move beyond the mere “from the page to the screen” approach of comparing the two; instead, moving from the case study to possible “theorizing,” the argument is to look forward to designing an approach through which localized adaptations contribute to Adaptation Studies in the broader spectrum. Therefore, informative/descriptive studies will not be considered.

To elaborate, each chapter is expected to be solidly grounded in a theoretical argument through which it would address the dynamics of adaptation in the localizing process. It may strive to answer questions such as: how does the source text get appropriated in its new national, social and historical context? How does it (or is made to) appeal to a foreign audience (i.e. to one that is different from the source text’s original audience)? Is the source text appropriated in line with the local necessities of production or with the assumed expectations of the society and/or the audience? Is the end-product recognized as an adaptation or claimed to be “native”? [One should bear in mind Thomas Leitch’s remarkable question: “If an audience overlooks the intertextual allusion of a specific adaptation, does it still qualify as an adaptation?” (95).] Is the localized version merely a commercial product, a commodity, or a political/social/cultural “statement”? Does it actually keep any of its genuine literary and/or artistic merits or is it incorporated into popular culture? As such, the chapters would contribute to the ongoing debates on localization as a fashionable contemporary form of adaptation, as well as the theory of adaptation at large.

Works Cited

Cardwell, Sarah. Adaptation Revisited: Television and the Classic Novel. Manchester UP, 2002.

Leitch, Thomas. “Adaptation and Intertextuality, or, What isn’t an Adaptation, What Does It Matter?” A Companion to Literature, Film, and Adaptation. Ed. Deborah Cartmell. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. pp: 87-104.

Murray, Simone. The Adaptation Industry: The Cultural Economy of Contemporary Literary Adaptation. Routledge, 2012.



Each chapter should strictly abide by the word limit of 5000, including the endnotes, and the works cited. Endnotes should be preferred over footnotes. The body of the work should be organized under section titles where appropriate (such as Introduction, Theoretical Argument, Case Study, Conclusion, and the like). The chapters should follow the MLA 9th edition formatting.

Only contributors who hold PhD degrees and have institutional affiliations will be considered.

The book is under consideration by a major international publisher, which will be announced at a later date.

The proposed chapters have been outlined. Prospective contributors could make a selection from the outline, but they are also welcome to propose works not listed, should they fall within the scope of the volume. The criteria for consideration are threefold: 1. adaptations for the screen or for the TV, 2. adaptations pertaining to the 21st century, and 3. adaptations produced outside of the UK.

Contributors are expected to send an abstract of 300 words and a short biographical note of 150 words (written in the 3rd person) by the submission deadline.

For all inquiries and submissions, please contact: adaptingfrankenstein@gmail.com



Schedule

Deadline for Abstract Submission: December 1, 2025

Notification of Acceptance: December 31, 2025

Deadline for Chapter Submission: March 1, 2026

Anticipated Publication Date: Summer 2026



Provisional Outline

Preface

Introduction: “Reimagining Frankenstein on Screen and on Television”

USA: The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (2023)

Blending science-fiction and horror, reversing/resisting stereotypes.

USA: Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein (Nov. 2025)

Blending folklore, horror, and humanism, rewriting monstrosity.

USA: The Bride (Mar. 2026)

Reimagining gender, agency, and monstrosity.

German Refractions

Post-WWII memory, horror, and monstrous embodiment.

Hungarian Perspectives
Cultural reinterpretations of the myth.
South Korean Adaptations

Ethical dilemmas of biotechnology and societal anxieties.

Canadian Reconsideration: Dead Lover (2025)
Revisiting horror traditions through a modern lens.
Spanish Postmodernism

Fragmented narratives and existential dread in the contemporary context.

Nordic / Dutch Representations

Blending folklore and bioethics through cinematic interpretations.

Mexican Horror
Gender, monstrosity, and social marginalization in horror.
South American Gothic

Exploring racial and environmental tensions through a Frankenstein-inspired narrative.

New Zealand Horror: Marama (2025)
Representing Maori Gothic fiction.
Japanese Cyber-Gothic

Technology, identity, and the body through animation.

Australian Adaptations

Interpreting indigenous perspectives and ecological themes.

Turkish Adaptation

Frankenstein as metaphor for social alienation and modernization.

Eastern European Gothic

Post-Soviet cultural anxieties and the legacy of scientific hubris.
Czech Speculative Fiction: Ghoul (2015)

Reimagining the monster through speculative fiction.

Chinese Adaptation

Reimagining creation and consciousness.

Russian Adaptation

Modernity and the ethics of creation in Post-Soviet Russia.



For all inquiries and submissions, please contact: adaptingfrankenstein@gmail.com


Last updated October 19, 2025

UPDATE Frankensteinian Resonance: Transtemporal Reanimations in Fiction, Film, and Video (11/30/2025)

Updated CFP. Please note, this call has educational restrictions for applicants.

FRANKENSTEINIAN RESONANCE: Transtemporal Reanimations in Fiction, Film, and Video

deadline for submissions:
November 30, 2025

full name / name of organization:
Assoc. Prof. Ela İpek Gündüz, Gaziantep University, Turkey & Dr. Ercan Gürova, Ankara University, Turkey

contact email:
frankensteinianresonance@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/07/29/frankensteinian-resonance-transtemporal-reanimations-in-fiction-film-and-video

Call for Book Chapters

Frankensteinian Resonance: Transtemporal Reanimations in Fiction, Film, and Video

“Under Strong Interest” by Palgrave Macmillan

Editors’ Introduction

Considering the still resonating waves of Mary Shelley’s timeless novel Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus (1818), due to its conveying the notions, issues, and messages which are both relevant to current times, and as a reflection of its own time, ‘Frankenstein’ continues to be a very appealing trope, phenomenon or myth. The very idea of “humaneness” is speculated continuously due to the embeddedness of the “Frankenstein” the creator, the monster, and the novel itself, including its writer, within the literary and cultural landscape. It is an undeniable fact that it has been perpetually remembered and reinvented due to its uniqueness, even in the 21st century, prompting producers to adapt it. Yet, how it affects, appeals to, finds correspondences with, and elicits reactions or appreciations may be varied. Nevertheless, regardless of this differentiation in both the re-handlings and/or remembering, as well as the responses, the very speciality of the text remains visible. Notwithstanding the conventions of the genres or the adaptation mediums, as a very special text, Frankenstein transgresses the socio-cultural and even spatio-temporal boundaries that pave the way for the appreciation of contemporary readers and/or audiences.

The proposed edited volume, Frankensteineian Resonance: Transtemporal Reanimations in Fiction, Film, and Video, seeks to provide a rigorous, interdisciplinary exploration of how the Frankenstein mythos continues to evolve, adapt, and resonate across contemporary media landscapes. The volume thus proposes Frankenstein as a transtextual and transtemporal entity, a metaphorical conduit through which trauma, memory, identity, and otherness are endlessly renegotiated. It examines how contemporary rewritings and adaptations, spanning various genres and platforms, reveal the persistence of Frankensteinian concerns with artificial life, the ethics of creation, and the blurred boundaries between human and nonhuman. By assembling approximately 20 original chapters that analyse iconic novels, films, video games, and theatrical adaptations through transtemporal lenses, this collection aims to contribute to Gothic studies, adaptation theory, science fiction criticism, and broader discussions on the posthuman condition. Contributions will be selected through an open international call targeting scholars in literature, film, and cultural studies with PhDs or equivalent credentials.

Each contributor will offer a close and original analysis of a novel, film, or media work that actively reimagines the Frankenstein myth. Rather than adopting a purely descriptive approach, each chapter will develop a coherent and critical argument, connecting the selected work to key interpretive frameworks, such as monstrosity, hybridity, technological creation, identity fragmentation, and moral ambiguity.

Contributors will be asked to choose a specific fictional or cinematic text and engage it through relevant theoretical and cultural lenses. While the exact titles and authors of the chapters will be finalised after the acceptance of proposals, all chapters will be unified by the volume’s overarching interest in Frankenstein as a resonant, reconfigurable myth that speaks to evolving human concerns.

Please choose one of the topics listed below as the focus of your chapter. Proposals should clearly identify the selected work (novel, film, or media) and your theoretical framework.



Part I - Literary Re-Visitations/ Rewritings

1-Frankenstein Unbound (1973) by Brian W. Aldiss

2-The Frankenstein Papers (1986) by Fred Saberhagen

3-Poor Things (1992) by Alasdair Gray [Accepted]

4-The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein (1995) by Theodore Roszak [Accepted]

5-The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein (2008) by Peter Ackroyd

6-Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013) by Ahmed Saadawi

7-Frankissstein: A Love Story (2019) by Jeanette Winterson[Accepted]

8-Heart of a Dog (1925) by Mikhail Bulgakov [Accepted]

9-Golem (1915) by Gustav Meyrink

10-The Sandman (1816) by E.T.A Hoffmann



Part II- Movie/ Theatre/Video Game Adaptations



1-Frankenstein (1931) & Bride of Frankenstein (1935) – Dir. James Whale

2-The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) – Dir. Terence Fisher [Accepted]

3-Young Frankenstein (1974) – Dir. Mel Brooks[Accepted]

4-Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994) – Dir. Kenneth Branagh

5-Frankenstein (2004) – Dir. Marcus Nispel

6-Victor Frankenstein (2015) – Dir. Paul McGuigan [Accepted]

7-Frankenstein (2015) – Dir. Bernard Rose

8-The Frankenstein Chronicles (2015–2017) – ITV Series

9-Frankenstein (1981) – by Victor Gialanella

10-Frankenstein – Playing with Fire (1988) – by Barbara Field

11-Frankenstein (2007) – by Nick Dear, directed by Danny Boyle

12-Frankenstein (2017) a musical theatre adaptation by Eric B. Sirota

13-Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster (1995)

14-Frankenstein: Master of Death (2015)

15-Frankenstein: Beyond the Time (2016)

16-Frankenstein Wars (2017)

17-Poor Things (2023)



Submission Details and Timeline

Please send a 300–500 word abstract describing the proposed chapter’s theory/framework, contributions, and structure, and a brief bio (100–150 words) to frankensteinianresonance@gmail.com

The abstract submission deadline is November 30, 2025.

Submission of Complete Chapters (for selected abstracts): March 30, 2026.

Final chapters will be expected to be around 5500-6000 words, in English, and referenced in MLA 9 style.

The book is expected to be published in late 2026, following peer review and editorial revisions.

All submissions will undergo a rigorous double-blind peer-review process.

For inquiries and questions, please feel free to contact us at frankensteinianresonance@gmail.com



Editors: Assoc. Prof. Ela İpek Gündüz, Gaziantep University, Turkey

Dr. Ercan Gürova, Ankara University, Turkey



Last updated October 24, 2025

Available for Preorder - Cook's Frankenstein Retold

Just saw notice of this on Cook's LinkedIn account. The cover image is from there as well.

Frankenstein Retold: Literary Adaptation in Contemporary Fiction

Daniel Cook (Author)

Full details and ordering information at https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/frankenstein-retold-9781350501959/. 

Product details

Published Apr 16 2026

Format Hardback

Edition 1st

Extent 240

ISBN 9781350501959

Imprint Bloomsbury Academic

Dimensions 9 x 6 inches

Series Gothic Legacies

Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

 

Description

Placing Frankenstein in the critical frameworks of book history and secondary authorship, this book explores the increasing array of book-based reworkings of, and sequels to, the novel that up to this point, have been largely ignored. Covering novels, novellas and short stories across a range of genres from romance to YA fiction, Frankenstein Retold examines a broad range of these texts in different purviews and demonstrates their own critical value as well and pertinence for understanding new approaches to literary adaptation in theory and practice more broadly. Organised thematically, the book cover topics including: filial characterisation; continuations and sequels explicitly tied to Shelley's narrative; epistolary, journal-based, found-text and other storytelling forms; coquels set against the original material; fiction in which Shelley's materials have been transplanted to entirely new settings, periods or genres; cameos; and the ghostly presence of the original author. A testament to the vitality of the original story more than two centuries after it first appeared, Daniel Cook explores works from a huge range of writers such as Peter Ackroyd, Jeanette Winterson, Ahmed Saadawi, Suzanne Weyne, Jon Skovron, William A. Chandler, Susan Heyboer Okeefe, Hailey Bailey, Laurie Sheck, Edward M. Erdelac, Fred Saberhagen and Kate Horsley among many others. With a large body of scholarship already exploring the rich cinematic, transmedial and cultural afterlife of Shelley's novel, Frankenstein Retold offers a bridge between literary studies notions of book history and authorship, and media studies approaches to transmedia storytelling, between fan writing and media production histories.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

New and Hybrid Species

Retelling Tales in Theory and Practice Frankensteinian Retellings Frankenstein Retold: A User's Guide

Chapter 1. New Beginnings

The Answering Novel: Frankenstein Unbound

The Teller and the Tale: Frankissstein

Chapter 2. The Literary Redo

The Strange Casebook

The Turning Pages: A Monster's Notes

When a Monster Calls: Monster and The Frankenstein Papers

Chapter 3. Sequels and Prequels

The Frankenstein Sequel Becoming Victor

Chapter 4. Brides Revisited

Half-Finished Brides

Survivors: Pandora's Bride and Born of the Sea

Chapter 5. Orcadian Coquels

The Bride-to-be: The Monster's Wife

The Restless Bride of Eynhallow

Chapter 6. Patchwork Things

The Twice-Told Tale: Poor Things

M/S: Patchwork Girl

Chapter 7. Old Endings

The Under-Story of Elizabeth Frankenstein Unnatural Women

Frankenstein's Daughters

Afterword: The Modern Deucalion

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Daniel Cook is Associate Dean and Reader in English Literature at the University of Dundee, UK. He is the author of Walter Scott and Short Fiction (2021), Reading Swift’s Poetry (2020), and Thomas Chatterton and Neglected Genius, 1760-1830 (2013). His most recent books include The Cambridge Companion to Gulliver's Travels, with Nicholas Seager (2023), Gulliver’s Travels: The Norton Library (2023), Scottish Poetry, 1730-1830 (2023), and Austen After 200: New Reading Spaces, with Annika Bautz and Kerry Sinanan (2022).

Available for Pre-Orders -Hunting Frankenstein from GhostBoy Press

Due out in Fall 2026:

Hunting Frankenstein - Limited Edition Hardcover (Pre-order)

$35.00 Price

Autumn 2026

Fall details and ordering information at https://www.ghostboypress.com/product-page/hunting-frankenstein-hardcover.

The story of Victor Frankenstein's reanimated monster is one of the greatest works of horror ever published, but is it merely fiction? Was the deathly creature's stormy resurrection inspired by true events? What is the real history of the ruined castle high above the Rhine Valley in German Bavaria? Who was the secretive alchemist performing forbidden experiments within the castle walls, and did he truly create an elixir of life from the bodies of the dead?

Legend-hunter Christopher Rondina returns to the mountains of Germany to seek out the truth behind the iconic tale of a mad scientist and his terrifying creation!

 

HUNTING FRANKENSTEIN is available now for pre-order!

This signed and numbered hardcover is limited to just 25 copies, and will ship in September of 2026, exclusively from GhostBoyPress!

Coming Soon Bride of Frankenstein (film|minutes)

Found on Amazon:

Bride of Frankenstein (film|minutes) 

Paperback – September 9, 2025

by Shane Denson (Author)

Full details and preview at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1643150847/.

Open-Access at https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.13005363. 

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lever Press

Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 9, 2025

Language ‏ : ‎ English

Print length ‏ : ‎ 215 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1643150847

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1643150840

Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.49 x 7 inches

The inaugural volume in the film|minutes book series, this book offers a close, minute-by-minute analysis of director James Whale’s iconic 1935 masterpiece Bride of Frankenstein. Alternating between a variety of analytical lenses, including descriptive, historical, and philosophical, this study breaks from conventional forms of film-analytical writing and offers an experiment in defamiliarization and looking anew. In the 1930s, the film opened a space for reflection on the rapid normalization of filmic sound, which it both relies on and estranges. In the 2020s, Bride of Frankenstein brings forth questions of new technological mediums such as artificial intelligence and the transformation of human agency. Shane Denson argues that such associations should not be written off as mere anachronism, but seen, rather, as a strategy of serialization; that is, it is by means of such anachronism that a film like Bride of Frankenstein remains open to new developments and novel situations, and thus comes alive for future viewers.

Volumes in the film|minutes series cut up films into segments of exactly one minute and transform each minute into an innovative tool for thinking with the film. Each volume works rigorously with the concept of “the minute” as a non-cinematic scale/quantity, a means to zoom in on (dis)orderly fragments that do not necessarily respect the confinements of cinematic form or meaning. As a critical practice, the focus on minutes causes disruptions and displacement that create novel connections and perspectives, and uncovers hidden traces, making it possible to watch each film anew.

About the Author

Shane Denson is Professor of Film and Media Studies, and by courtesy, of German Studies and of Communication at Stanford University, where he also serves as Director of the Program in Modern Thought & Literature. His research interests span a variety of media and historical periods, including phenomenological and media-philosophical approaches to film, digital media, and serialized popular forms.

Creatures of Fancy – Mary Shelley in Dundee (2019)

I recently came across this interesting collection from the Abertay Historical Society of Dundee, Scotland.

Creatures of Fancy – Mary Shelley in Dundee (2019)

£7.50; ISBN 978-0-900019-61-6

A book of essays exploring Mary Shelley’s time in Dundee, the influence it would have on her life and work, and the rapidly growing scientific and cultural life of the town in the early 19th century.

The book can be ordered directly from the Abertay Historical Society at https://abertay.org.uk/product/creatures-of-fancy-mary-shelley-in-dundee-2019/. There is also an associated presentation available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCOfld9m8j8&t=4s&ab_channel=AbertayHistoricalSociety. 

Description

CREATURES OF FANCY – MARY SHELLEY IN DUNDEE

Gordon Bannerman, Kenneth Baxter, Daniel Cook, Matthew Jarron

In June 1812 the future author of Frankenstein, Mary Godwin (later Mrs Percy Shelley), arrived in Dundee as a guest of the Baxter family. Her time in the rapidly developing town would have a significant influence on her – here for the first time she was inspired to become a writer.

This publication looks at Mary’s connections to Dundee through three separate essays, with a foreword by Billy Kay. In the first chapter, Gordon Bannerman describes the background to her visit, the connections between her family and that of textile merchant William Thomas Baxter, the friendship she developed with Baxter’s daughter Isabella and the subsequent influence of Isabella’s husband David Booth. All of this is considered in the context of the unique religious and political life of Dundee.

Mary’s visit coincided with notable developments in medicine and an increasing interest in studying nature and science, as well as a growth of popular literature and a new theatre for the town. In the second chapter, Matthew Jarron and Kenneth Baxter explore both the cultural and scientific life of Dundee at this time.

In the final chapter, Daniel Cook examines the depiction of Scotland in both Frankenstein and a later novel, The Last Man, showing that Mary’s experiences during her time here continued to have an impact on her work.

CFP Frankensteinian Resonance: Transtemporal Reanimations in Fiction, Film, and Video (11/30/2025)

Frankensteinian Resonance: Transtemporal Reanimations in Fiction, Film, and Video

deadline for submissions:
November 30, 2025

full name / name of organization:
Assoc. Prof. Ela İpek Gündüz, Gaziantep University, Turkey & Dr. Ercan Gürova, Ankara University, Turkey

contact email:
frankensteinianresonance@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/07/29/frankensteinian-resonance-transtemporal-reanimations-in-fiction-film-and-video

Call for Book Chapters

Frankensteinian Resonance: Transtemporal Reanimations in Fiction, Film, and Video

“Under Strong Interest” by McFarland’s Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy series

Editors’ Introduction

Considering the still resonating waves of Mary Shelley’s timeless novel Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus (1818), due to its conveying the notions, issues, and messages which are both relevant to current times, and as a reflection of its own time, ‘Frankenstein’ continues to be a very appealing trope, phenomenon or myth. The very idea of “humaneness” is speculated continuously due to the embeddedness of the “Frankenstein” the creator, the monster, and the novel itself, including its writer, within the literary and cultural landscape. It is an undeniable fact that it has been perpetually remembered and reinvented due to its uniqueness, even in the 21st century, prompting producers to adapt it. Yet, how it affects, appeals to, finds correspondences with, and elicits reactions or appreciations may be varied. Nevertheless, regardless of this differentiation in both the re-handlings and/or remembering, as well as the responses, the very speciality of the text remains visible. Notwithstanding the conventions of the genres or the adaptation mediums, as a very special text, Frankenstein transgresses the socio-cultural and even spatio-temporal boundaries that pave the way for the appreciation of contemporary readers and/or audiences.

The proposed edited volume, Frankensteineian Resonance: Transtemporal Reanimations in Fiction, Film, and Video, seeks to provide a rigorous, interdisciplinary exploration of how the Frankenstein mythos continues to evolve, adapt, and resonate across contemporary media landscapes. The volume thus proposes Frankenstein as a transtextual and transtemporal entity, a metaphorical conduit through which trauma, memory, identity, and otherness are endlessly renegotiated. It examines how contemporary rewritings and adaptations, spanning various genres and platforms, reveal the persistence of Frankensteinian concerns with artificial life, the ethics of creation, and the blurred boundaries between human and nonhuman. By assembling approximately 20 original chapters that analyse iconic novels, films, video games, and theatrical adaptations through transtemporal lenses, this collection aims to contribute to Gothic studies, adaptation theory, science fiction criticism, and broader discussions on the posthuman condition. Contributions will be selected through an open international call targeting scholars in literature, film, and cultural studies with PhDs or equivalent credentials.

Each contributor will offer a close and original analysis of a novel, film, or media work that actively reimagines the Frankenstein myth. Rather than adopting a purely descriptive approach, each chapter will develop a coherent and critical argument, connecting the selected work to key interpretive frameworks, such as monstrosity, hybridity, technological creation, identity fragmentation, and moral ambiguity.

Contributors will be asked to choose a specific fictional or cinematic text and engage it through relevant theoretical and cultural lenses. While the exact titles and authors of the chapters will be finalised after the acceptance of proposals, all chapters will be unified by the volume’s overarching interest in Frankenstein as a resonant, reconfigurable myth that speaks to evolving human concerns.

Please choose one of the topics listed below as the focus of your chapter. Proposals should clearly identify the selected work (novel, film, or media) and your theoretical framework.



Part I - Literary Re-Visitations/ Rewritings

1-Frankenstein Unbound (1973) by Brian W. Aldiss

2-The Frankenstein Papers (1986) by Fred Saberhagen

3-Poor Things (1992) by Alasdair Gray

4-The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein (1995) by Theodore Roszak

5-The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein (2008) by Peter Ackroyd

6-Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013) by Ahmed Saadawi

7-Frankissstein: A Love Story (2019) by Jeanette Winterson

8-Heart of a Dog (1925) by Mikhail Bulgakov

9-Golem (1915) by Gustav Meyrink

10-The Sandman (1816) by E.T.A Hoffmann



Part II- Movie/ Theatre/Video Game Adaptations



1-Frankenstein (1931) & Bride of Frankenstein (1935) – Dir. James Whale

2-The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) – Dir. Terence Fisher

3-Young Frankenstein (1974) – Dir. Mel Brooks

4-Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994) – Dir. Kenneth Branagh

5-Frankenstein (2004) – Dir. Marcus Nispel

6-Victor Frankenstein (2015) – Dir. Paul McGuigan

7-Frankenstein (2015) – Dir. Bernard Rose

8-The Frankenstein Chronicles (2015–2017) – ITV Series

9-Frankenstein (1981) – by Victor Gialanella

10-Frankenstein – Playing with Fire (1988) – by Barbara Field

11-Frankenstein (2007) – by Nick Dear, directed by Danny Boyle

12-Frankenstein (2017) a musical theatre adaptation by Eric B. Sirota

13-Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster (1995)

14-Frankenstein: Master of Death (2015)

15-Frankenstein: Beyond the Time (2016)

16-Frankenstein Wars (2017)

17-Poor Things (2023)



Submission Details and Timeline

Please send a 300–500 word abstract describing the proposed chapter’s theory/framework, contributions, and structure, and a brief bio (100–150 words) to frankensteinianresonance@gmail.com

The abstract submission deadline is November 30, 2025.

Submission of Complete Chapters (for selected abstracts): March 30, 2026.

Final chapters will be expected to be around 5500-6000 words, in English, and referenced in MLA 9 style.

The book is expected to be published in late 2026, following peer review and editorial revisions.

All submissions will undergo a rigorous double-blind peer-review process.

For inquiries and questions, please feel free to contact us at frankensteinianresonance@gmail.com



Editors: Assoc. Prof. Ela İpek Gündüz, Gaziantep University, Turkey

Dr. Ercan Gürova, Ankara University, Turkey



Last updated August 4, 2025

CFP Frank*ology, or the Thoroughly Modern Prometheus: A Re-vision of Sensualities in Romanticism from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (virtual conference) (9/15/2025; online 11/21/2025)

Frank*ology, or the Thoroughly Modern Prometheus: A Re-vision of Sensualities in Romanticism from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (virtual conference)

deadline for submissions:
September 15, 2025

full name / name of organization:
West of Canon Press

contact email:
editor@westofcanon.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/06/24/frankology-or-the-thoroughly-modern-prometheus-a-re-vision-of-sensualities-in



Frank*ology, or the Thoroughly Modern Prometheus: A Re-vision of Sensualities in Romanticism from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (virtual conference)



West of Canon Press seeks papers and presentations on Frankenstein from academics, artists, and folks across disciplines for a virtual conference celebrating the long legacy of this incredible book. We are looking for academic style papers as well as creative responses to Frankenstein and its related media.



A non-comprehensive list of what we’re hoping to see and include:

• Transgender identity (specifically transmasculinities) in Frankenstein and other works by the Romantics.
• Lake Geneva studies- Looking at Shelley-adjacent Romantics in a different light (discussions of polyamory and free love welcome.).
• The poetics of monstrosity
• Incest and queerness in Frankenstein
• Disability studies and Frankenstein
• Indigiqueer and racialized perspectives on Frankenstein
• Cinematic depictions of the creature, including Karloff, Warhol, Zelda Williams, Hammer Horror, James Whale etc.
• Theatre, music, and dance iterations of Frankenstein.
• Adaptations and responses ie. Frank Kiss Stein, Ex Machina, Penny Dreadful, Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Frankenstein in Baghdad, Junji Ito’s manga, Young Frankenstein, Danny Boyle’s stage adaptation with Benedict Cumberbatch
• Guillermo del Toro’s longstanding love affair with Frankenstein.
• Nautical queerness, eco-queerness and homoeroticism in Frankenstein
• The epistolary
• Phenomenology
• The cadaver and the soul; complicating ‘new life’ in Frankenstein via crime, race, religion etc.
• Filmic lore about Frankenstein which is parallel to canon but taken as truth; peg necks, Elizabeth as the Bride etc.
• Everyone’s Met Frankenstein: Frankenstein’s pop culture encounters with The Munsters, Scooby-Doo, Abbott and Costello, Alvin and the Chipmunks etc.
• Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley
• Frankenstein and queer collaboration.
• Mental Illness and neurodiversity.
• Frankenstein, editorial processes, and collaboration.
• Artificial Intelligence as Adam
• Short stories, poems, plays, songs, dance, art-works, etc.,

The conference will hopefully conclude with a viewing of Guillermo del Toro’s new adaptation of the work, which Netflix says is scheduled for November of this year, but we will have a firm date of Friday November 21, 2025. CV, artist’s statement, and abstracts of 200-500 words for a 20 minute presentation, panel or creative project can be sent to Oscar Anderson at editor@westofcanon.com by September 15. 

While we’re not requiring content warnings for abstracts, please inform ahead if there’s any part of your presentation or abstract that flashes and/or contains bright light.


Last updated June 26, 2025

CFP Routledge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft: Wollstonecraft at Work (1/15/2026)

Routledge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft: Wollstonecraft at Work

deadline for submissions:
January 15, 2026

full name / name of organization:
Cynthia Richards and Shawn Lisa Maurer

contact email:
crichards@wittenberg.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/06/27/routledge-companion-to-mary-wollstonecraft-wollstonecraft-at-work


Routledge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft: Wollstonecraft at Work
Call for Papers

Mary Wollstonecraft’s contributions as a philosopher are uncontested, her reputation cemented by such recent publications as The Wollstonecraftian Mind (Routledge, 2019), the first collection on a woman philosopher to appear in the Routledge Philosophical Minds series. By contrast, her work as a writer remains unsettled. We know her work to be passionate: angry with Edmund Burke, she composed the Vindication of the Rights of Man in six weeks. She writes Letters Written During a Short Residence to an indifferent lover, the American businessman Gilbert Imlay, and through her romantically charged descriptions, wins the reluctant affections of the Enlightenment philosopher William Godwin instead. As this example makes manifest, if Wollstonecraft succeeds as a writer, it seemingly happens by accident, a byproduct of the fervor of her convictions. We grant her a place in the literary canon because her influence is undeniable and not because the quality of her production is uniform and unassailable.

This Routledge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft will challenge this reading by focusing on Wollstonecraft as a writer at work, a writer consciously and deliberately innovating to produce a rich and varied oeuvre that reveals forms of intellectual and professional labor beyond her better-known philosophical treatises and novels. Instead, this volume will make the case for Wollstonecraft as an artist first and a polemicist second, yet an artist whose creative interventions stayed true to her principles in the face of conservative backlash. In this regard, the volume comes closest to emulating The Cambridge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft (2002) while building upon the more multidisciplinary Mary Wollstonecraft in Context (Cambridge 2020).

Yet even as the volume will argue for the intrinsic quality of her writing, it will also recognize that the work remains incomplete. The Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) had a planned second volume that was never realized; The Wrongs of Woman (1798) was published unfinished. Her primer to her young daughter, Fanny, has yet to be published as a stand-alone text. But her work also remains incomplete because it continues to exert such a powerful force more than two hundred years after her death. Although the feminist political implications of her work, which continues to be “constantly re-moulded in feminism’s changing image,” as Barbara Taylor writes, have been traced in multiple ways, the impact of her literary production and readers’ engagement with that multifaceted work, in the academy, in popular culture, and in the classroom, has yet to be fully explored.

We envision essays relating to three broad categories–Wollstonecraft at Work, Wollstonecraft in the World, and Wollstonecraft in the Classroom–and invite essays on all stages of Wollstonecraft’s career and all genres in which she worked. Possible topics might include Wollstonecraft as a working woman/professional writer/public intellectual; Wollstonecraft as an artistic innovator; Wollstonecraft’s growth and development; Wollstonecraft and visual culture; Wollstonecraft as an educator. We also seek essays that address Wollstonecraft’s historical as well as contemporary resonances in literary, artistic, and feminist political contexts across the globe. We encourage reflections on the productive imbrications of Wollstonecraft’s life and work; on her critical reception, her artistic legacies, and her place in popular culture. Finally, we invite essays on editing and teaching Wollstonecraft’s work. How is her influence felt throughout the world and how is her work taught in various regions and countries? How does she continue to educate us and our students?

We welcome preliminary proposals on these or related topics. Please send abstracts of approximately 250 words to both editors via email by January 15, 2026.

Shawn Lisa Maurer (College of the Holy Cross): smaurer@holycross.edu

Cynthia Richards (Wittenberg University): crichards@wittenberg.edu



Last updated July 3, 2025

Coming Soon - Oxford World's Classics Edition of Mathilda

Mathilda
Mary Shelley

Edited by Deanna P. Koretsky
Oxford World's Classics

Full details and ordering information at https://global.oup.com/academic/product/mathilda-9780192883049. 

A new edition of Mary Shelley's second novel, which remained unpublished until 1959 due to its themes of suicide and incest

Offers an original transcription from the only known manuscript copy of Mathilda; one of only three original transcriptions in circulation

Examines how the major themes in the book reflect the political discourse of the time and presents new avenues for understanding Shelley's views on gender and sexuality

Includes appendices such as 'The Mourner,' Shelley's retelling of Mathilda set in the context of transatlantic slavery, and other texts that help readers understand the breadth of Shelley's social consciousness



Paperback

This item is not yet published. It is available for pre-orders and will ship on 13 May 2025.

208 Pages

7.7 x 5.1 inches

ISBN: 9780192883049

Out in 2026 - Oxford World's Classics Combined Edition of The Last Man and The Journal of Sorrow

The Last Man and The Journal of Sorrow
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Edited by Eileen M. Hunt
Oxford World's Classics

Full details and ordering information at https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-last-man-and-the-journal-of-sorrow-9780198892793.

Presents two of Mary Shelley's most important works, never before published together

Includes a new introduction drawing out connections between Shelley's novel and the journal, and their relationships to political science fiction and life writing

Shelley's groundbreaking The Last Man was the first major modern telling of postapocalyptic pandemic which still resonates 200 years after publication


Paperback

This item is not yet published. It is available for pre-orders and will ship on 13 April 2026.

512 Pages

7.7 x 5.1 inches

ISBN: 9780198892793

Coming Soon History of A Six Weeks' Tour Oxford World's Classics Edition

History of A Six Weeks' Tour: Through a part of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland: with Letters Descriptive of a Sail Round the Lake of Geneva, and of the Glaciers of Chamouni

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley

Edited by Cian Duffy and Anna Mercer
Oxford World's Classics

Full details and ordering information at https://global.oup.com/academic/product/history-of-a-six-weeks-tour-9780192858276.

Published for the first time in paperback, detailing the account of two journeys made by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley

An important and revealing but less well-known work by two of the most famous authors of the Romantic period

Includes a detailed introduction, explanatory notes, appendices, and maps


Paperback

This item is not yet published. It is available for pre-orders and will ship on 13 August 2025.

192 Pages | 3 maps

7.7 x 5.1 inches

ISBN: 9780192858276

Recent Publication - A Vindication of Monsters: Essays on Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley (2023)

Sorry to have missed this earlier.

Non-Fiction Title: A Vindication of Monsters: Essays on Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley

Publisher site: https://ifwgpublishing.com/non-fiction-title-a-vindication-of-monsters-essays-on-mary-wollstonecraft-and-mary-shelley/.

In 1797 an extraordinary visionary died, leaving behind a grieving husband, a two-year-old daughter, and a newborn. The woman was Mary Wollstonecraft, her daughter Fanny Imlay, and her baby Mary Godwin, who, through many trials and tribulations, grew up to become the remarkable Mary Shelley, creator of one of the most important books in literature: Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus.

While many books have examined both women’s lives, their remarkable similarities, their passions, joys, and their grief, A Vindication of Monsters: Essays on Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, delves deeper into the stories behind both women, their connections to historical events, society, their philosophies, and their political contributions to their time. These essays and memoirs explore Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, and Shelley’s circle of friends, including her husband, the capricious poet Percy Shelley; the libertine Romantic Lord Byron; the first modern vampire author John Polidori; and other contemporary creatives who continue to be inspired by both women today.

Contents:

Preface by Sara Karloff, actress and Boris Karloff’s daughter
Introduction (‘Examining Frankenstein’) by Leslie S. Klinger (editor of the highly-acclaimed New Annotated Frankenstein)
Foreword by Lisa Morton, six-time Bram Stoker Award® winner
‘In His Eyes Our Own Yearning: Seeing Mary Shelley and Her Creature’ by Nancy Holder
‘The Maker Remade: Mary Shelley In Fiction’ by Matthew R Davis
‘Beauty And The Grotesque’ by Michele Brittany
‘Mary Shelley And The World Of Monsters’ by Rob Hood
‘An Articulation Of Beauty In The Film ‘Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein’’ by Donald Prentice Jr
‘Mapping The Collective Body Of Frankenstein’s Brides’ by Carina Bissett
‘Marys And Motherhood’ and Preamble by Claire Fitzpatrick
‘Don’t Feed The Monsters’ by Hk Stubbs
‘My Mother Hands Me A Book’ by Piper Mejia
‘A Bold Question: Consent And The Experimental Subject In Frankenstein’ by Octavia Cade
‘Mary Shelley And Percy Shelley’s Fascination With The Creation Myth And Sexual Androgyny’ by Ciarán Bruder
‘Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein And Revenge Killers’ by Anthony P Fergusson
‘Medicine And Mary Shelley’ by Grant Butler
‘Frankenstein’s Language Model’ by Jason Franks
‘Mary Shelley: Pandemics, Isolation, And Writing’ by Lee Murray
‘Mary W And Mary S: A Story With Objects’ by Lucy Sussex

A comprehensive essay on the motivations and content of this book by the editor, Claire Fitzpatrick (in Ginger Nuts of Horror).

A Vindication of Monsters: Essays on Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley

Edited by Claire Fitzpatrick
Non-Fiction
English language
ISBN: 978-1-922856-40-1 (print)
978-1-922856-41-8 (ebook)
RRP: US$16.99 (US$6.99 ebook)
Publisher: IFWG Publishing International
252 pages – paperback, English
Binding: Perfect bound
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm
eBook and Print Formats: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBook
Key Words: Non-fiction; Mary Wollstonecraft; Mary Shelley; essays; gothic literature; horror; literature;
Publication Date: 15 October 2023 (global release)
Distributor: World-wide through IPG (IPG specific in North America, NewSouth Books (partner) in Australia/New Zealand, and UID(Marsden/Eurospan) in UK/Europe)

CFP Mary Shelley Today: *Frankenstein* in the Twenty-First Century (2/1/2025)

Mary Shelley Today: *Frankenstein* in the Twenty-First Century

deadline for submissions:
February 1, 2025

full name / name of organization:
Timothy Ruppert and Danette DiMarco

contact email:
timothy.ruppert@sru.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/12/26/mary-shelley-today-frankenstein-in-the-twenty-first-century

Mary Shelley Today: Frankenstein in the Twenty-First Century seeks to reevaluate the influence of Mary Shelley, and particularly her most prominent novel, on literature and imaginative work of the last quarter century (defined as 1999-2024). This project engages with works and authors on whom little has been written to date in the hope of providing exciting new resources for Romanticists and general readers alike.

We seek contributions between 4,500-6,500 words. While we do not wish to delimit authors in terms of focus, we will give special preference to scholarship on undertreated works and writers, for example, Seanan McGuire’s Down Among the Sticks and Bones (2017), Theodora Goss’s The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter (2017), Kiersten White’s The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein (2018), John Kessel’s Pride and Prometheus (2018), Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad (trans. 2018), and Jennifer McMahon’s The Children on the Hill (2022). We are also interested in reinterpretations of Frankenstein in other genres, including works such as the Japanese manga series Fullmetal Alchemist,cinematic products such as Larry Fessenden’s 2019 Depraved or the Doctor Who episode ‘The Haunting of Villa Diodati’ (2020), or stage plays such as Eric Sirota’s musical adaptation of Frankenstein (2017). Please note that we already have a chapter concerning Peter Lovesey’s 1999 novel, The Vault, and so will not accept submissions exclusively concerning that work.

Please submit a 500/1,000-word proposal along with your contact information and a biographical note (up to 200 words) to both co-editors by 1 February 2025. Further details on style and formatting will be provided to prospective contributors upon acceptance.

Accepted contributors should plan to submit complete book chapters (4,500/6,500 words, including references and footnotes) by 1 August 2025.

This volume is already under contract to a leading academic publisher, so the manuscript will likely go for peer review in late 2025. The projected publication date is 2026. Please contact both Danette DiMarco (danette.dimarco@sru.edu) and Timothy Ruppert (timothy.ruppert@sru.edu) with any questions.



Last updated January 2, 2025

CFP Hideous Progenies: Adulterous Adaptations of Frankenstein in the 21st-Century (7/1/2024)

Hideous Progenies: Adulterous Adaptations of Frankenstein in the 21st-Century

deadline for submissions: 

July 1, 2024

full name / name of organization: 

Kyle William Bishop

contact email: 

bishopk@suu.edu

source:https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/05/30/hideous-progenies-adulterous-adaptations-of-frankenstein-in-the-21st-century

With the commercial and critical success of Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things (2023), I am assembling a collection of scholarly essays that will explore additional unfaithful 21st-century adaptations (in various media) of Mary Shelley’s 1818 masterpiece, Frankenstein. Taking a page from Thomas Leitch’s idea of the “Ethics of Infidelity,” I propose that investigating the longevity of Shelley’s essential story (the overreacher plot coupled with an animated or re-animated creature) as translated into a variety of “adulterous adaptations” would demonstrate how the plot, structure, character types, themes, etc. of Frankenstein transcend mere faithful adaptations to become increasingly relevant to different (modern) audiences.

My recent internet and database searches for “unfaithful adaptations of Frankenstein” produced few results, as most popular and scholarly studies of Frankenstein adaptations are more interested in the more faithful (if not most faithful) adaptations. This anthology would thus break new academic ground in terms of both Frankenstein studies and adaptation studies by collecting scholarly approaches to non-faithful adaptations of Frankenstein in all kinds of media that have appeared over the past two decades, the focus being (1) a lack of adaptive fidelity and (2) newer adaptations and texts that may have yet to be given the scholarly treatment.

I see the adulterous adaptations of any work falling into two broad categories: overt and thematic. The overt adaptations, in my mind, use similar if not the same characters as Shelley undertaking tasks and having experiences somewhat similar to the novel, all with an overt in-text reference to “Frankenstein” along the way. These text would include

● The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein (2008) by Peter Ackroyd

● Frankenweenie (2012) from Tim Burton

● Penny Dreadful (2014–2016) from John Logan

● The Frankenstein Chronicles (2015–2017) from Barry Langford and Benjamin Ross

● Destroyer (2018) by Victor LaValle and Dietrich Smith

● The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein (2019) by Kiersten White

● Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match (2023) by Sally Thorne

● Lisa Frankenstein (2024) from Zelda Williams

The second category of adaptations are even less faithful works, “inspirations” or “essences” based on the themes and some plot points from Frankenstein, such as

● Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013) by Ahmed Saadawi

● Ex Machina (2014) from Alex Garland

● Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) from Joss Whedon

● Patchwork (2015) from Tyler MacIntyre

● Westworld (2016–2022) from Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan

● Blade Runner 2049 (2017) from Denis Villeneuve

● Depraved (2019) from Larry Fessenden

● The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (2023) from Bomani J. Story

● Poor Things (2023) from Yorgos Lanthimos

These diverse works all demonstrate the ongoing significance of Shelley’s novel—as antecedent, source material, inspiration, or pastiche—and illustrate how her tale has almost become a subgenre of Gothic horror unto itself, evolving and changing to reflect the most pressing cultural anxieties and concerns of the current century.

My goal with this collection is to present breadth and variety, and so I would prefer to have as many texts represented with as little overlap as possible. To that end, I am welcoming proposals on any literary or filmic work with clear thematic ties to Shelley’s original Frankenstein novel (especially those listed above) that have appeared over the past decade or so.

Proposals must include

● a 200–250 word title and abstract of the suggested chapter,

● a loose working bibliography of both primary and secondary sources, and

● a brief statement of qualifications, focusing on relevant scholarly production.

Please email proposals to bishopk@suu.edu no later than July 1, 2024—and I welcome multiple submissions to facilitate breadth and lack of overlap.

Who Am I?

In terms of Frankenstein, I have taught the novel numerous times in upper-division courses on Gothic literature, literary adaptations (dedicating an entire course to the subject for the bicentennial 2018 year), and a study abroad summer program to Ingolstadt, Geneva, and Chamonix in 2016. I have also written and published two articles on Frankenstein:

● “The Subaltern Brides of Frankenstein: Liberating Shelley’s Unrealized Female Creature on Screen.” Creolizing Frankenstein, edited by Michael Paradiso-Michau, Rowman & Littlefield International, 2024, pp. 83–99.

● “The Frankenstein Complex on the Small Screen: Mary Shelley’s Motivic Novel as Adjacent Adaptation.” Adapting Frankenstein: The Monster’s Eternal Lives in Popular Culture, edited by Dennis Cutchins and Dennis R. Perry, Manchester UP, 2018, pp. 111–127.

I also presented “From Prometheus to Pygmalion to Pandora: The Feminist Threat of Frankenstein’s ‘Dark Brides’” at the 2024 Northeast Modern Language Association annual conference, and I am developing that article for publication with Michael Torregrossa.

In terms of editing, I have three co-edited collections under my belt, two scholarly volumes and a special issue of a journal:

● The Post Zombie: The Current and Future State of the Living Dead. Co-edited with C. Wylie Lenz and Angela Tenga, McFarland, 2024. [forthcoming this fall]

● The Written Dead: Essays on the Literary Zombie. Co-edited with Angela Tenga, McFarland, 2017.

● After/Lives: What’s Next for Humanity. Special edition of the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, co-edited with Sarah Juliet Lauro, vol. 25, nos. 2–3, 2014.

In addition to being on the Editorial Advisory Board for the Journal in the Fantastic in the Arts, I have also served as a peer reviewer for over two dozen journals, over a dozen book proposals, and two doctoral dissertations for international graduate programs.

This CFP has been viewed 1,036 times.

CFP Mary Shelley’s The Last Man and Global Issues Collection (7/31/2024)

Call for Book Chapters: “Mary Shelley’s The Last Man and Global Issues”

deadline for submissions: July 31, 2024

contact email: reyam.rammahi@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/01/10/call-for-book-chapters-%E2%80%9Cmary-shelley%E2%80%99s-the-last-man-and-global-issues%E2%80%9D

Vernon Press invites book chapter proposals for the forthcoming edited volume “Mary Shelley’s The Last Man and Global Issues”, edited by Reyam Rammahi.


Much research has already been done on many aspects of Mary Shelley’s The Last Man. However, this volume seeks contributions that link the novel with today’s crucial issues like the COVID-19 pandemic. The Last Man is often associated with the apocalypse, proving that the novel speaks to today’s issues, especially the recent pandemic. The volume welcomes discussions from scholars invested in the rapidly growing interest in postcolonial studies, medical humanities, racist discourses in literature, biopolitics, and disability studies. Literary and interdisciplinary contributions are welcome. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Race and notions of racism in the novel
• The East/West binary
• The association of the fictional plague and COVID-19 with the “Other”
• Oppositions between warring political and social factions in the novel
• Nation and nationalism

Please submit a one-page proposal and a short bio by July 31, 2024 to Reyam Rammahi at reyam.rammahi@gmail.com



Last updated June 25, 2024

New from Bloomsbury Academic - Peggy Webling and the Story behind Frankenstein: The Making of a Hollywood Monster

Peggy Webling and the Story behind Frankenstein: The Making of a Hollywood Monster

Peggy Webling (Author) , Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum (Author) , Bruce Graver (Author)

Ordering information available at https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/peggy-webling-and-the-story-behind-frankenstein-9781350371651/. Available in print (hardcover and paperback) and as an ebook. 

Product details

Published Apr 18 2024

Edition 1st

Extent 344

Imprint Bloomsbury Academic

Illustrations 15 bw illus

Dimensions 9 x 6 inches

Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

The 1931 Universal Pictures film adaptation of Frankenstein directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff as the now iconic Monster claims in its credits to be 'Adapted from the play by Peggy Webling'.

Webling's play sought to humanize the creature, was the first stage adaptation to position Frankenstein and his creation as doppelgängers, and offered a feminist perspective on scientific efforts to create life without women, ideas that suffuse today's perceptions of Frankenstein's monster. The original play script exists in several different versions, only two of which have ever been consulted by scholars; no version has ever been published. Nor have scholars had access to Webling's private papers and correspondence, preserved in a family archive, so that the evolution of Frankenstein from book to stage to screen has never been fully charted.

In Peggy Webling and the Story behind Frankenstein, Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum (Webling's great grandniece) and Bruce Graver present the full texts of Webling's unpublished play for the first time. A vital critical edition, this book includes:

- the 1927 British Library Frankenstein script used for the first production of the play in Preston, Lancashire

- the 1928 Frankenstein script in the Library of Congress, used for productions in UK provincial theatres from autumn 1928 till 1930

- the 1930 Frankenstein Prompt Script for the London production and later provincial performances, held by the Westminster Archive, London

- Webling's private correspondence including negotiations with theatre managers and Universal Pictures, family letters about the writing and production process, and selected contracts

- Text of the chapter 'Frankenstein' from Webling's unpublished literary memoir, The Story of a Pen for additional context

- Biography of Webling that bears directly on the sensibilities and skills she brought to the writing of her play

- History of how the play came to be written and produced

- The relationship of Webling's play to earlier stage and film adaptations

- An exploration of playwright and screenwriter John L. Balderston's changes to Webling's play and Whale's borrowings from it in the 1931 film

Offering a new perspective on the genesis of the Frankenstein movie, this critical exploration makes available a unique and necessary 'missing link' in the novel's otherwise well-documented transmedia cultural history.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part I History and Commentary

Chapter 1 Peggy Webling's Story

Chapter 2 The Other Woman who Created Frankenstein

Chapter 3 From Peake to Whale, and Webling's Missing Link

Part II Texts of Webling's Frankenstein

1927 Version, registered with the Lord Chamberlain on 25 November 1927

1928 Version, copyrighted with the US Library of Congress on 7 September 1928

1930 Prompt Script, performed in London 10 February–12 April 1930

Appendix 1 Excerpts from Webling Letters concerning Frankenstein

Appendix 2 Excerpt from Webling's Unpublished Memoir, The Story of a Pen

Appendix 3 Contracts

Bibliography General Bibliography

Sources from the Webling Archive

Index

Author Information

Peggy Webling (1 January 1871 – 27 June 1949) was a British playwright, novelist and poet.

Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum is a historian specialising in the history of astrology, cosmology and divination. She is the great-grandniece of Peggy Webling, the playwright, and holds a private archive of her papers. She has lectured on the history of Webling’s Frankenstein for specialists and general audiences.

Bruce Graver is Professor of English at Providence College, USA where is a specialist in British Romantic literature. He edited Wordsworth’s Translations of Chaucer and Virgil (1998), co-edited Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads (2003), and contributed many chapters to edited collections as well as writing and lecturing widely about various British Romantic writers, including Mary Shelley.

Out Now - Afterlives of Frankenstein

The Afterlives of Frankenstein: Popular and Artistic Adaptations and Reimaginings

Robert I. Lublin (Anthology Editor) , Elizabeth A. Fay (Anthology Editor)

Publisher site: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/afterlives-of-frankenstein-9781350351561/.

Product details

Published Feb 22 2024
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 248
ISBN 9781350351561
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations Colour images
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

An exploration of the treatment of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in popular art and culture, this book examines adaptations in film, comics, theatre, art, video-games and more, to illuminate how the novel's myth has evolved in the two centuries since its publication. Divided into four sections, The Afterlives of Frankenstein considers the cultural dialogues Mary Shelley's novel has engaged with in specific historical moments; the extraordinary examples of how Frankenstein has suffused our cultural consciousness; and how the Frankenstein myth has become something to play with, a locus for reinvention and imaginative interpretation. In the final part, artists respond to the Frankenstein legacy today, reintroducing it into cultural circulation in ways that speak creatively to current anxieties and concerns.

Bringing together popular interventions that riff off Shelley's major themes, chapters survey such works as Frankenstein in Baghdad, Bob Dylan's recent “My Own Version of You”, the graphic novel series Destroyer with its Black cast of characters, Jane Louden's The Mummy!, the first Japanese translation of Frankenstein, “The New Creator”, the iconic Frankenstein mask and Kenneth Brannagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein film. A deep-dive into the crevasses of Frankenstein adaptation and lore, this volume offers compelling new directions for scholarship surrounding the novel through dynamic critical and creative responses to Shelley's original.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Robert I. Lublin and Elizabeth A. Fay

Part 1: Cultural Reinventions

1. “Only from the future”: Frankenstein, The Mummy!, and the Ontology of Revolution, David Baulch (University of West Florida, USA)

2. Frankens-Time: Frankenstein and the Temporal Origins of Artificial Intelligence, Tobias Wilson-Bates (Georgia Gwinnett College)

3. Meiji Japan Responds to Frankenstein: The 1889-90 translation “The New Creator”, Tomoko Nakagawa (University of the Sacred Heart, Japan)

4. Frankenstein Goes Global: Returning the Necropolitical Gaze with Frankenstein in Baghdad, Hugh Charles O'Connell (University of Massachusetts Boston, USA)

Part 2: Frankensteinia

5. Frankenstein in the Popular Imagination, Sidney E. Berger (Simmons College, USA)

6. Frankenstein Mask: Perpetuating the Monster Assemblage, Taylor Hagood (Florida Atlantic University, USA)

7. Victor LaValle and Dietrich Smith's Graphic Novel Destroyer (2020), Andrew Shepherd (University of Utah, USA)

Part 3: Playing Frankenstein

8. Staging Mary Shelley in Contemporary Frankenstein Biodramas, Brittany Reid (Brock University, Canada)

9. The Evolving Myth of Frankenstein in Twenty-First-Century Film, Robert I. Lublin (University of Massachusetts Boston, USA)

10. The Water and the Corpse: Exploring Nature, Shelley's Echoes, and Twenty-First Century Cultural Anxieties in The Frankenstein Chronicles, Lorna Piatti-Farnell (Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand)

11. The Aesthetics of Digital Naturecultures in La Belle Games's The Wanderer: Frankenstein's Creature (2019), Andrew Burkett (Union College, USA)

Part 4: Artists Talk Back

12. A Monstrous Circus on Frankenstein: Mediating Shelley's Novel through John Cage's Multimedia Strategies, Miriam Wallace and R. L. Silver (New College of Florida, USA)

13. Frankenstein in Three Chords, Elizabeth A. Fay (University of Massachusetts Boston, USA) and James McGirr (Independent Scholar, USA)

14. From Frankenstein to Writing SciFi to Collage, Kate Hart (University of Massachusetts Boston, USA)