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.
