This book utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to explore adaptations of Frankenstein''s Creature across genres and formats. Through both a broad overview of the Creature''s continued pervasive influence on popular culture and close readings of specific works, the author presents an opportunity to reconsider the Creature''s role and meaning over time. Following the publication of Mary Shelley''s Frankenstein in 1818, Frankenstein''s Creature entered the canon of the horror genre, appearing time and again across formats - film, graphic narratives, video games, board games - and across genres - comedy, musicals, animation, and science fiction, among others. With each new iteration''s changing appearance and impact, Alissa Burger posits, audiences are encouraged to consider (and reconsider) critical questions about society and about ourselves. What are we capable of - both good and bad? What care, if any, do we owe to one another? And what are the ways in which a monstrous appearance may belie a deeper truth? Ultimately, Burger argues, wherever and however the Creature appears, part of his innate function is to invite audiences to consider concepts of life and death, choice, agency, and - above all - what it means to be human.

Autorentext
Alissa Burger is Associate Professor of English at Culver-Stockton College, USA. She teaches courses in research, writing, and literature, specializing in gender, horror, and the Gothic. She is the author of IT, Chapters One & Two (2023), The Quest for the Dark Tower: Genre and Interconnection in the Stephen King Series (2021), Teaching Stephen King: Horror, The Supernatural, and New Approaches to Literature (2016) and The Wizard of Oz as American Myth: A Critical Study of Six Versions of the Story, 1900-2007 (2012).

Klappentext

In Remaking the Monster, Alissa Burger adopts an interdisciplinary approach to examine the continued influence of Frankenstein's Creature on popular culture, demonstrating through close readings the necessity of reconsidering its role and meaning as it has changed over time.
Since the Creature's introduction to the horror genre's canon, proliferating and evolving for over a century across a variety of media formats and genres, Burger posits that each new iteration of its appearance and impact encourages audiences to (re)consider critical questions about society and about ourselves. What are we capable of-both good and bad? What care, if any, do we owe to one another? And how might a monstrous appearance belie a deeper truth?
Ultimately, Burger argues, wherever and however the Creature appears, part of its innate function-and perhaps, the key to its perennial resonance with audiences-is found in the approachable opportunity to engage with daunting concepts of life and death, choice, agency, and, above all, what it means to be human.

Inhalt

Introduction
PART I: THEMES

1. Boris Karloff as the Creature
2. Encountering the Creature
3. A Community of Monsters
4. Gothic Prestige

5. The Desirable Creature

   PART II: FORMATS

6. New Visions of the Creature in Graphic Narratives
7. The Animated Creature
8. Board Games
9. Video Games

10. Creating the Creature
    Conclusion

    About the Author
    Index