Remaking the Monster

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.