Monstrous Progeny: A History of the Frankenstein Narratives

Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein is its own type of monster mythos that will not die, a corpus whose parts keep getting harvested to animate new artistic creations. What makes this tale so adaptable and so resilient that, nearly 200 years later, it remains vitally relevant in a culture radically different from the one that spawned its birth? Monstrous Progeny takes readers on a fascinating exploration of the Frankenstein family tree, tracing the literary and intellectual roots of Shelley's novel from the sixteenth century and analyzing the evolution of the book's figures and themes into modern productions that range from children's cartoons to pornography. Along the way, media scholar Lester D. Friedman and historian Allison B. Kavey examine the adaptation and evolution of Victor Frankenstein and his monster across different genres and in different eras. In doing so, they demonstrate how Shelley's tale and its characters continue to provide crucial reference points for current debates about bioethics, artificial intelligence, cyborg lifeforms, and the limits of scientific progress. Blending an extensive historical overview with a detailed analysis of key texts, the authors reveal how the Frankenstein legacy arose from a series of fluid intellectual contexts and continues to pulsate through an extraordinary body of media products. Both thought-provoking and entertaining, Monstrous Progeny offers a lively look at an undying and significant cultural phenomenon.

Author: Lester D. Friedman, Allison B. Kavey
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Published: 08/01/2016
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780813564234
Audience: Young Adult


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 08/01/2016 pg. 93
Choice 01/01/2017

About the Author
LESTER D. FRIEDMAN is a professor and former chair of the Media and Society Program at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of over twenty books including American Cinema of the 1970s (Rutgers University Press) and the forthcoming, Tough Ain't Enough. ALLISON B. KAVEY is an associate professor of early modern history at CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the CUNY Graduate Center in New York, New York. She is the author, coauthor, or editor of several books including Second Star to the Right: Peter Pan in the Cultural Imagination, co-edited with Friedman (Rutgers University Press).


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