What Does It Mean to Be a “Global” Text?: The Example of Frankenstein

Abstract

Using Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein and its legacies as a case study, this chapter develops a theory of the “global text”—a single text or writer's oeuvre that has become a monument of culture and a focal point for shared cultural heritages, past, present, and future. The conceptual framework poses three different sets of questions: 1) In what ways was the text or oeuvre “global” in its own day, adopting a “worldly” approach that transcends its particular locale? 2) How does the history of the publication, criticism, and (where applicable) the performance of the text or oeuvre transform it into a global cultural commodity? 3) What is the cultural legacy of the text or oeuvre today throughout a variety of global media forms, including plays, films, novels, operas, and works of visual art? Investigating how Shelley positions her novel as a global text by drawing on classical Greek mythology, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and contemporary scientific debates about “vitalism,” the chapter examines the representation of “Frankenstein” in popular culture and twenty-first century literary novels, concluding with an account of Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad (2014).