Introduction: Global Reanimations of Frankenstein

Abstract

A global event brought Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein into being, when a volcanic eruption triggered devasting tsunamis and led to 1816 being the so-called year without a summer. These provided the conditions for the writing of Frankenstein, which, like the volcano blasting human and geographical boundaries, disrupted religious sensibilities and broke down assumptions about science and technology. This introduction traces the history of the novel from its critical reception and various interpretations to its popularisation through theatre and film adaptation. Its cultural offshoots have a multi-disciplinary appeal and global reach, that has included a live musical drama Frankenstein’s Wedding (2011), televised to a live audience of 12,000 in Leeds, and the prize-winning novel Frankenstein in Baghdad (2014) about a creature comprised of body parts stitched together to create a monster in war-torn Iraq. In this volume, contributors from around the world explore the significance of the novel for the twenty-first century from within a global context and this introduction provides a synopsis of the chapters, which span traditional approaches through to science fiction. Areas include humour, ballet, surgery, disability, technology, comics, cinema, book illustration, children’s literature, digital technologies, and the posthuman. The book concludes with an appropriately moving poetic meditation on the monster.