Remaking Monsters and Heroines: Adapting Classic Literature for Contemporary Audiences

FAIN: ES-267140-19

University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (Fayetteville, AR 72701-1201)
Sean P. Connors (Project Director: February 2019 to July 2023)
Lissette Lopez Szwydky (Co Project Director: August 2019 to July 2023)

A two-week institute for 30 school teachers on Frankenstein, Cinderella, and adaptations of these classic texts.

This summer Institute will help thirty (30) K-12 educators develop a vocabulary and framework for teaching adaptations alongside a range of canonical texts that they already use (or are considering using) in their classrooms. The Institute will feature hands-on technology workshops (including user-friendly freeware for podcasting, video editing, and digital imaging) to adapt traditional texts for new audiences and to help educators replicate these activities in the classroom. The goals of the adaptation-focused Institute include the following: (1) to demonstrate to interdisciplinary K-12 educators the significance of teaching canonical texts alongside adaptations; (2) to support the examining and understanding of oral storytelling, fairy tales, and folktale traditions in the humanities; and (3) to demonstrate best practices for incorporating a variety of genres and media reflecting diverse storytelling forms.

Associated Products

“Embracing Popular Literary Adaptations as Educational Tools" (Blog Post)
Title: “Embracing Popular Literary Adaptations as Educational Tools"
Author: Lissette Lopez Szwydky
Author: Sean P. Connors
Abstract: Is it acceptable to teach a popular culture adaptation of a canonical text as a substitute for the original literary work? What, if anything, is lost when students view a film adaptation of Great Expectations as opposed to reading Dickens’s nineteenth-century novel? And is there ever a good reason for students who are capable of reading Romeo and Juliet to study a graphic novel adaptation of Shakespeare’s play instead? We assume we aren’t the only English teachers to have wrestled with these questions. And yet we hear these ideas described as problematic because some teachers assume that popular culture and canonical literature exist in an antagonistic relationship. When teachers create opportunities for students to experience and produce literary adaptations, they invite them to participate in a practice that is arguably as old as the institution of literature itself.
Date: 01/04/18
Primary URL: http://www2.ncte.org/blog/2018/01/embracing-popular-literary-adaptations-educational-tools/
Blog Title: “Embracing Popular Literary Adaptations as Educational Tools"
Website: National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Blog.

The Library Screen Scene: Film and Media Literacy in Schools, Colleges, and Communities (Book Section)
Title: The Library Screen Scene: Film and Media Literacy in Schools, Colleges, and Communities
Author: Hobbs, Renee
Abstract: Renee Hobbs’ “The Library Screen Scene: Film and Media Literacy in Schools, Colleges, and Communities.” excerpt from Chapter 3: Creative (pg. 94-95)
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/the-library-screen-scene-film-and-media-literacy-in-schools-colleges-and-communities/oclc/1103854206?referer=br&ht=edition
Publisher: Oxford UP
ISBN: 978-0190854317

Public Romanticism and K12 Education (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Public Romanticism and K12 Education
Author: Szwydky, Lissette Lopez
Abstract: Once we send our students out into the world of teaching, it’s important that we find ways to reconnect with current teachers through tailored professional development programs. My perspective here comes from my experience co-directing an NEH-funded, intensive, 2-week summer institute for K12 educators in 2018, which will be held again in June 2021 as a virtual program. “Remaking Monsters and Heroines” focuses on teaching Frankenstein and Cinderella through adaptations, with the goal of helping students produce their own adaptations as a form of critical engagement.
Date: 01/11/21
Primary URL: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AOvrEGrGvOG1PBMmu-lQ2qTzfEAtu-ZP?usp=sharing
Conference Name: Modern Language Association

The Pre-Monstrous Mad Scientist and the Post-Nerd Smart Girl in Kenneth Oppel’s Frankenstein Series (Book Section)
Title: The Pre-Monstrous Mad Scientist and the Post-Nerd Smart Girl in Kenneth Oppel’s Frankenstein Series
Author: Connors and Szwydky
Editor: Smith and Moruzi
Abstract: As prequels to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), the two novels that comprise Kenneth Oppel’s ‘The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein’ series introduce young adult (YA) readers to the Frankenstein family through the eyes of a teenage Victor. In doing so, This Dark Endeavour (2011) and Such Wicked Intent (2012) serve as what Thomas Leitch calls ‘entry-level introductions’ (72) not only to the characters and themes of canonical literature, but also to their original historical contexts and authors. Oppel’s series is particularly notable for its ideological commitment to ‘leveling the playing field’ with regard to representing gender. Even though the books are set in the late eighteenth century, the character of Elizabeth Lavenza, in particular, is radically rewritten as an active, driving character in Oppel’s series, a radical departure from Shelley’s characterisation of Victor’s betrothed and a reflection of a broader trend towards strong female characters in contemporary YA fiction. However, as is often the case with post-feminist approaches to YA literature, there are limitations to the contemporary approach.
Year: 2021
Publisher: University of Wales Press
Book Title: Young Adult Gothic Fiction: Monstrous Selves/Monstrous Others
ISBN: 9781786837509

From Girls on Fire to Historical Bad Girls A Framework for Critiquing Postfeminism and Neoliberalism in YA Literature (Book Section)
Title: From Girls on Fire to Historical Bad Girls A Framework for Critiquing Postfeminism and Neoliberalism in YA Literature
Author: Connors and Szwydky
Editor: Hentges and Connors
Abstract: In Ya dystopian fiction, the Girl on Fire constitutes one manifestation of a figure that anita Harris (2004) calls “the Future Girl.” In other genres, the Future Girl takes other forms. as we will argue, in Ya adaptations of nineteenth- century novels (henceforth, Ya neo–Victorian novels), the Future Girl often takes the form of a close “ancestor” of the Girl on Fire: the Historical Bad Girl. Like the Girl on Fire, the Historical Bad Girl also appears to resist her society’s conservative gender ideologies and binaries. an exceptional individual, she is intelligent, competitive, sexually desirable, and (in some cases) athletic. However liberating these portrayals may be, we argue that like the Girl on Fire, the Historical Bad Girl is capable of reproducing narratives associated with postfeminism, which holds that in a world where men and women compete on a level playing field, feminism is no longer necessary. In the sections to follow, we present a critical framework that we suggest teachers can use with students to support their investigating of whether Ya novels engage in or resist postfeminist and neoliberal discourse. We then apply our framework to a Ya neo–Victorian novel, This Dark Endeavor (2011), the first book in Kenneth Oppel’s two- volume the apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein series. In doing so, our intention is to demonstrate how, by depicting the character of elizabeth Lavenza as a Historical Bad Girl, Oppel’s novel inadvertently engages in narratives associated with postfeminism, despite actively trying to rewrite elizabeth as a strong, female lead for twentyfirst- century readers. although our focus in this essay is on the genre of Ya neo–Victorian novels, our framework is applicable to other genres of Ya literature, including realistic dystopian fiction. to conclude, we examine the implications of students’ interrogating representations of Historical Bad Girls and Girls on Fire in Ya literature.
Year: 2020
Publisher: Macfarland
Book Title: Teaching Girls on Fire: Essays on Dystopian Young Adult Literature in the Classroom
ISBN: 9781476679297

A CINDERELLA TALE: Making Adaptations the Star of the Show (Article)
Title: A CINDERELLA TALE: Making Adaptations the Star of the Show
Author: TRISHA COLLOPY
Abstract: 1-page feature
Year: 2022
Format: Magazine
Periodical Title: COUNCIL CHRONICLE
Publisher: NCTE

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