Frankenstein's Bride in Contemporary Fiction and Poetry

FAIN: FT-286171-22

Lissette Lopez Szwydky
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (Fayetteville, AR 72701-1201)

Writing one chapter of a book documenting the extensive history of adaptations of the Bride of Frankenstein character in various media forms.

“Frankenstein’s Bride in Contemporary Fiction and Poetry” will survey and analyze sixteen (16) novels and six (6) poems to illustrate how writers have adapted Whale’s 1935 visualization of this character to reimagine the intersections of sublime terror, unfettered desire, history, and feminist rebellion. Discussions of the novels will be divided based on their overall representations of The Bride, specifically whether her characterization aligns more with Mary Shelley’s proto-feminist politics, or with Victor Frankenstein’s paralyzing and destructive fear of female autonomy. The chapter is part of a book project Frankenstein's Bride: A Transmedia Cultural History of Her Own, the first book to document the complete transmedia cultural history of this character.

Associated Products

Penny Dreadful's Palimpsestuous Bride of Franeknstein (Book Section)
Title: Penny Dreadful's Palimpsestuous Bride of Franeknstein
Author: Szwydky, Lissette Lopez
Editor: Grossman, Julie
Editor: Scheibel, Will
Abstract: The Bride of Frankenstein is the most widely recognizable female monster in the Gothic horror tradition, and Showtime’s Penny Dreadful (2014–2016) is the most substantive treatment of this character in film and television history to date. This chapter presents Penny Dreadful’s Bride of Frankenstein as a complex character built upon a series of composites both fictional and historical. Like a palimpsest where earlier versions are still faintly visible under the new writing, in Penny Dreadful’s take on The Bride, earlier Frankenstein films, and historical layers echo throughout the series as Brona Croft is transformed into Lily Frankenstein. Personal histories of trauma and abuse don’t just inform, but drive The Bride’s actions throughout the show’s second and third seasons, ultimately guiding the open-ended finale for this character.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-12180-7
Publisher: Palgrave
Book Title: Penny Dreadful and Adaptation: Reanimating and Transforming the Monster (Palgrave Studies in Adaptation and Visual Culture)
ISBN: 978-3031121791

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