Transmedia Creatures

de Francesca Saggini, Anna Enrichetta Soccio, Eleanor Beal, Gino Roncaglia, Claire Nally

"The cultural value of a text, not least as a form of transferable and adaptable cultural capital capable of surviving on its own, has become a central concern for a wide range of teachers and researchers working in the field of adaptation studies, a methodological and cultural domain whose diverse interdisciplinary and transmedial imprint is so notably present in contemporary culture. In line with the concept of convergence theorized by Henry Jenkins, which posits an expansive and collaborative pattern of textuality, it is generally accepted that a text is dispersed/regenerates diachronically and synchronically on multiple platforms and across different users. In keeping with such theoretical and methodological premises, it seems appropriate, on the anniversary of the first edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), to present a collection of essays on Frankenstein by international scholars from converging disciplines such as humanities, musicology, film studies, television studies, media studies, English and digital humanities. Transmedia Creatures: Frankenstein's Afterlives highlights how "cultural content" is redistributed through multiple media, forms and modes of production (including user-generated ones from "below") that often appear synchronously and are able to dismantle and renew established readings of the text, while at the same time incorporating and revitalizing aspects that have always been central to it. Ultimately, Frankenstein, as evidenced by this collection, is paradoxically enriched by the heteroglossia of preconceptions/misreadings/overreadings that attend it, and that reveal the complex interweaving of perceptions and responses it generates"--