Rocznik Komparatystyczny

ISSN: 2081-8718     eISSN: 2353-2831    OAI    DOI: 10.18276/rk.2022.13-14
CC BY-SA   Open Access   ERIH PLUS

Issue archive / 13 (2022)
Monstrosity in a Ballet Adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein*

Authors: Magdalena Berechowska ORCID
Uniwersytet Szczeciński
Keywords: Frankenstein adaptation ballet monstrosity
Data publikacji całości:2022
Page range:16 (271-286)
Cited-by (Crossref) ?:

Additional information

Cytowanie: Berechowska, Magdalena. “Monstrosity in a Ballet Adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”.Rocznik Komparatystyczny 13 (2022): 271–286. DOI: 0.18276/rk.2022.13-14.

Abstract

The article focuses on the analysis of the 2016 ballet adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein created by Liam Scarlett for the Royal Opera House and the San Francisco Ballet. The purpose of the article is to show that this production presents the novel’s motif of monstrosity as queer desire and the prevailing societal conventions. The paper is divided into theoretical and analysis sections. The first one provides a brief overview of approaching the novel and its chosen cinematic adaptations through queer studies. The second section focuses on the narrative developed over the course of the 2016 ballet adaptation. It also discusses the formal devices, such as: choreography, costumes, characterisation, stage design, and theatrical properties, which together reinforce the narrative and allow the proposed interpretation of monstrosity.
Download file

Article file

Bibliography

1.Au, Susan. Ballet and Modern Dance. London: Thames & Hudson, 2016.
2.Benshoff, Harry M. Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997.
3.Bride of Frankenstein [film]. Directed by James Whale. USA: Universal Pictures, 1935.
4.Crook, Nora. “Foreword.” Global Frankenstein. Eds. Carol Margaret Davison, Marie Mulvey-Roberts. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. vii–x.
5.Davison, Carol Margaret. “Monstrous, Mortal Embodiment and Last Dances: Frankenstein and the Ballet.” Global Frankenstein. Eds. Carol Margaret Davison, Marie Mulvey-Roberts. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. 109–129.
6.Erle, Sybille, Helen Hendry. “Monsters: Interdisciplinary Explorations in Monstrosity.” Palgrave Communications 6.53 (2020): 1–7.
7.Frankenstein [ballet]. Choreographed by Liam Scarlett. Royal Opera House and SanFrancisco Ballet, 2016.
8.Frankenstein [film]. Directed by James Whale. USA: Universal Pictures, 1931.
9.Friedman, Lester D., Allison B. Kavey. Monstrous Progeny: A History of the Frankenstein Narratives. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2016.
10.Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. “Far from the Tree: Choreographies of Family Obligation in the Ballet of Frankenstein.” Literature and Medicine 36.2 (2018a): 464–494.
11.------. “Unexpected Creatures: Procreative Liberty and the Frankenstein Ballet.” Hastings Center Report 48.6 (2018b): 18–20.
12.Griggs, Yvonne. The Bloomsbury Introduction to Adaptation Studies: Adapting the Canon in Film, TV, Novels and Popular Culture. London: Bloomsbury, 2016.
13.Hadlock, Heather. “Opera and Gender Studies.” The Cambridge Companion to Opera Studies. Ed. Nicholas Till. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012. 257–275.
14.Haggerty, George E. “What Is Queer about Frankenstein?” The Cambridge Companion to Frankenstein. Ed. Andrew Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. 116–127.
15.Halberstam, Judith. Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995.
16.Jennings, Luke. “Frankenstein Review – A Monster Hash from the Royal Ballet.” https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/may/08/frankenstein-royal-ballet-review-liam-scarlett [accessed: 6.08.2022].
17.Kavey, Allison B., Lester D. Friedman. “Introduction: Chemistry, Disability, and Frankenstein.” Literature and Medicine 36.2 (2018): 264–268.
18.Laplace-Sinatra, Michael. “Science, Gender and Otherness in Shelley’s Frankenstein and Kenneth Branagh’s Film Adaptation.” European Romantic Review 9.2 (1998): 253–270.
19.Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein [film]. Directed by Kenneth Branagh. USA, Japan: TriStar Pictures, 1994.
20.McGavran, James Holt. “‘Insurmountable Barriers to Our Union’: Homosocial Male Bonding, Homosexual Panic, and Death on the Ice in Frankenstein.” European Romantic Review 11.1 (2000): 46–67.
21.Perkowitz, Sidney, Eddy Von Mueller. “Epilogue: The Next Two Hundred Years of Frankenstein.” Frankenstein: How a Monster Became an Icon. The Science and Enduring Allure of Mary Shelley’s Creation. Eds. Sidney Perkowitz, Eddy Von Mueller. New York: Pegasus Books, 2018. 217–220.
22.Picart, Caroline Joan, Frank Smoot, Jayne Blodgett. The Frankenstein Film Sourcebook. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001.
23.Sedgwick, E. K. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.
24.Shelley, Mary W. Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus. Boston: Sever, Francis, & Co., 1869.
25.Stewart, Sarah. “Royal Ballet’s Frankenstein is Brilliantly Brutal.” https://londonist.com/2016/05/royal-ballet-s-frankenstein-by-liam-scarlett-world premiere-atthe-royal-opera-house [accessed: 6.08.2022].
26.Watts, Graham. “Liam Scarlett’s Frankenstein is Back at the Royal Ballet.” https://bachtrack.com/review-frankenstein-liam-scarlett-royal-ballet-royal-operahouse-london-march-2019 [accessed: 6.08.2022].
27.Zakharieva, Bouriana. “Frankenstein of the Nineties: The Composite Body.” Canadian Review of Comparative Literature 23.3 (1996): 739–752.