Adapting, Interpreting, and Contextualizing the Canon in Comic : an Analysis of Mousse's Assemblages in FRANKENSTEIN de Mary Shelley

Details

Supervisors

Bragard, Véronique

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en langues et lettres modernes, orientation générale

Abstract

Two hundred years ago, in 1818, Mary Shelley’s first edition of Frankenstein was published. Since then, the masterpiece has been reworked on numerous occasions and adapted for other media such as the theatre, the cinema, and comics. Even though the number of adaptations has flourished, each of these deserve to be analysed as it is unique. Indeed, each adaptation, whatever the medium used, conveys the adapter’s interpretation of the source text. In this dissertation, Marion Mousse’s comic adaptation of Frankenstein (2007-2008) has been examined in order to understand what Mousse’s interpretation, coupled with the comics medium possibilities, bring to the Frankensteinian myth. In the first chapter of this dissertation, it is demonstrated that an adaptation is the transposition of an interpretation. The first chapter also explores Mousse’s techniques as far as transforming a novel into the comic format is concerned. The second chapter of this dissertation analyses the diegetic and visual additions of Mousse. All of these have the same goal: to contextualize and historicize the story in order to bring Shelley’s 1818 London bourgeois society closer to the 2018 readers. In order to do so, Mousse focuses on four aspects: the place of women, the social classes and the French Revolution, the conflict between science and religion, and the night of Frankenstein’s creation itself. Each of these themes is not only present in Mousse’s adaptation, but they are also used as a way to convey Mousse’s interest and sometimes comments on the social and historical situation of that time.