'Hail, Mary, the Mother of Science Fiction': popular fictionalisations of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in film and television, 1935-2018
'Hail, Mary, the Mother of Science Fiction': popular fictionalisations of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in film and television, 1935-2018
This article uses fictional depictions of Mary Shelley as the ‘mother’ of sf to explore how gendered images of the Romantic genius continue to influence our perception of women in genre fiction. It introduces the concept of the Romantic authorship and reviews Shelley’s legacy as the mother of sf, and then analyses Shelley’s fictionalised appearances on-screen: in film, television and new media, from 1935 to the present. This analysis demonstrates that even in fictions depicting Shelley as an author in her own right, she is still marked by a gendered understanding of how women should function creatively. The way female authors are fictionalised (as opposed to how they are depicted in biographical or academic texts) reflects our expectations of women in the creative industries more broadly.
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, feminism, Romanticism, authorship, motherhood
233-255
de Bruin-Molé, Megen
50c0d19d-e9c9-4ad4-9b14-8645139e1ef9
6 June 2018
de Bruin-Molé, Megen
50c0d19d-e9c9-4ad4-9b14-8645139e1ef9
de Bruin-Molé, Megen
(2018)
'Hail, Mary, the Mother of Science Fiction': popular fictionalisations of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in film and television, 1935-2018.
Science Fiction Film and Television, 11 (2), .
(doi:10.3828/sfftv.2018.17).
Abstract
This article uses fictional depictions of Mary Shelley as the ‘mother’ of sf to explore how gendered images of the Romantic genius continue to influence our perception of women in genre fiction. It introduces the concept of the Romantic authorship and reviews Shelley’s legacy as the mother of sf, and then analyses Shelley’s fictionalised appearances on-screen: in film, television and new media, from 1935 to the present. This analysis demonstrates that even in fictions depicting Shelley as an author in her own right, she is still marked by a gendered understanding of how women should function creatively. The way female authors are fictionalised (as opposed to how they are depicted in biographical or academic texts) reflects our expectations of women in the creative industries more broadly.
Text
MegenMB revised (12-01-2018)
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 19 January 2018
Published date: 6 June 2018
Keywords:
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, feminism, Romanticism, authorship, motherhood
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Local EPrints ID: 418189
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/418189
ISSN: 1754-3770
PURE UUID: 6d30815d-1965-4c59-a2df-c994d5eb6f90
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Date deposited: 23 Feb 2018 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 06:14
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