At long last my first book, Gothic Remixed: Monster Mashups and Frankenfictions in 21st-Century Culture, is available in paperback from Bloomsbury!
The bestselling genre of Frankenfiction sees classic literature turned into commercial narratives invaded by zombies, vampires, werewolves, and other fantastical monsters. Too engaged with tradition for some and not traditional enough for others, these ‘monster mashups’ are often criticized as a sign of the artistic and moral degeneration of contemporary culture. These hybrid creations are the ‘monsters’ of our age, lurking at the limits of responsible consumption and acceptable appropriation.
Featuring 23 black-and-white illustrations, this book explores the boundaries and connections between contemporary remix and related modes, including adaptation, parody, the Gothic, Romanticism, and postmodernism. Taking a multimedia approach, case studies range from novels like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series, to television programmes such as Penny Dreadful, to popular visual artworks like Kevin J. Weir’s Flux Machine GIFs. In Gothic Remixed, I use these monstrous works to show how the thrill of transgression has been contained within safe and familiar formats, resulting in the mashups that dominate Western popular culture.
Reviews of Gothic Remixed
“Molé’s book is a treasure trove of fascinating perspectives and analysis and is accessible to all levels of the interested reader … It provides a brilliant methodology for thinking through collage. I wholeheartedly recommend Molé’s book.” – Collage Research Network
“I found Gothic Remixed hugely thought-provoking and enlightening, with de Bruin-Molé’s obvious enthusiasm for both the works cited as case studies and the concepts she talks about shining through … Gothic Remixed comes highly recommended not just for those interested specifically in the world of Frankenfiction but anyone who wants to look at authenticity, author privilege and how the present deals (or fails to deal) with the injustices of the past.” – Sublime Horror
“Gothic Remixed offers a fresh and exciting new take on twenty-first century Gothic. It addresses texts across a range of media that have often been dismissed as parasitic or derivative and champions their significance while remaining alert to their ethical shortcomings. By showing how monstrosity becomes the animating principle of Gothic mashups, hybrid texts and ‘Frankenfictions’, the book sheds light on emerging forms of Gothic cultural production and provides a cohesive framework for reading the incohesive. De Bruin-Molé is working at the cutting edge of contemporary Gothic and her book will be indispensible for students and scholars with an interest in the field.” – Catherine Spooner, Professor of Literature and Culture, Department of English, Lancaster University, UK
“Stitching together adaptation theory and remix studies with surgical precision, De Bruin-Molé has produced the first book on the modern monster mashup. Authoritative, insightful and immensely enjoyable, Gothic Remixed heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice to contemporary Gothic studies.” – Xavier Aldana Reyes, Reader in English Literature and Film at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK