Bristol BookFest Explores Mary Shelley’s Iconic Frankenstein
GoLocalProv Lifestyle Team
Bristol BookFest Explores Mary Shelley’s Iconic Frankenstein
It was written in 1816-17 when Shelley was still a teenager. The book has proven one of the most popular stories in literature and film and is considered the first true work of science fiction.
The live event is scheduled to be held at downtown Bristol locations on April 1-2 and includes a Friday evening keynote talk, then a day of presentations and engaging community discussions led by scholars in the fields of literature, history, bioethics, and film, and a closing reception.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“‘It’s alive’ in April! We’re excited to host this humanities event in-person, in Bristol,” said Jo Ziegler, BookFest Co-Founder. “The Friday keynote and Saturday closing reception are free, thanks to the generosity of our humanities partners,” she added. “And the Saturday 9 am-5 pm program — with seating and a format to facilitate meeting new people and active discussions — is just $30.”
“While created more than 200 years ago, this novel has never felt so immediate as today,” added historian Charles Calhoun, BookFest co-founder and program director.
“Just two things to remember: Frankenstein is not the name of the ‘creature,’ it’s the name of his creator, a young Swiss doctor who discovers the secret of re-animating dead tissue. And Mary Shelley’s novel is far more complicated than the popular versions associated with Boris Karloff or Mel Brooks – it’s a tale of great psychological and philosophical depth that asks basic questions around who we are and how we treat each other,” said Calhoun.
Registration is open and required as space is limited. Calhoun urges those interested to start reading and added that many book groups around town — including two scheduled around Frankenstein at the Rogers Free Library — are planning to meet and discuss the novel in advance. Copies of the paperback (1818 version) are available at a discount at Inkfish Books in Warren and at local libraries.
The two-day event brings to Bristol audiences with a distinguished range of scholars to dissect Frankenstein:
• Friday Keynote: writer and medical doctor Jay Baruch, an emergency room physician on the Brown University Alpert Medical School faculty, will give the evening talk.
– April 1 from 5-6:30 pm in the nave of St. Michael’s Church (399 Hope St.) which can accommodate more than 300 people.
• Saturday Program: Dr. Baruch will be joined by film historian Alexandra Keller, director of the Film and Media Studies Program at Smith College; literary historian Declan Kiely, Exhibitions Director of the New York Public Library; author Dr. Christoph Irmscher, Distinguished Professor of English at Indiana University; and BookFest Co-Founder Charles C. Calhoun, Bristol-based biographer and historian for a full day of presentations, panels, and small group discussions.
– April 2 from 9 am-5 pm in the Linden Place Ballroom (500 Hope St.) which can accommodate 110 literary-minded attendees from Bristol and beyond. The day ends with a reception open to all registrants at the Rogers Free Library (525 Hope St.).
Among the topics to be discussed are the medical ethics of trying to “improve” humans, how people and society pass judgments about character based upon appearance, the relationship of the Frankenstein story to 19th-century debates on slavery and 21st-century ones on climate crisis, and Mary Shelley’s feminism and her relationship with the Romantic poets, including Percy Shelley and Lord Byron.
“Today we’ve already reached the point where we can no longer be certain where our own minds end and the minds of our computers start,” said Calhoun. “Rapid advances in Artificial Intelligence, robotics, and gene-splicing mean that we’re standing, like Victor Frankenstein, staring into an abyss. It might be full of good things. It might not.”
“We’re excited that Rogers Free Library is a partner in this Bristol-grown humanities program,” said Library Co-Director Nancy Kellner.
“The library has copies of the novels, the iconic 1931 film, plus movies based on the Frankenstein story, and Mary Shelley’s biography. And in March, we’re hosting two adult book groups as well as a four-film series curated by Alex Keller and Charles Calhoun,” said Library Co-Director Charlotte Burnham.
“Coming together to discuss this book, which has had such a profound cultural impact for more than 200 years, is wonderful and important thing to do in Bristol today,” added Burnham.
Bristol BookFest is run by a volunteer Steering Committee and a dynamic collaboration of local partners — the Rogers Free Library, the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, the Friends of Rogers Free Library, Linden Place, Roger Williams University, Arts In Common, and various business and private donors. BookFest graphics and brand designed by CC:S. On the Steering Committee with co-founders, Joanna Ziegler and Calhoun are Joan Abrams, Elizabeth Brito, Elisabeth Lavers, Douglas Popovich, Rebecca Riley, Renee Soto, and Amy Vitale.
“Shelley brings to life the monster we know best: a being longing for peace in solitude, the intimacy of true companionship, a respite from harrowing loss and its effects,” said Soto, a poet and professor of creative writing at Roger Williams University. “In these ways, Mary Shelley’s monster is terrific, because it’s familiar to us all.”
“It’s amazing that a girl at just 18 — and who had experienced both great joy and despair — would begin writing the story of Frankenstein as a party-game challenge,” Soto said.
“Reading in community helps us read more deeply and provides an opportunity that we ordinarily do not have—to get to know one another better as readers living together,” Soto added.
“The greatest friend to the creature was a person without eyesight. One of Shelley’s challenges to us is to know one another beyond any expectations we might have based on what we see first. How much more 21st Century could she possibly be?”
ABOUT THE EVENT
Rescheduled from October, Bristol BookFest of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley is now set to be held Friday, April 1 at St. Michael’s Church and Saturday, April 2 at Linden Place.
• The Friday keynote at St. Michael’s and a Saturday closing reception at Rogers Free Library is free to everyone registering.
• The Saturday speakers’ program at Linden Place is $30.
• Space is limited and registration is required — see our website for an Eventbrite online registration link.
MANDATORY REQUIREMENT: To support the safety of all audience members and speakers, only the fully vaccinated should register and plan to attend.
For more information about the book, the event, and registration details, find us online at BristolBookFest.com, on Facebook and Instagram, or email at [email protected].