The Frankenstein Meme Program Series

 This program series runs in conjunction with The Frankenstein Meme exhibit located in the Salz-Pollak Atrium Gallery of the Pollak Library.

 

About the Program series

The Frankenstein Meme   exhibit and program  celebrate the enduring influence of Mary Shelley's world-famous novel, Frankenstein, on the 200th-Anniversary of its publication in 1818. Our programming complements the inter-disciplinary nature of the exhibit and includes contributions from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature Club, Acacia Club, First Year Experience Students, and "Readers" from across the campus. All events will be held in the Pollak Library, North, Room 130 (PLN-130).

• Admission:   Free and open to the public (unless otherwise noted)
• Parking:   $8.00 Day Pass (normal campus rules apply)

 

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scheduled events

 

Saturday, October 27, 2018 

(3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.)

Patrons of the Library Talk: Mary Shelley's Literary Influence | Dr. David Sandner

Dr. Sandner will explore the powerful effect of Mary Shelley's novel on literary history. Beginning with the first play adaptations, to the first comic book version, to the first time Mary Shelley and the Creature exist together in a story, to a mash up with Jane Austen, Sandner's talk opens out from the Atrium Exhibit and the online website of the Frankenstein Meme Project to try to understand what about Shelley's story continues to compel us.

David Sandner earned his Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Oregon and his M.A. from San Francisco State University. His scholarly focus is the intersection of Romanticism, children's and YA literature, popular literature, and the fantastic. His recent book Critical Discourses of the Fantastic, 1712-1831, discusses the early history of critical theory on the fantastic from the essays of Joseph Addison to Mary Shelley's influential "Introduction" to Frankenstein. Earlier books include The Fantastic Sublime: Romanticism and Transcendence in 19th-century Children's Fantasy Literature and edited collections Fantastic Literature: A Critical Reader and The Treasury of the Fantastic. He is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, the professional organization of science fiction and fantasy writers. His creative work has appeared in anthologies and magazines. He has won awards for Outstanding Scholarship and Creative Activity from CSUF in 2007, 2008, and 2011.

 

(5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.)

 

Exhibit Reception - The Frankenstein Meme Art Show and Special Collections Display in the Atrium Gallery (Pollak Library North, First Floor)

 

Pollak Library Book Displays

Frankenstein's Literary Family Tree (located on Pollak Library North, First Floor)

Mary Shelley's Bookshelf (located on Pollak Library South, Third Floor)

 

 Monday, October 29, 2018 

(12:00   p.m. - 1:00   p.m.)

Noon Anniversary Celebration
Titan Radio DJ and surprise guests in front of the Pollak Library East entrance (next to Starbucks).

Gothic Photo Booth located on Pollak Library North, First Floor

(2:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.)

 Frankenzine Launch and Reading 

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature Club will  launch their new 'zine with readings from contributors.

(5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.)

The Villa Diodati Writing Workshop

Award-winning writers and CSUF Alums Tim Powers and James Blaylock will run a writing workshop for CSUF students. Students should come ready to write in response to exercises meant to get them working, and to ask questions about the business and craft of writing. The workshop will be run by the Creative Writing Club.

 

Tuesday, October 30, 2018 

 (11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.)

 

The Frankenstein Meme Project: Focus on Student Contributions | Dr. David Sandner

Dr. Sandner will describe the reach and scope of the project he undertook with his students over the past two years to encompass Mary Shelley's literary influence in a searchable database. The talk highlights student involvement and achievements in an innovative, digital, crowd-sourced pedagogical approach.

 

(2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.)

 

 The Monstrously Daring Mary Shelley | Luivette Resto

What would you do if you were dared? Find out what Mary Shelley was dared to do, and how we still play a role in that dare. In this lecture by Luivette Resto, learn more about the author of the iconic monster novel Frankenstein  and her life before her “monster” hit. 

Luivette Resto, a mother, teacher, poet, and Wonder Woman fanatic, was born in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico but proudly raised in the Bronx. Her two books of poetry  Unfinished Portrait  and  Ascension  have been published Tia Chucha Press. She is a CantoMundo fellow.  Some of her latest work can be read in Lullaby of Teeth an anthology of SoCal poets published by Moontide Press   and an anthology of Afro-Latino poetry titled  ¡Manteca!  published by Arte Público Press. Currently, she lives in the Los Angeles area with her three revolutionaries.

 

 (5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.)

 

“I’ve Created A Monster!”: Doubles and Compromised Agency in Frankenstein and its Expressionist Predecessors (Lecture and screening of Frankenstein (1931) | Dr. Rebecca A. Sheehan

Our popular culture often mistakenly refers to Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s monster by the last name of his creator, suggesting that the creator is alive in his creation. Indeed, the uncanny notion of the double, an image or manifestation (divine or profane) of the self beyond the self’s control, courses through the narrative and style of James Whale’s 1931 film. This talk will examine how the figure of the double emerges in both Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel and a rich body of German Expressionist cinema to inform Whale’s film. Investigating the significance of doubles, we will discuss how Whale’s film unites the unique forewarnings of both Shelley’s 1818 novel and German Expressionist cinema about how the fruits of human reason can exceed humanity’s moral agency.

Rebecca A. Sheehan is Associate Professor of Cinema and Television Arts at California State University, Fullerton. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from University of Pennsylvania and was recently Visiting Associate Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University.  She has co-edited a book entitled Border Cinema: Reimagining Identity Through Aesthetics with CSUF Prof. Monica Hanna, forthcoming from Rutgers University Press and has recently finished a manuscript entitled American Avant-Garde Cinema and the Ethics of the In-between forthcoming from Oxford University Press. Her work on topics ranging from experimental cinema, sculpture and cinema, the biopic, and border cinema has appeared in edited book collections and various journals.

 
Wednesday, October 31, 2018 

(9:00 a.m. - until we finish)

Frankenstein Readathon

Guests from across campus will participate in Frankenreads and read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus aloud. Dean Emily Bonney will start, and special guests include President Fram Virjee, Julie Virjee, and Dr. Kari Knutson-Miller, Provost and VP of Academic Affairs.

 

Friday, November 2, 2018 

 

CANCELLED - Frankenstein Meme Art | Hibbleton Gallery | Fullerton ArtWalk

 

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Program Parnters

 

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Location & Floor Map

 

These programs will be held in room PLN-130 on the First Floor North of Pollak Library, unless otherwise noted.