The Myth Of The Last Man In Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Dystopian World And 21st Century Cinema

Résumé: My article investigates the adaptation of the works of the British romantic author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851), known as “the mother of Frankenstein” in selected American films. It considers how Shelley’s perception of the dystopian post-apocalyptic shapes the modern thriller and science fiction film productions. The selected films are the Post-Apocalyptic thriller and survival films I am Legend (2007) directed by Francis Lawrence, The Road (2009) directed by John Hillcoa and The Book of Eli (2010) by Hughes Brothers. These media texts adapt and appropriate the notion of the last man surviving in a post-apocalyptic world. My examination draws inspiration from Roland Barthes’ notions of Myth and theories of adaptation and appropriation by Lynda Hutcheon and Julie Sanders. I will attempt to reveal how Shelley’s depiction of the image of The Last Man published in 1826 is appropriated in the mentioned productions. Shelley’s work harmonizes the aesthetics of a novel with the intellectual reflection of a woman’s perspective of an apocalyptic twenty-first century. Unpopular at the time of its publication, twenty-first century cinema exploits the image of the orphan and the father to restore the interest in the father archetype. Transforming the last man into an “overman” not in his extraordinary achievements but in his ability to represent order.

Publié dans la revue: Aleph