Frankenreads: JCU Takes Part in Global Celebration of Mary Shelley's Novel

Frankenstein Read-A-Thon

Frankenstein Read-A-Thon at JCU

Two hundred years ago, when she was just 18 years old, Mary Shelley created a novel that continues to haunt our imaginations and provoke debate – Frankenstein.

During the month of October, John Cabot University will be exploring the extraordinary afterlife of Shelley’s creation through our participation in Frankenreads – a worldwide celebration of the novel. Students, faculty, and staff are all invited to participate in a global read-a-thon of Frankenstein which will be happening every Wednesday and Thursday lunchtime this month, beginning on Wednesday, October 3.

Sign up to take part in the Frankenstein read-a-thon (participants will be required to read for 10 minutes on film.)

Throughout October JCU will also be showing four of the many films inspired by the novel, and on Oct. 30th there will be a screening of National Theatre Live’s Frankenstein in the Aula Magna Regina. This highly acclaimed production directed by Danny Boyle, has Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternating between the roles of Victor Frankenstein and his creature. There will be a ghost walk and the Literature club is organizing a Spoken Word Poetry slam based on the themes of the novel.

The Frankenreads’ events will culminate on Halloween night with the English Department’s first Literature Matters speaker series, co-sponsored with the Keats Shelley House in Rome. Live-streamed, this inaugural lecture will be delivered by eminent poet, Fiona Sampson, whose book In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein was published this year.

In collaboration with Student Government, the Literature Club, the Theatre Society, the Frohring Library and librarians, Keats Shelley House, and the Student Services staff, the English Department invites the JCU community to make Frankenreads live.

October 2018 FrankenMonth Schedule