The Fallen Adams: An Intertextual Analysis on Frankenstein and Yaratılan
Senem Üstün KayaFrankenstein (1818), written by Mary Shelley, has been relentlessly adapted for all forms of art since it was written. One such form is a recent television drama series that has re-envisioned Frankenstein for a Turkish audiences. To this end, this paper examines an intertextual analysis of the dialogical relations between a literary text and its adaptation into a television series, with a focus on the fidelity approach in adaptation studies and the premise that all modifications are essentially rewritings in which the original content may be remade and recontextualized. Within this scope, the Turkish adaptation of Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) into a Netflix series as Yaratılan (Created) (2023) by Çağan Irmak is analysed to present to what extent the hypertext recalls and mirrors the hypotext, regarding the “fidelity criticism” in adaptation studies. Although the novel involves the societal, historical, and ideological issues of the 19th-century British culture, it is proper to claim that Irmak not only ingeniously conveys Shelley’s messages to the 21st-century Turkish audiences but also provides new perspectives for a popular source material while being “faithful” to the novel.