Profs and Pints - Nashville

Profs and Pints Nashville presents: “Frankenstein Unbound,” on the continual reimagining of Mary Shelley’s novel and what adaptations reveal about our evolving anxieties, by Stephanie A. Graves, scholar of horror and the Gothic and adjunct lecturer of English at Middle Tennessee State University.

[Doors open at 6 pm. Talk starts at 7. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/nashville-frankenstein-unbound ]

The new Guillermo del Toro film adaptation of Frankenstein is just one of countless iterations of a tale that have haunted the cultural imagination for more than two centuries.

Join Stephanie A. Graves, whose excellent talks on horror have earned her a big following among Profs and Pints audiences, for a fascinating exploration of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel and how it has continued to shape human understanding of science, creation, hubris, and monstrosity.

We’ll start by examining the remarkable origins of a novel conceived by an 18-year-old Mary Shelley during a ghost story competition. We’ll consider how its biographical and historical context enriches our reading of this foundational Gothic text, with its themes of scientific hubris, blind ambition, and the construction of the Other.

Turning to key adaptations across different media, Graves will offer a brief survey of differing versions of the story, including James Whale's iconic 1931 film, Kenneth Branagh's devoted 1994 interpretation, and even Mel Brooks’ hilarious 1974 Young Frankenstein. We’ll particularly focus on Guillermo del Toro's adaptation, which itself references many of these previous adaptations in its revival of Shelly’s novel. We’ll consider how he asks audiences to reconsider who the real monster is—a question that resonates powerfully in our current moment.

In assessing Frankenstein’s influence, we’ll look at what makes Frankenstein so adaptable and why does this story about creation and responsibility continues to speak to contemporary audiences.

Among the questions Graves will tackle: How do these different adaptations reflect their historical moments? And what does our fascination with the story reveal about humanity's relationship with technology and Otherness? (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID.)

Image: A screen shot from the trailer for the 1964 film The Evil of Frankenstein (Hammer / Wikimedia Commons).

Profs and Pints Nashville presents: “World War I and the Middle East,” on an often-overlooked theater of the Great War and its long-term impact on global affairs, with Andrew Patrick, professor of history at Tennessee State University and scholar of American engagement with the Ottoman Empire.

[Doors open at 6 pm. Talk starts at 7. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/ww1-ottoman ]

When we think of World War I we often think of filthy trenches, futile assaults, and stagnant battle lines in France and Belgium. The experience was much different, however, beyond the Western Front.

Gain a deep understanding of how the war was fought in Ottoman lands, and how the outcome of the conflict there continues to have a profound impact on our world today, at Fait La Force on January 21st.
Professor Andrew Patrick, who has written a book and several articles on World War I in the Middle East and teaches courses on World War I and Middle East and global history, will give you a much richer understanding of the war in Ottoman lands than you might have gleaned from watching classic films like Gallipoli or Lawrence of Arabia.

He’ll talk about how historians increasingly place the Ottoman Empire at the center of the First World War’s origins, and how the conflict in Ottoman lands lasted far longer than the war itself, arguably from 1911 until 1922.

You’ll learn how the character of the conflict on Ottoman lands differed substantially from fighting elsewhere—even though it was similarly gruesome. Along with warfare, people in the region faced ethnic cleansing, famine, and even locusts.

By 1922, European imperial powers finally accomplished the violent dismantling of the Ottoman Empire, replacing it with unwanted colonial rule, fragile states, and the beginnings of a “national home” for European Jews. In doing so they gave birth to the modern Middle East and ensured that the region would experience instability in the ensuing century. The consequences of their actions still haunt us today. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID.)

Image: Cameleers from Australia, England, New Zealand and India in Palestine (Australian War Memorial / Public Domain).