Before we map Frankenstein, let's practice on something easier: your favorite adaptation. Pick one you already know well, a movie based on a book, a modern retelling, a fan video, even a video game, and pick its most important location: the one place the story couldn't happen without. Important caveat: your location cannot be a place that doesn't exist on the globe (e.g., Middle Earth, Hogwarts, Wakanda, Narnia, etc.).
The handout I provided you in class (and uploaded to Moodle) outlines the real and fictional places connected to Frankenstein (1931): where Universal filmed it, where the cast and crew were born and built their careers, where Shelley set her 1818 novel, and key sites from the studio's production history. We are going to put all of this together on one map, showing how a story that starts in Geneva and ends in the Arctic got picked up and remade on a Hollywood backlot by people from England, Russia, and across the U.S.
The modern-day setting of Salem, Massachusetts was, in 1692, referred to as Salem Town, and is the location now infamous for the 1692 Salem Witch Trials.
This beginning map locates the cities of Salem Village and Danvers, locations that were central to the 1692 Salem Witch Trials, the subject of Cotton Mather's The Wonders of the Invisible World. Students will find one location or individual to plot on the map, giving a 100-200 word analysis (with citations) of how and why this pin contributes to the understanding of Mather's text.
