CFP Unfaithful Adaptations of Jekyll and Hyde: Essays on Hybridity and the Gothic Double (3/5/2025)

Unfaithful Adaptations of Jekyll and Hyde: Essays on Hybridity and the Gothic Double

deadline for submissions:
March 5, 2026

full name / name of organization:
Eric Riddle

contact email:
UnfaithfullyHyde@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/09/11/unfaithful-adaptations-of-jekyll-and-hyde-essays-on-hybridity-and-the-gothic-double


Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is one of the most adapted, parodied, and referenced works of Gothic fiction. Even those who have never read the novella know the “story,” or at least the twist: Henry Jekyll becomes Edward Hyde to live a double life, disconnected from societal pressures and expectations. Many, if not all, of these media adaptations add, edit, or remove elements from the story, making it a hybrid narrative, one part Stevenson’s and one part the adapter’s.



This hybridity will be the focus of this proposed edited collection with McFarland, under their new “Studies in Liberal Adaptation” collection with Dr. Kyle William Bishop as the series editor. This book will analyze unfaithful adaptations of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in various media formats including television, film, video and board games, and comics, and the edited collection will ultimately argue why the novella works so well as an artifact to be adapted to address modern societal concerns and remains an important touchstone more than a century after its original publication.

Following is a non-exhaustive list of potential themes and works the collection is interested in approaching. Chapters should be academically researched while also being accessibly written for a non-academic audience.



THEMES

• Addiction and Aggression
• Anonymity / Secret Identities
• Class struggles
• Comics and Superheroes
• Gender and Sexuality
• “Inappropriate” love, Prostitution, etc.
• Pride and Hubris
• Race

TEXTS (in no particular order)

• Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953)
• Batman (As hero with secret identity and/or the comic villain Hyde)
• Cartoon Adaptations (Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Mighty Mouse)
• Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype (1980)
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920, 1931, 1941 versions, as well as any others)
• Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde (1995)
• Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)
• Fight Club
• Jekyll (2007 BBS series)
• Mary Reilly (1996)
• Once Upon a Time
• Penny Dreadful
• The Incredible Hulk (various)
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
• The Mummy (2017)
• The Nutty Professor (all versions)
• The Pagemaster (1994)
• Van Helsing (2004)

Please send an abstract of 300-500 words describing your proposed chapter and thesis, along with a short author bio, to Dr. Eric Riddle at UnfaithfullyHyde@gmail.com before March 5th, 2026. Final chapters of 5,000-6,000 words will be due late 2026.


Last updated September 12, 2025