Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 08:11, 9 October 2012

A mashup novel, or mashup book (also mash-up), is a work of fiction which combines a pre-existing text, often a classic work of fiction, with a certain popular genre such as vampire or zombie narratives. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which combines Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice with elements of modern zombie fiction, is certainly one of the most famous and successful works in the genre, and has been credited with spawning a rash of imitations.

The term "Mashup" was borrowed from the world of computers and music, as Adam Cohen stated in his New York Times editorial about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: "The idea of combining two data sources into a new product began in the tech world (also think music remixes) and is spreading — including to book publishing."

Genre

Mashup books are seen as distinct from parody novels like Bored of the Rings, and parallel novels like The Wind Done Gone or Wicked since they do not merely make fun of the original text, or tell an alternative version of it, but also introduce the themes and characteristics of a wholly different genre.

While most works in this genre (or cross-genre trend) rely on fictional texts as their basis, other works like Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter superimpose the popular genres over historical figures and events. A more recent phenomenon within the genre is the combination of more than two original works, or genres, as in the case of Robinson Crusoe (The Eerie Adventures of the Lycanthrope), which combines the original novel with elements borrowed from the works of H.P. Lovecraft as well as the popular genre of werewolf fiction, and is accordingly attributed to three authors - Daniel Defoe, H.P. Lovecraft, and Peter Clines.

Publishing trend

Quirk Books, an independent publisher which achieved great success with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in April 2009, followed it up with several more mashups of literary classics and in 2010 introduced its "Quirk Classics" imprint made specifically for the genre. Other publishers soon joined in the trend, as Jennifer Schuessler pointed out in a December 2009 New York Times piece on the phenomenon:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has spent eight months on the New York Times best-seller list, spawned several imitators and injected some fresh blood -- and male readers -- into an Austen industry dominated by gauzy romances. Goodbye, The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy. Hello, Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and Dawn of the Dreadfuls, a prequel to Zombies that lists Austen as an author despite the lack of what Hollywood types refer to as "participation."

Several notable publishing houses including Del Rey and Harper also started publishing books in the genre, while some smaller publishers such as Coscom Entertainment began flooding the market with rashly-made zombie or vampire themed versions of famous works in an attempt to cash in on the fad (similar to the mockbuster phenomenon in film).

Copyright issues

Mashup novels constitute derivative works since they include major elements borrowed from an original, previously created work. Most authors of such novels, however, avoid potential legal issues (and the payment of royalties to the original writers) by basing their books on texts that are in the public domain. One notable exception is The Late Gatsby, which combines F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby with a vampire narrative - since the original text is still protected by the Copyright Term Extension Act (until 2020) in the United States, the book was published outside the U.S. and remains unavailable to its residents.

Notable examples

References

1. Kehe, Marjorie. 'Little Women and Werewolves': a step too far? October 6, 2009, The Christian Science Monitor.
2. Cohen, Adam. Mr. Darcy Woos Elizabeth Bennet While Zombies Attack. April 13, 2009, The New York Times.
3. Schuessler, Jennifer. Undead-Austen Mash-Ups. 13 December 2009, The New York Times.
4. The Late Gatsby

External links

• Quirk Classics website - imprint of Quirk Books dedicated to Mashups.
• Sussex Chainsaw Massacre: The horrification of Jane Austen - overview of genre and review of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, New York Magazine, 6 September 2009.
• Pride And Prejudice And Zombies Spin-Offs Are Out Of Control! 11 Classic Monster Mashups - The Huffington Post, 28 April 2010.

• Parody novels
• Literary genres
• Horror fiction