Cannibal adaptation or the trope of monstrosity

Abstract

Led by Thomas deployment of the Hollywood vampire as a multifaceted analogy for the larger, equivocal practice of adaptation, the self-reflexive trope of monstrosity emerging in the past decade anticipates what Kamilla has recently labeled as the need for conceptualizing adaptation as adaptation rather than via other disciplines. While Julie defines vampires, zombies and Frankenstein’s creature as canonical monsters, this article instead examines the figure of the non-western cannibal as a distinct analogy for assimilative adaptation. In order to establish the basis of cannibal adaptation’s productive indifference to questions of originality, fidelity and influence, I examine the history of the cannibal and the Latin American origins of cultural anthropophagy. The movement’s multiple revivals across different political moments and artistic genres illustrate its relevance for macroscopic studies of transmedial adaptation. Simultaneously appropriative and assimilative, the cannibal offers an alternative ethics for the process of adaptation.