Chicano Frankenstein
Book • 2024
Daniel A. Olivas's Chicano Frankenstein uses Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as a framing device to examine contemporary anti-immigrant sentiment and cultural erasure.
Set in a near-future Pasadena where reanimation is legal but strips reanimated people of their histories, the novel follows a brown-skinned reanimated man (the Man) navigating identity, love, and political backlash.
Olivas blends satire, dystopian elements, and humor to humanize marginalized people and critique xenophobic policies.
The book interweaves personal narrative with macro-political developments, including a right-wing president enacting measures against reanimated communities.
It positions speculative fiction as a means to illuminate real-world immigration injustices and foster empathy.
Set in a near-future Pasadena where reanimation is legal but strips reanimated people of their histories, the novel follows a brown-skinned reanimated man (the Man) navigating identity, love, and political backlash.
Olivas blends satire, dystopian elements, and humor to humanize marginalized people and critique xenophobic policies.
The book interweaves personal narrative with macro-political developments, including a right-wing president enacting measures against reanimated communities.
It positions speculative fiction as a means to illuminate real-world immigration injustices and foster empathy.
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Daniel Olivas
785 Literature in an Age of Anti-Immigration Sentiment (with Daniel Olivas) | My Last Book with Janet Todd
