“It Could Be Worse … It Could Be Raining”: The Language of Meteorology in Shelley’s Frankenstein and its Intersemiotic Translations

The language relating to climatic conditions certainly plays a major role in the novel Frankenstein, published by Mary Shelley in 1818. The aim of this article is therefore to analyze the use the author makes of this language, which often acquires symbolic overtones that work in synergy with the development of the plot and the characters’ psychology, and study the way this same language is adapted and exploited in some of the films that translate the novel intersemiotically. To this end, this paper will focus on the cinematographic adaptations of Shelley’s work dating from 1931, 1994 and 2015, although sporadic references to other products will be made too. During the analysis, some of the notions of intersemiotic translation will be applied to the selected corpus, in order to demonstrate how the practice of various forms of translation, including inter- and intra-semiotic translation, heavily contributes to the creation of the canon we live by.