1. Thomas Colleran 1
How Chris Weitz’s Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) Popularised the
YA (Young Adult Fiction) Genre, and how it is a Regressive Text.
This essay will examine the 2009 Chris Weitz-directed The Twilight Saga: New Moon,1
a cinematic adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s 2006 source novel New Moon.2
After
brief contextualisation of the film to the wider Twilight book and parallel film series, the
essay will first consider the impact of the Twilight phenomenon, with particular
reference to New Moon, on the developing marketplace for young adult (YA) cinematic
and literary materials. This will be followed by a consideration of New Moon in terms
of the film as an adaptation, with appropriate reference to adaptation studies and
concepts; this will include some analysis of the narrative changes and continuities
made in the transition of the storyline from text to screen. The essay will then reflect
on a range of critical readings of the film text, with a particular focus on the regressive
and ‘anti-feminist’ qualities, as acknowledged by some commentators, and a
consideration of Jeffrey Cohen's ‘monster theory’, moving towards a summary that
brings together the different strands pursued through the course of the main body.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon (hereafter referred to as the source book title, New
Moon) is the second film in the five-film Twilight saga. It follows Twilight,3
and
precedes, in turn, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse4
and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn
Part 15
and 2.6
The success of the Twilight cycle, both in original novelistic and
subsequent film versions, has been remarkable. In 2009, the books represented the
1 The Twilight Saga: New Moon, dir. by Chris Weitz (USA: Summit Entertainment, 2009)
2 Stephenie Meyer, New Moon (London: Atom Books, 2007)
3 Catherine Hardwicke, Twilight (USA: Summit Entertainment, 2008)
4 David Slade, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (USA: Summit Entertainment, 2010)
5 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part I, dir. by Bill Condon (USA: Summit Entertainment, 2011)
6 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, dir. by Bill Condon (USA: Summit Entertainment, 2012)

2. Thomas Colleran 2
top four bestselling novels in the United States of America, with New Moon occupying
the ‘top’7 place. The film adaptation was a significant financial success, too, breaking
‘box-office’8 records for its release period. The film franchise as a whole has grossed
over three ‘billion’9 dollars worldwide. Book sales for the novel quartet have been
estimated at one hundred and twenty ‘million copies’10 globally.
The Twilight phenomenon has been at the vanguard of a developing wave of
popularity of young adult texts, both in novel and in film adaptation form, which has
been a significant popular cultural force over the last decade. Rosenberg sees some
of this popularity as deriving from the accessibility of the material. They are
‘challenging’11 but not threatening for younger children, he says, relevant and
meaningful for teenagers, and nostalgic, escapist and familiar for adult readers. Young
adult fantasy tends to revisit well-known tropes of speculative and fantastic fiction:
vampires and werewolves in the Twilight cycle, and future dystopias in The Hunger
Games,12
The Maze Runner,13
and Divergent14
series. Each of which have been
adapted into film series’ paralleling the novels.
7 Anthony Debarros and others, ‘Best-Selling Books: The Annual Top 100 2009’, USA Today.
<http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2010-01-05-top-books-2009_N.htm > [Accessed
15th of April 2016]
8 Nikki Finke, ‘New Moon Shreds Movie Records’, Deadline Hollywood.
<http://deadline.com/2009/11/phenomenal-breaking-records-new-moon-doing-dark-knight-midnight-
numbers-18958/#more-18958> [Accessed 15th of April 2016]
9 Nash Information Services, ‘Box Office History for Twilight Franchise Movies’, The Numbers.
<http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchise/Twilight#tab=summary > [Accessed 15th of April
2016]
10 Michael Hardiman, ‘Fitting in Means Reading Some Truly Awful Stuff’, Splice
Today <http://www.splicetoday.com/digital/fitting-in-means-reading-some-truly-awful-stuff > [Accessed
15th of April 2016]
11 Alyssa Rosenberg, ‘From “Harry Potter” to “Twilight,” the Enduring Draw of Young Adult
Fiction’, The Atlantic. <http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/05/from -harry-potter-to-
twilight-the-enduring-draw-of-young-adult-fiction/239639/ > [Accessed 15th of April 2016]
12 The Hunger Games, dir. by Suzanne Collins (London: Scholastic, 2009)
13 James Dashner, The Maze Runner (United Kingdom: Chicken House, 2014)
14 Veronica Roth, Divergent (London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2013)

3. Thomas Colleran 3
David Brown links some of the popularity of young adult speculative fiction over the
past decade to the strength of readers’ ‘identification’15 with the young adult
protagonists of these fictions. They each face momentous decisions and life and death
conflicts. Often, such decisions are linked in the narratives to the loss of innocence
and to trials by fire, sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally.
Strickland connects Twilight as a series to a wider ‘chronology’16 of young adult fiction.
Though the term ‘young adult’ was developed in the US library system in the 1960s to
refer to novels written for teenage readerships, it was more commonly applied to social
realist books dramatising adolescent ‘dramas and anxieties.17 A connection is made
to a US demographic shift occurring in the early 1990s, resulting in a greater teen
market by the end of the millennium: the greatest benefit of this was felt in publishing
terms by JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series.18 For Strickland, the ‘influence’19 of the
Harry Potter books and films, and their adoption of initially straightforward quest
narratives and well-understood tropes of supernatural fantasy literature, was hugely
significant. Meyer’s Twilight series came into print at the right ‘time’20 to benefit from
both the end of the Potter publishing cycle, and the need for the children who had
grown up with the Potter books to progress to more adult-themed material.
15 David W Brown, ‘How Young Adult Fiction Came of Age’, The Atlantic.
<http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/08/how-young-adult-fiction-came-of-
age/242671/ > [Accessed 15th of April 2016]
16 Ashley Strickland, ‘A Brief History of Young Adult Literature’, CNN.
<http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/15/living/young-adult-fiction-evolution/> [Accessed 15th of April 2016]
17 Strickland
18 Strickland
19 Strickland
20 Strickland

4. Thomas Colleran 4
The film version of New Moon represents something of a development from Twilight.
The first film grossed ‘$393,616,78821 against a ‘$37 million’22 budget, with the sequel
grossing almost twice as much; ‘$709,711,008’.23 Though the first film was a success,
the second film was a blockbuster, and represented the viability of production
companies’ investments in young adult fantasy series’ for adaptation.
New Moon develops Twilight’s narrative of the love story between human Bella Swan
and vampire Edward Cullen. Bella is separated from Edward when she almost dies
after an accident where her blood is drunk. Visions prophesy that Bella will become a
vampire. Estranged from Edward, Bella becomes attracted to her ‘friend’ Jacob.
Eventually, though, Bella travels to Italy to be reconciled with Edward. The Cullen clan,
then, vote to permit Bella’s turning to vampirism; Edward agrees to perform the rite
once they have been married.
The film makes certain changes from the book, some of which will be analysed below,
but in general terms, it accords with the source material in tone, which indicates that
there is some correlation with Elliot’s ‘psychic concept’.24 There is a commitment to
translating the authorial intent over from book to film. Similarly, there is a fidelity in
narrative terms, which would also suggest a concordance with Elliot’s ‘genetic
21 Box Office Mojo, ‘Twilight (2008)’, Box Office Mojo.
<http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=twilight08.htm> [Accessed 15th of April 2016]
22 Nicole Sperling, ‘“Twilight” Hits Hollywood’, Entertainment Weekly.
<http://www.ew.com/article/2008/07/16/twilight-hits-hollywood> [Accessed 15th of April 2016]
23 Box Office Mojo, ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)’, Box Office Mojo.
<http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=newmoon.htm > [Accessed 15th of April 2016]
24 Kamilla Elliott, Rethinking the Novel/Film Debate (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), p.
135

5. Thomas Colleran 5
concept’,25 too. Ken Gelder comments on a commitment to ‘fidelity’26 by the
filmmakers: the books had first been optioned by Paramount Pictures who had worked
for three years ‘tinkering with them, substantially altering the narratives and characters
[…] however, they finally abandoned the franchise’,27 selling off the rights to Summit
Entertainment. Gelder ‘observes’28 that Summit chose fidelity as a working approach
to the series, having the novels’ author to validate screenplays by Melissa Rosenberg,
who was retained through the series as the screenwriter for the follow-on films. Gelder
makes the ‘link’29 between the moves towards concordance between the films and the
source material as being at least in part driven by a need to satisfy the expectations
of a large, engaged and ‘social media-savvy’ fan base. Mark Cunningham makes
similar observations regarding adapting the series, noting the perceived ‘need’30 in the
filmmakers to concord with the source material, and the validation of this approach
through the films’ ‘successes’.31
Chatman, in approaching narrative adaptation from a structuralist perspective,
distinguishes between what he terms ‘kernels’32 and satellites. Kernels being decision
points in the story which ‘cannot be deleted without destroying the narrative’,33 and
satellites being comparatively minor plot points which may be removed from the wider
25 Elliot, p. 230
26 Ken Gelder, New Vampire Cinema (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), p. 85
27 Ken Gelder, New Vampire Cinema (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), p. 85
28 Gelder, p. 85
29 Gelder, p. 85
30 Mark Cunningham, ‘Travelling in the Same Boat: Adapting Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, New Moon,
and Eclipse to Film’, in Genre, Reception, and Adaptation in the Twilight Series, ed. by Anne Morey
(Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing, 2012), pp. 199–214
31 Cunningham, pp. 213-14
32 Seymour Benjamin Chatman, Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film (Ithaca,
NY: Cornell University Press, 1980), pp. 53-55
33 Chatman, p. 53

6. Thomas Colleran 6
narrative without compromising its structure. The broad compatibility in significant plot
terms between the source novel and adaptation of New Moon implies that a
consideration of satellites, rather than kernels, may be more productive. Meyer notes
the similarities in one interview: ‘New Moon stays closer to the novel, so there aren’t
a lot of scenes that aren’t closely related to the book’.34 An example of a satellite point
is the film that Bella, Jacob, and Mike make a trip to watch. In the novel, the film is a
zombie horror called Crosshairs. In the adaptation, though, the film they see is an
action piece called Face Punch. Similarly, in the novel, there is a passage of time that
represents Bella’s depression while being separated from Edward. This is represented
by blank pages to indicate the months from September to January. Such an effect
would not translate to the cinema and so a substitution was devised. In the film, Bella
now ‘sits listless in front of her window as the camera moves around her to show the
changing seasons outside. The trick captures her melancholia’35 and is accompanied
by a suitably atmospheric music cue.
Thomas Leitch comments that film adaptations often seek not to ‘reproduce’36 the
novelistic original, but work to find ways that parallel the reading experience as well
as the narrative and character elements within the text. There is a tension here
between creativity for the filmmakers and adherence to the original (and perhaps to
the fan base of franchise properties such as the Twilight series) to navigate. Leitch
34 Stephenie Meyer, ‘New Moon The Movie Q and A’, StephenieMeyer.com.
<http://stepheniemeyer.com/nm_movie_qanda.html > [Accessed 15th of April 2016]
35 ‘Twilight Series Article: 20 Differences (that Work) between “New Moon” and the Book’, Fanpop,
<http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/twilight-series/articles/35488/title/20-differences-work-between-moon-
book> [Accessed 15th of April 2016]
36 Thomas M Leitch, ‘Twelve Fallacies in Contemporary Adaptation Theory’, Project Muse.
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/crt.2004.0001>, pp. 166-67

7. Thomas Colleran 7
‘sees’37 that one of the problematic aspects of adaptation studies is a fixation with the
idea of the primacy of the original text being adapted, even when that original is drawn
from many sources. Chris Weitz’s New Moon adaptation has something of an
obligation to faithfulness to its source, but that source, the novel New Moon, has no
such obligation. It draws widely from native American and European folk stories,
incorporating the female-protagonist fantasy properties that Gelder links ‘explicitly’38
to the impact and influence of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.39
The
book also models itself explicitly on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This is not
merely in general plot terms, but to the extent of the link being underscored in the
adaptation through a classroom scene where Edward and Bella are watching the 1968
Franco Zeffirelli film version.40 And in which Edward recites along with the Romeo
playing on the television screen in the class. This adaptation, in short, must be faithful
to the source, though the source has been free to indulge in intertextuality.
Mendlesohn and James see the series as part of a broader cycle of popular
paranormal romance series’ in the mid-2000s. This ‘form of fantasy looks just like its
adult progenitors, but with younger protagonists, more lurve and less sex’,41 they note.
The Twilight series is seen, here, as not only the brand leader in which ‘an innocent
young thing falls in love with a vampire and struggles to preserve her purity was a
great hit with young female readers’,42 but as the most notable series in a developing
37 Leitch, p. 168
38 Gelder, p. 84
39 Buffy the Vampire Slayer, dir. by Joss Whedon (20th Television, 1997)
40 Romeo and Juliet, dir. by Franco Zeffirelli (De Laurentiis, 1968)
41 Farah Mendlesohn and Edward James, A Short History of Fantasy (United Kingdom: Middlesex
University Press, 2009), p. 206
42 Mendlesohn and James, p. 206

8. Thomas Colleran 8
subgenre of dark fantasy that mixes well-known speculative fiction tropes with a
puritanical and morally conservative agenda.
Elsewhere, the analysis has been less patronisingly dismissive. Roz Kaveney makes
the case for the relevance for a consideration of the particular handling of the erotic in
the series. Here, the books (and by extension, the films, including New Moon) are of
interest, and invite criticism, because they can be read as ‘platforms for the author’s
strong views about sexual abstinence’.43 For Kaveney, there is an odd tension
between heroine Bella’s pursuit of Edward Cullen throughout the first two books (and
films), which is the driving narrative force until at least the climax of New Moon, though
the relationship remains sexually unconsummated. Once this point has been reached
in the series narrative, Kaveney notes, the focus shifts to ‘broader’44 narrative
complications, to the nature of the friendship with werewolf Jacob, and to Bella and
Edward’s offspring. The texts are seen as propagandist in terms of their support for
premarital celibacy in ways which are restrictive, morally conservative, and
oppositional to feminist ‘thinking’.45 Kaveney links this to a broader trend in paranormal
romance and dark fantasy, in which the supernatural codifies issues of race and
sexuality, positioning them as ‘the other’, and as transgressive. The thing to be scared
of in New Moon, it seems, is not warring clans of vampires, nor even shapeshifters,
but of young adult female sexuality.
43 Roz Kaveney, ‘Dark Fantasy and Paranormal Romance’, in The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy
Literature, ed. by Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2012), p 220
44 Kaveney, p. 220
45 Kaveney, p. 220

9. Thomas Colleran 9
Laing, writing in the context of the publicity drive accompanying the release of New
Moon into UK cinemas, examines the point about abstinence with reference to the
series author’s background and personal beliefs. ‘Links’46 are drawn to Meyer’s
Mormon upbringing, education and continuing faith, as informing the abstinence
agenda visible throughout the Twilight universe in its various iterations. Laing
characterises Meyer as feeling a parental obligation to her readership, exemplifying
this with reference to the close relationship Meyer fosters through social media and
personal appearances. She also references Meyer’s support of non-profit fan fiction
set in the Twilight universe. This support, as acknowledged by Laing, goes to the
extent of uploading fan fiction to her official website, and to abandoning works in
progress (such as MidnightSun, a partial first draft which had been leaked online, with
the project subsequently discontinued) as her intended story was considered
problematic by her fan base. The abandoned project, Midnight Sun, was intended to
have reworked the Twilight storyline from Edward’s perspective, rather than telling it
from Bella’s point of view as the original novels ‘had done’.47 Meyer posted the
‘problematic’ material on her website so that readers could see it for themselves
without having to illegally download it, which further reinforces her want of, and
endorsements of, being ‘honest’.48
The theme of honesty, and indeed religion, is pertinent through the Twilight cycle.
From a religious perspective, as noted by Gravett, the design and intent of parts of the
46 Olivia Laing, ‘Stephenie Meyer - a Squeaky-Clean Vampire Queen’, The Guardian.
<http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/nov/15/profile-stephenie-meyer-vampire-queen> [Accessed
17th of April 2016]
47 Sandra Gravett, From Twilight to Breaking Dawn: Religious Themes in the Twilight Saga (St Louis,
MI: Chalice Press, 2010), p. 4
48 Laing

10. Thomas Colleran 10
series are deliberately overt. Edward and Bella, for example, are modelled on Biblical
figures. Edward Cullen is seen in this analysis as a ‘substitute’49 figure for Christ, with
his absence for much of the narrative arc of New Moon placing him in a position
analogous to the Holy Ghost. Bella is ‘seen’50 as representative of the Virgin Mary in
some aspects of the story, and as the Old Testament figure of Eve in others. She is
used to represent and articulate questions of purity and innocence, and also of
temptation and transgressive desires. The implication of this is that New Moon is not
merely informed by a faith-based moral perspective that advocates regressive notions
of abstinence and the worth of pre-marital chastity, but that these are articulated
through character design that draws on Christian religious archetypes. New Moon, in
its various forms, may be seen to function as a polemical text informed by the series
author’s Mormon worldview.
Furthermore, Gelder takes a genre-based ‘focus’51 and is interested in the ways in
which New Moon plays with the codes and conventions of the vampire film and teen
romance. At the start of New Moon, Bella is terrified by a vision of herself as an older
woman (age and its perceived threats is a theme throughout the film). This is
reinforced by parental jokes about grey hairs and by Bella’s developing obsession with
her passing years. Vampirism offers a way out of this: we are encouraged to see Bella
considering this as the only workable option to keep her young forever. ‘As a
consequence of these fears, Bella becomes less cautious in her encounters as the
narrative of New Moon develops’.52
49 Gravett, p. 5
50 Gravett, p. 27
51 Gelder, p. 87
52 Gelder, p. 87

11. Thomas Colleran 11
One aspect of New Moon which Gelder finds of particular ‘interest’53 is the way in
which it takes native American culture as a focal point. Bella learns about vampires
through a native American-informed perspective, Jacob discusses the territorial
implications in New Moon of the treaties between his kind and the likes of the Cullens.
Here, Bella is the one who is invading: both the Cullens and Jacob respect their
cultures and their respective territories, whereas it is she who is the transgressive one
in terms of the ways that she simultaneously entices both males, and threatens them
through her disregard for old alliances and agreements. As Gelder notes, ‘[a]s a
consequence, the love triangle between Bella, Edward and Jacob is remarkable fragile
and volatile: not quite catastrophic […] but close to it at times’.54
Gelder critiques the ways in which the Twilight series is often depicted as being
supportive of sexually conservative Christian-informed ‘moral positions’.55 He sees
Bella as a strong and wilful character, and more in control of her own destiny and
urges than either Edward or Jacob. In New Moon, after leaving the cinema with
Jessica, Bella is assertive with the bikers she meets outside, and uses the encounter
with them not just for her own enjoyment, but to exert some control over Edward. This
develops to the extent that Bella takes on an independent interest in motorcycles,
demonstrating this when she helps Jacob working on bikes in a garage scene. Bella’s
agency is again highlighted in the way that she journeys to Italy to save the suicidal
‘Edward’56 (again, there are references to Romeo and Juliet both in the setting and in
53 Gelder, p. 88
54 Gelder, p. 89
55 Gelder, p. 90
56 Gelder, p. 91

12. Thomas Colleran 12
the plot kernel here). In Italy, when Bella confronts the Volturi vampires, their head,
Aro, is swayed by Bella’s resolve and supports her. Gelder is interested in the
mechanisms by which New Moon is at once a slow-paced and at times clichéd love
triangle romance, and also finds ways in which Bella exhibits ‘control and agency’.57
That said, Gelder also notes how New Moon simultaneously subverts horror films and
faces up to the lack of overt horrific material within the film itself by confining
bloodthirsty violence to the film-within-the-film Face Punch, which repulses viewer
Michael, having to leave the auditorium to vomit, who is both disgusted by the images
and of Bella and Jacob. There is something of a joke here: Face Punch contains the
violent genre material that New Moon cannot, and the characters within the film Bella
is watching are involved in adventures that she cannot indulge in as she is herself
featuring in a Twilight franchise film. For Gelder, this is a scene of self-parody, which
acknowledges the genre considerations and pleasures that New Moon, and the wider
franchise, are unable to indulge in, preferring instead to focus on the ‘fetishizing of a
beautiful, banal male vampire’.58
Where Gelder is open to nuance and to competing tendencies within New Moon, and
to investigating support for the notion that the piece is not wholly driven by a
conservative moral agenda, other commentators are less forgiving. Seifert sees the
Twilight franchise as codifying and popularising a tendency in the United States of
media formats which both objectify and prioritise the value of female virginity and teen
abstinence. Seifert defines four elements which link virginity to value systems and
57 Gelder, p. 91
58 Gelder, p. 92

13. Thomas Colleran 13
codes of conduct which support the conservative message of avoidance of sexual
‘activity’.59 These are: innocence and general attitude of naivety, submissiveness to
male decision-making and supervision, lack of agency despite seemingly-irresistible
emotional and physical craving, even in dangerous situations, and attraction to
hazardous characters and circumstances that jeopardise virginity. In New Moon,
Bella’s indulgence in motorcycling is seen by Seifert as an example of the ‘second’60
of these tropes, with Bella putting herself in danger so that she can be saved by
Edward. Throughout the series of films, Edward is shown behaving in a paternalistic
fashion, watching over Bella while she sleeps. Bella is shown as making bad decisions
which imperil her, but this is in a way enjoyable because it triggers masculine and
paternal attention and protection from Edward. His constant vigilance, it may be
argued, makes ‘Bella feel important and loved’.61 As evidenced by the prophetic
elements in New Moon showing that Bella is destined to become a vampire, she is
robbed of any agency because her future has been determined in advance.
Furthermore, Bella’s uniqueness as a character comes in the series not because of
any aspect of her own nature or character, but because of Edward’s attention. She is
special because she is special to Edward, who has never experienced anyone like her
before. For Seifert, it is ‘Edward’s agency – his destiny meshed with hers – that guides
Bella’s major life decisions, including her decision [in New Moon] to become a
vampire’.62 When Edward is absent from the narrative, Bella indulges in reckless
behaviour so that she can hear his voice in her head. She is shown as desiring the
59 Christine Seifert, Virginity in Young Adult Literature after Twilight (New York: Rowman & Littlefield,
2015), p. 13
60 Seifert, p. 13
61 Seifert, p. 14
62 Seifert, p, 15

14. Thomas Colleran 14
sensation of protection over and above any independence or agency that committing
the acts that invoke it might imply.
The tropes prevalent in New Moon are supportive of the idea that female virginity is
associated with moral worth, goodness and positive difference from others. The
Twilight series’ success has codified these attributes, and to some extent, they can be
considered appropriate to the genre. In such series, human female virgin protagonists
are often partnered with older male protectors imbued with a supernatural qualities. A
female antagonist is often present, and this character is sexually active. Desire is
expressed in the protagonist and in their protector, but this remains unconsummated
despite temptation and opportunity until such time as the virgin heroine’s innate purity
can be retained through commitment via marriage. As Seifert puts it, the ‘heroine’s
treasured virginity is safe in the hands of the only man who will ever love her.63
Elsewhere, Seifert notes ‘commonality’64 in young adult film and book series’ outside
of the paranormal romance subgenre. Dystopian series’, such as The Hunger Games,
The Maze Runner, and Divergent, variously downplay the female lead’s sexual self,
or find mechanisms by which the narratives do not have to deal with the character as
an active sexual being. The Hunger Games provides an example. Katniss Everdeen
and her partner, Peeta, form an arranged relationship through the concocted ‘games’.
Though an on-off relationship develops, Katniss’, nor Peeta’s, sexual desires are
overtly represented. As noted by Seifert, ‘Katniss is not a blissfully happy bride. She
and Peeta both suffer from the trauma of what they’ve been through’.65 Neither of the
63 Seifert, p. 24
64 Seifert, pp. 55-85
65 Seifert, pp. 55-56

15. Thomas Colleran 15
film’s protagonists, at any point throughout the series, express their desires, as they
are instead concealed by their ‘bond’ to fight against the enemy.
Moreover, Cohen considers the cultural significance of the monsters that societies
invoke, and proposes seven ways of understanding them; this final section examines
New Moon through the lenses offered by his monster theory approach. First, Cohen
proposes that the monster signifies cultural fears and ‘anxieties’,66 and that to
understand society better, one needs to consider the monsters that are fixated upon
in that society. Here, there is a temptation to see that the monster in New Moon, and
throughout the book and film series, is Bella, rather than the various supernatural
creatures and networks that the narrative investigates. Bella is the destabilising
influence. She brings, ultimately, not only internal but physical conflict. In addition,
Bella represents, as has been indicated above, an embodiment of a cultural fear of the
sexualised feminine - the monster is not just the human female, but her potential as a
sexual being, which must be controlled and repressed, and she must be protected
from herself by paternalistic others. Indeed, the threat is so strong that a supernatural
agency is required in order to corral this particular ‘beast’. The implication is that this
sexual urge is so powerful that it is beyond human female control. Second, for Cohen,
the monster always ‘exists’67: it perpetuates. Cohen discusses earlier vampire
narratives in which the supernatural antagonist is an external sexualised menace -
from Bram Stoker’s Dracula to Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles novels, this ‘remains
constant’.68
66 Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, ‘Monster Culture: Seven Theses’, in Monster Theory: Reading Culture, ed.
by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), p. 4
67 Cohen, p. 5
68 Cohen, p. 5

16. Thomas Colleran 16
In New Moon, however, this is inverted: the film (and the wider series) is concerned
with the threat of the non-supernatural, the local, and the female as opposed to the
male. Towards the film’s climax, however, Bella becomes an external threat, through
her travels to Italy and her meetings with the Volturi. Where Cohen notes ‘variously’69
that foreignness, homosexuality, and HIV/AIDS are discussed through the metaphor
of the monster in vampire cinema. In New Moon, the monstrous element can be seen
as a human teenage female with no supernatural powers.
For Cohen, then, the monster ‘polices the borders of the possible’,70 and is both a
gatekeeper and a warning of the dangers of venturing into forbidden or unexplored
territory. Bella patrols various borderlands through New Moon: the treaty between the
werewolves and the Cullens, the authority of the Volturi, the geographies of
Washington state and Italy, relationship boundaries between herself, Jacob and
Edward, and even boundaries of taste and violence in the cinema visit sequence. In
her patrols she signifies danger, not necessarily for herself – indeed, she is shielded
by her demanding Edward’s protection – but for the others who associate and come
into conflict with her.
Cohen also sees the monstrous figure as a desire for ‘forbidden’71 knowledge. It is
sexual knowledge, particularly through Bella, which is explored in New Moon. Thereby
conforming to Cohen’s ‘becoming’72 notion, which occurs once that knowledge has
been taken on board. For Bella, at the end of New Moon, this is the transition from
69 Cohen, p. 5
70 Cohen, p. 12
71 Cohen, pp. 17-20
72 Cohen, p. 20

17. Thomas Colleran 17
human to vampire, from ageing mortal to undying eighteen-year-old, from virgin to
wife. For Edward, it is the consummation of his fascination with her. Edward will stay
the same, still a vampire, still eternal, but the monstrous Bella will become so much
more.
This essay has considered Chris Weitz’s film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s New
Moon in a range of contexts. First, as a successful, and thus influential film which led
to the burgeoning young adult fantasy film market being pursued by adaptations of
other novel series. Second, as a faithful adaptation, that faithfulness mandated by a
large and vocal fan base, and by an involved series author: appropriate taxonomical
ideas have been articulated here. Third, as a morally and politically conservative piece
concerned with disseminating its source material’s preoccupation with teen abstinence
and with the idealisation of female purity through virginity. Fourth, as being influential
in terms of its moral perspective. Critical approaches interested in other aspects of
New Moon have been introduced, which indicate that the film text is open to a
multiplicity of readings. Finally, a consideration of Cohen’s monster theory has
investigated the proposition that New Moon can be understood as indicating, despite
the array of supernatural creatures involved in the narrative, that Bella, and the
potential for human female sexuality that she represents, is the monstrous force in the
film’s narrative.

18. Thomas Colleran 18
Bibliography:
Chatman, Seymour Benjamin, Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction
and Film (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1980)
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome, ‘Monster Culture: Seven Theses’, in Monster Theory:
Reading Culture, ed. by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (Minneapolis, MN: University of
Minnesota Press, 1996), pp. 1–25
Collins, Suzanne, The Hunger Games (London: Scholastic, 2009)
Cunningham, Mark, ‘Travelling in the Same Boat: Adapting Stephenie Meyer’s
Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse to Film’, in Genre, Reception, and Adaptation in the

19. Thomas Colleran 19
Twilight Series, ed. by Anne Morey (Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing, 2012),
pp. 199–214
Dashner, James, The Maze Runner (United Kingdom: Chicken House, 2014)
Elliott, Kamilla, Rethinking the Novel/Film Debate (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2009)
Gelder, Ken, New Vampire Cinema (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)
Gravett, Sandra, From Twilight to Breaking Dawn: Religious Themes in the Twilight
Saga (St Louis, MI: Chalice Press, 2010)
Kaveney, Roz, ‘Dark Fantasy and Paranormal Romance’, in The Cambridge
Companion to Fantasy Literature, ed. by Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 214–23
Mendlesohn, Farah, and Edward James, A Short History of Fantasy (United
Kingdom: Middlesex University Press, 2009)
Meyer, Stephenie, Breaking Dawn (London: Atom Books, 2010)
Meyer, Stephenie, Eclipse (London: Atom Books, 2008)
Meyer, Stephenie, New Moon (London: Atom Books, 2007)
Meyer, Stephenie, Twilight (London: Atom Books, 2006)
Roth, Veronica, Divergent (London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2013)
Seifert, Christine, Virginity in Young Adult Literature after Twilight (New York:
Rowman & Littlefield, 2015)

20. Thomas Colleran 20
Webography:
Box Office Mojo, ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)’, Box Office Mojo.
<http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=newmoon.htm> [Accessed 15th of April
2016]
Box Office Mojo, ‘Twilight (2008)’, Box Office Mojo.
<http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=twilight08.htm> [Accessed 15th of April
2016]
Brown, David W, ‘How Young Adult Fiction Came of Age’, The Atlantic.
<http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/08/how-young-adult-fiction-
came-of-age/242671/> [Accessed 15th of April 2016]
Debarros, Anthony, Mary Cadden, Kristin DeRamus, and Christopher Schnaars,
‘Best-Selling Books: The Annual Top 100 2009’, USA Today.
<http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2010-01-05-top-books-
2009_N.htm> [Accessed 15th of April 2016]
‘Twilight Series Article: 20 Differences (that Work) between “New Moon” and the
Book’, Fanpop. <http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/twilight-series/articles/35488/title/20-
differences-work-between-moon-book> [Accessed 15th of April 2016]

21. Thomas Colleran 21
Finke, Nikki, ‘New Moon Shreds Movie Records’, Deadline Hollywood.
<http://deadline.com/2009/11/phenomenal-breaking-records-new-moon-doing-dark-
knight-midnight-numbers-18958/#more-18958> [Accessed 15th of April 2016]
Hardiman, Michael, ‘Fitting in Means Reading Some Truly Awful Stuff’, Splice Today.
<http://www.splicetoday.com/digital/fitting-in-means-reading-some-truly-awful-stuff>
[Accessed 15th of April 2016]
Laing, Olivia, ‘Stephenie Meyer - a Squeaky-Clean Vampire Queen’, The Guardian.
<http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/nov/15/profile-stephenie-meyer-vampire-
queen> [Accessed 17th of April 2016]
Leitch, Thomas M, ‘Twelve Fallacies in Contemporary Adaptation Theory’, Project
Muse. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/crt.2004.0001 [Accessed 17th of April 2016]
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Adult Fiction’, The Atlantic.
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2016]

22. Thomas Colleran 22
Sperling, Nicole, ‘“Twilight” Hits Hollywood’, Entertainment Weekly.
<http://www.ew.com/article/2008/07/16/twilight-hits-hollywood> [Accessed 15th of
April 2016]
Strickland, Ashley, ‘A Brief History of Young Adult Literature’, CNN.
<http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/15/living/young-adult-fiction-evolution/> [Accessed
15th of April 2016]
Filmography:
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, dir. by Condon, Bill, (USA: Summit
Entertainment, 2012)
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part I, dir. by Condon, Bill, (USA: Summit
Entertainment, 2011)
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, dir. by Slade, David (USA: Summit Entertainment, 2010)
Twilight, dir. by Hardwicke, Catherine (USA: Summit Entertainment, 2008)

23. Thomas Colleran 23
The Twilight Saga: New Moon, dir. by Weitz, Chris (USA: Summit Entertainment,
2009)
Romeo and Juliet, dir. by Zeffirelli, Franco (De Laurentiis, 1968)