Searching for the Damsel: Understanding Gender Roles in Stephenie Meyer’s novel "Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined" Anonymous College

It is not an overstatement to label Twilight (2005) as a global cultural phenomenon that revamped young adult literature and inspired new movies, shows, and novels all about supernatural teenagers. This is in part what makes Meyer’s latest adaptation of the franchise, Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined (2016), so unique as it tries to re-tell an extremely popular and well-known story. And in order to do this, Meyer takes a very unconventional approach by rewriting the same characters and story with one key difference, all the genders have been switched. Edward and Bella’s love story becomes Edythe and Beau’s love story. Meyer, for the most part, is extremely faithful to the original storyline and so this switched gender element is even more pronounced in the novel. This is especially true because Twilight is defined by Bella as its protagonist she is a core element of the novel as she deals with stereotypically teenage girl issues within a mythical setting. Meyer’s choice to change it to a teenage boy’s perspective and continue the same elements of romance, fear and angst is deliberate and illuminating as it makes Twilight a story for everyone to relate to and understand. Thus, Meyer in Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined...