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Angela Nelson

Research Abstract

"It's a Natural Fur-nomenon: A Look into What Makes the Modern Female Werewolf"

Both early and modern stories of werewolves in literature depict the fear and shame of men who become wolves either because they are cursed, or because they were victimized and turned by another wolf-man hybrid. These stories generally follow the struggle of that man to control his inner beast and the agony he experiences that comes from violating cultural boundaries. His abjection, however, is not confined to

crossing the boundary between man and beast. It also comes from the concept that by becoming a werewolf, he becomes aligned physically with the female through monthly transformation. So, what happens when one re-writes a predominantly male-gendered monster into a female one? What is lost in the transformation and what is gained?

Unlike Marie De France's "Bisclavret" and Angela Carter's "The Company of Wolves," I argue that Ginger Snaps challenges the traditional portrayal of the werewolf as a monster by putting it into female adolescence, something that is already abject. Most scholars, like April Miller, Erin M. Flaherty, and F.A.O Janssen agree that the idea of the female werewolf is constructed as an extension of self, an image of an already marginalized Other. Using a monster studies lens, I will show how the film highlights modern cultural anxieties surrounding the female body, how it pushes boundaries regarding femininity and female sexuality, and how it shows the instability of the female body in a way that makes a normal but culturally taboo part of growing up into a monstrosity. Its narrative still invokes and centers on shame and the inability to control one's transformation into a beast, but Ginger Snaps also portrays a sense of freedom that has been previously denied to the female werewolf, and the eventual embrace of one's own monstrosity.

Capstone Presentation

"Bloody Chambers and Bloody Symbols: How Angela Carter Uses Symbolism as Foreshadowing in Her Rendition of Bluebeard"

The-Bloody-Chamber.jpg

The story of Bluebeard as rewritten by Angela Carter in "The Bloody Chamber" contains four main symbols that foreshadow the Marquis’ plan to kill his new wife. Using quotations from the story as well as historical and modern interpretations of the symbols she uses, I will show how Carter uses both hidden and overt meanings to guide the reader without explicitly telling them what is going to happen. In my presentation I will also show how Carter uses this foreshadowing as a tool to improve the way we read and understand stories.

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