ENGLISH 400: MONSTER THEORY
Kaya Simpson
Research Paper Abstract
"Lycanthropy and Me: Women in Werewolf Stories"
Werewolf stories span across culture and time as some of the oldest monster stories recorded. Most werewolf stories, regardless of origin, depict the monster as male. While some female werewolf example exist, such as Ginger Snaps, most female characters still face heavy objectification. Women are fought over in these dynamics, but they are also discarded in favor of homosocial bonding within the werewolf pack. In werewolf stories, it seems that men are able to bond in an animalistic state in which they are freed from social norms, but they still frequently own and objectify women in their narratives.
If werewolf stories highlight homosociality and homoeroticism between the male characters, it often comes at the expense of victimizing female characters. We can see this dynamic in the 12th-century story, "Bisclavret" and in the 2016 novel The Devourers. Despite about 800 years of separation, both werewolf stories exemplify how women in these stories are always reduced to objects and obstacles standing in the way of homosocial or homoerotic relationships that center the story. Using a gender studies lens as well as monster studies we see that these bonds between men are forged at the expense of women. We will examine how Cyrah and Bisclavret's wife stand in the way of homosociality and how they are punished because of it.
Capstone Presentation
"Mothers In Literary Fantasy: The Subversion of Fairy Tale Mothers in 'The Bloody Chamber'"
Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber features the titular short story as a retelling of the fairy tale “Bluebeard.” I will be examining the final act of the story in which the mother comes riding in on horseback to kill Bluebeard. Using a feminist lens I will argue that fairy tales rely on mother figures to either be antagonists (or dead), while this story makes her into a hero. This is significant as it subverts the psychoanalytic perspective fairy tales tend to lean towards of mothers being villainous to their daughters.