She-Wolf - by Hannah Priest

About the Book

She-Wolf explores the cultural history of the female werewolf, from her first appearance in medieval literature to recent incarnations in film, television and popular literature.

Book Synopsis

She-wolf explores the cultural history of the female werewolf, from her first appearance in medieval literature to recent incarnations in film, television and popular literature. The book includes contributors from various disciplines, and offers a cross-period, interdisciplinary exploration of a perennially popular cultural production. The book covers material from the Middle Ages to the present day with chapters on folklore, history, witch trials, Victorian literature, young adult literature, film and gaming. Considering issues such as religious and social contexts, colonialism, constructions of racial and gendered identities, corporeality and subjectivity - as well as female body hair, sexuality and violence - She-wolf reveals the varied ways in which the female werewolf is a manifestation of complex cultural anxieties, as well as a site of continued fascination.

From the Back Cover

She-wolf explores the cultural history of the female werewolf, from her first appearance in medieval literature to recent incarnations in film, television and popular literature. The book includes contributors from various disciplines, and offers a cross-period, interdisciplinary exploration of a perennially popular cultural production.

The essays in this collection explore the particular challenges female werewolves pose - to gender construction, to ideals of femininity and corporeality, to racial and sexual norms, and to our concepts of 'human' and 'monster'. The book's historical scope is broad, covering material from the Middle Ages to the present day. With chapters on folklore, history, witch trials, Victorian literature, young adult literature, film and gaming, the contributors offer a variety of critical approaches to the figure of the female werewolf. Considering issues such as religious and social contexts, colonialism, constructions of racial and gendered identities, corporeality and subjectivity - as well as female body hair, sexuality and violence - She-wolf reveals the varied ways in which the female werewolf is a manifestation of deep-rooted and complex cultural anxieties, as well as a site of continued fascination.

For scholars of popular culture, cultural history and gender studies, this is an essential study of a complex and multifaceted creation.

Review Quotes

'The chapters address many of the standards in werewolf literature but, ultimately, they strive to challenge this canon, arguing both that werewolf literature is not restrictively a masculine archetype and that feminist studies of the wild woman should not simply sweep she-werewolves under the monstrous feminine rug. But by the end even with these complications - and contradictions - they merge at last, readers will find, into a multifaceted beast who stares readers in the eye and grins wickedly, hungrily. For, after all, like the adolescent protagonist giggling in the burly wolf's arms in Angela Carter's "The Company of Wolves", "[we are] nobody's meat".'
Jonathan W. Thurston, Michigan State University, Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research

'Overall, the collection delivers on its promise to "take ... a specific and localised approach, revealing historical, literary, cinematic and folkloric contexts for iterations of the female lycanthrope" ... In general, the volume, both in its entirety and as individual chapters, will interest cultural historians, English and comparative literature scholars, and film/media and area studies specialists, and could be employed in lower-level and upper-division courses on the topic.'
Svitlana Krys, MacEwan University, HNet Online

About the Author

Hannah Priest is an Honorary Research Fellow at Swansea University