She-wolf A cultural history of female werewolves [Hardcover]

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.

1. Introduction: a history of female werewolves - Hannah Priest

2. Estonian werewolf legends collected from the island of Saaremaa - Merili Metsvahi

3. 'She transformed into a werewolf, devouring and killing two children': trials of she-werewolves in early modern French Burgundy - Rolf Schulte

4. Participatory lycanthropy: female werewolves in Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Jay Cate

5. Fur girls and wolf women: fur, hair and subversive female lycanthropy - Jazmina Cininas

6. Female werewolf as monstrous other in Honor? Beaugrand's 'The Werewolves' Shannonló[