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The Ecogothic Werewolf in Literature

Wolves, Woods and Wilderness

The Ecogothic Werewolf in Literature cover

Description

Using an Ecogothic lens, this book offers a new conceptual framework for the werewolf in literature, recasting the lycanthrope as an emblem for society's fear of untamed wilderness. Tracing lycanthropy from a place of liminality to hybridity and to myriad and complex subjectivities, The Ecogothic Werewolf in Literature reassesses the Gothic werewolf to show how the relationship between humans and wolves has influenced its representation in literature. Starting with Dracula and tracing lycanthropic imaginings through natural histories, folk and fairy tales to contemporary iterations in the works of Maggie Stiefvater, Whitley Strieber and Glen Duncan, Kaja Franck reconsiders the trope of the 'beast within' in the werewolf canon.

From early conservationist Aldo Leopold's awakening regarding the death of wolves, to George Monbiot's call to rewild, tensions around humanity's responsibility to the natural world have emerged in lycanthropic literature. A challenge to previous anthropocentric analysis of Gothic horror's stock monster, Franck considers the changing attitude towards wolves alongside the growing environmentalism movement and reclaims the wolf from the figure of the werewolf.

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Table of Contents

Introduction: The Shifting Werewolf: Bodies and Meaning Transformed
Chapter 1: Dracula: The Wolf in Vampire's Clothing
Chapter 2: The American Wilderness and the Werewolf
Chapter 3: The Werewolf in the Woods: Young Adult Gothic and Metaphoric Lycanthropy
Chapter 4: The Return of the Werewolf: The Monstrous Voice at Boundary between Human and Animal
Conclusion: The Hopeful Werewolf and the Environmental Apocalypse

Bibliography
Index

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 21 Aug 2025
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Pages 216
ISBN 9781350441149
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations 0
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Kaja Franck

Kaja Franck is Lecturer in English Literature at t…

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