The Curse of the Werewolf: Fantasy, Horror and the Beast Within

by Chantal Bourgault du Coudray

Half-man-half-myth, the werewolf has over the years infiltrated popular culture in many strange and varied shapes, from Gothic horror to the 'body horror' films of the 1980s and today's graphic novels. Yet despite enormous critical interest in myths and in monsters, from vampires to cyborgs, the figure of the werewolf has been strangely overlooked. Embodying our primal fears - of anguished masculinity, of 'the beast within' - the werewolf, argues Bourgault du Coudray, has revealed in its various lupine guises radically shifting attitudes to the human psyche. Tracing the werewolf's 'use' by anthropologists and criminologists and shifting interpretations of the figure - from the 'scientific' to the mythological and psychological - Bourgault du Coudray also sees the werewolf in Freud's 'wolf-man' case and the sinister use of wolf imagery in Nazism. "The Curse of the Werewolf" looks finally at the werewolf's revival in contemporary fantasy, finding in this supposedly conservative genre a fascinating new model of the human's relationship to nature. It is a required reading for students of fantasy, myth and monsters. No self-respecting werewolf should be without it.

Genres: Werewolves, Nonfiction, Horror, Theory, Paranormal, Sociology

240 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2006

About the author

Chantal Bourgault du Coudray teaches gender and cultural history, and is also the Academic Coordinator of the McCusker Centre for Citizenship. Recent publications canvas feminist care ethics, relationality and communication across difference. She has received a number of teaching fellowships and grants for her work developing experiential learning, with a focus on fostering diversity and inclusion through respectful dialogue, ‘eloquent listening’, and relational work. Other publications explore fairy tales, genre fiction, and popular culture, most notably her book The Curse of the Werewolf: Fantasy, Horror and the Beast Within (IB Tauris, 2006). She has also written and produced a number of films, notably the feature drama The Sculptor’s Ritual (2009).

Reviews

[Andre · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Curse of the Werewolf: Fantasy, Horror and the Beast Within" is a very interesting book and much more scholarly than I expected.
Partly this is its flaw. It is not really the book to look for when you search for an encyclopedia on werewolf folklore but rather attempts to analyze the werewolf, especially the one in literature and media and not so much the ones of folklore.

[RedDagger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts off as a more historical look at how werewolves were depicted in 19th century scholarship, then over its 6 chapters moves ever more into cultural analysis as it moves forward through the 20th century, often with a feminist angle.

I enjoyed the (admittedly sometimes impenetrably academic) discussion we're led through - though I noticed that, as it goes on, it spends less time referencing werewolf works and more time discussing the more abstract topics that can be used to analyse werewolf fiction - a tad more grounding would have been appreciated to really bring its theses home.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although perhaps lacking in academic rigour, this book is not without merit. It is a very good starting point for those intent on gaining an understanding of werewolves and their history.

[Alisha Helton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe any future readers of this book should keep in mind that this is an almost personal discussion of the author’s musings on werewolves and their folklore. While it is substantially more academic (research based) than I initially perceived it to be, I still felt a layer of informality throughout the entire text.

Despite its informality, this book has introduced me to new perspectives and talking points in relation to lycanthropy that I feel I can build fro, which is more than I can say for other related texts.

I believe this book would have benefited greatly from acknowledging clinical lycanthropy (the real disease that leads an individual to believe themselves a werewolf) and was rather disappointed to learn that it wasn’t so much as referenced.

Overall, this book serves as a great foundation starter for lycanthropic research. The topics of each chapter really get the proverbial ball rolling in terms of devolving larger, more concrete ideas.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very academic study of the background (history, folklore, myths) of the werewolf. I enjoyed the study of popular culture the most.

[Suvi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.