Wolf Alice:
Margret Atwood “the most grotesque”
Fred Botting
“otherness takes centre stage”
“in Gothic times margins become the norm” confronting and exposing taboos i.e. wolf-Alice
embodies marginalised/ outcast, allowed to take centre stage through gothic. Subvert and question
restrictive society
Julia Kristeva the abject both attracts and repulses
Darwin’s Theory of evolution people had a fear of slipping into a more primitive state.
Werewolf liminal, half human half wolf.
She is sent to Duke’s mansion because village can’t deal with her and he accepts her because she
isn’t afraid of him.
“Ragged girl” feral, uncivilised
“Far away pine forest” isolated setting, forest place of unconscious, wild and untamed
Animalistic description: “her panting tongue hangs out; her red lips are thick and fresh”.
“it is the night she prefers”
“nothing about her is human, except that she is not a wolf” she is abhuman, but not a wolf. Nature,
nurture. What makes someone human?
“it is as if the fur she thought she wore has melted into her skin”
“like the wild beast, she lived without a future”
“she inhabits only the present tense”
“without out hope and despair.”
“her bold nakedness”
“impatient of restraint, capricious temper”
“bereft and unsanctified household of the Duke”
“lives in a gloomy mansion” archetypal setting
“like the interior of an Iberian butcher’s shop”
“he ceased to cast a reflection in mirror” Vampire
Duke part wolf, part vampire, part necromancer, part cannibal. Mixture of gothic monsters. Very
supernatural male figure. Stealing bodies like Victor.
“his eyes saw only appetite”
“he is cast in the role of corpse-eater”
Margret Atwood “the most grotesque”
Fred Botting
“otherness takes centre stage”
“in Gothic times margins become the norm” confronting and exposing taboos i.e. wolf-Alice
embodies marginalised/ outcast, allowed to take centre stage through gothic. Subvert and question
restrictive society
Julia Kristeva the abject both attracts and repulses
Darwin’s Theory of evolution people had a fear of slipping into a more primitive state.
Werewolf liminal, half human half wolf.
She is sent to Duke’s mansion because village can’t deal with her and he accepts her because she
isn’t afraid of him.
“Ragged girl” feral, uncivilised
“Far away pine forest” isolated setting, forest place of unconscious, wild and untamed
Animalistic description: “her panting tongue hangs out; her red lips are thick and fresh”.
“it is the night she prefers”
“nothing about her is human, except that she is not a wolf” she is abhuman, but not a wolf. Nature,
nurture. What makes someone human?
“it is as if the fur she thought she wore has melted into her skin”
“like the wild beast, she lived without a future”
“she inhabits only the present tense”
“without out hope and despair.”
“her bold nakedness”
“impatient of restraint, capricious temper”
“bereft and unsanctified household of the Duke”
“lives in a gloomy mansion” archetypal setting
“like the interior of an Iberian butcher’s shop”
“he ceased to cast a reflection in mirror” Vampire
Duke part wolf, part vampire, part necromancer, part cannibal. Mixture of gothic monsters. Very
supernatural male figure. Stealing bodies like Victor.
“his eyes saw only appetite”
“he is cast in the role of corpse-eater”
