“Bisclavret”
“Bisclavret” is a 12th century short story by Marie de France. It tells the tale of a knight named Bisclavret who is betrayed by his wife when he reveals to her that he is a werewolf. The wife arranges for her husband’s clothes to be stolen, thus preventing him from returning to his human form. When Bisclavret is eventually made the king’s pet, he is docile until he attacks his wife and her lover, biting off the entirety of the former’s nose. After being tortured, the wife reveals all and Bisclavret’s clothes are returned to him so that he might resume his old life. His wife, on the other hand, is forever mutilated and even cursed to bear nose-less daughters.
The Bloody Chamber
The Bloody Chamber is a collection of 10 short stories written by Angela Carter and published in 1979. Each story is a retelling of such fairy tales as “Bluebeard,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Puss in Boots,” “Snow White,” and “Little Red Riding Hood.” Greatly inspired by second wave feminism, Carter fashions her collection in a way that highlights female agency and desire while retaining the gothic elements that originally influenced such tales.
Penny Dreadful
A three season series including many Victorian Gothic characters and monsters; such as Dorian Grey, Doctor Frankenstein, Dracula, werewolves, etc. The show is filled with connections between Gothic Literature and the Victorian time period from colonizing to the abject of otherness. Throughout the series we follow Vanessa’s fight with free will mirroring the choices of Eve in John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Will Vanessa choose her Catholic beliefs and guilt that has berated her for years or will she embrace the darkness growing inside of her and reach her full potential? There is a dark otherness inside of all of us, but we are defined by whether it is embraced or hidden.
Circe
Madeline Miller’s 2018 novel Circe tells the story of that eponymous Greek half-goddess of sorcery. Spanning from the birth of Circe to her rule of the mythical island of Aiaia and the birth of her child thousands of years later, Miller tells the story of this witch with a penchant for shapeshifting from her own perspective, empowering the character and attributing to her the ability to make her own decisions in a way that classical Greek myths wouldn’t. Miller’s retelling of myth includes critical and feminist examinations of the stories of Prometheus, the Minotaur, Jason and the Argonauts, and many more.
The Devourers
Indra Das wrote his 2015 novel The Devourers in response to the Hindu Nationalism that has pushed xenophobia and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in modern India. Taking place in the city of Kolkata, the text follows multiple narrators in what becomes a complex frame narrative detailing the lives of shape shifters—literal and otherwise—who transgress social boundaries. With werewolves who consume not only the flesh of their prey, but their memories as well, story-telling and identity are immediately privileged in this text. By the end of The Devourers, more questions are raised than answers given, but readers will still manage to walk away with a greater understanding of what being a “shape shifter” truly means in this day and age.
