I denne study guide kan du få hjælp til at analysere novellen "The Werewolf" af Angela Carter. Udover analysehjælpen kan du finde et summary af teksten samt idéer til fortolkning og perspektivering.
Angela Carter (1940-1992) var en engelsk forfatter og journalist. Hun er berømt for sine dystre værker, som ofte indeholder overnaturlige elementer og berører feministiske temaer.
Mange af Carters mest berømte tekster er bygget op som eventyr. Fx er novellen "The Werewolf" en del af antologien The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, som indeholder en række noveller baseret på velkendte folkeeventyr.
Title
The title of Angela Carter’s story “The Werewolf” is straightforward and creates expectations from the very beginning. A werewolf is a folkloric creature - a human who has the ability to turn into a wolf. Depending on the type of fairy tale or folk story, this might be the consequence of a curse, of being bitten by another werewolf, or it might be a deliberately acquired power. Sometimes werewolves are said only to come out during the full moon.
Symbolically, werewolves represent anger or lack of control, as the human part is taken over by the animal part. In this story, the werewolf also symbolizes lack of control, as the grandmother – in the shape of a werewolf – attacks her own granddaughter.
Note that the story does not mention the existence of a werewolf at the beginning, but it does mention other supernatural beings such as the Devil, witches, vampires, and clairvoyant children. Furthermore, the word “werewolf” is never used in the narrative, except for the title. Nevertheless, as events unfold, it becomes clear that the little girl's grandmother is a werewolf. This is shown when the paw of the wolf-like creature falls on the floor, and the little girl discovers it is, in fact, her grandmother’s hand:
But it was no longer a wolf’s paw. It was a hand, chopped off at the wrist, a hand toughened with work and freckled with old age. There was a wedding ring on the third finger and a wart on the index finger. By the wart, she knew it for her grandmother's hand. (ll. 55-58)
