Bio: Loïs van Albada is a recent graduate of the Comparative literary studies RMA at Universiteit Utrecht. Her graduate thesis investigated the iterations of the werewolf motif in contemporary fiction. For this research she delved into a large variety of fields in order to investigate the embodiment of desire and hybridity across the gothic horror and romance genre and to trace the cultural anxieties enacted through the werewolf body.
Abstract:
The novel Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder is discussed in relation to theories surrounding female werewolves and monstrous mothers, paying attention specifically to the motifs of the monstrous-maternal, the Bad Mother, the woman as possessed body, and the femme animale. These motifs are embedded in feminist theories and connected to patriarchal gender ideologies to investigate the slippery terms of the mother/other and woman/monster and the possible hybridity of all. This research argues that The Mother is indeed monstrous—highlighting The Mother’s desires to be monstrous— and that the novel reframes monstrosity related to motherhood not as something fearsome, but rather as something magical and inherent to mothers. In this reframing, the female werewolf and the monstrous mother become positively configured, moving beyond earlier interpretations of the motifs as commonly presented in horror media. Yoder’s interpretation of the werewolf motif expands beyond existing depictions of the werewolf into the domestic.
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