A historical, cultural, psychoanalytic, and anthropological journey through the myth of the werewolf.

Popularized by cinema, the legend of the werewolf has roots in mythology and classical literature. There are references to lycanthropy in Gilgamesh, Herodotus, Ovid, Petronius…the myth has mutated throughout the centuries—in medieval times, noblemen transformed into wolves, and later on come the demonic lycanthropes. This book traces the werewolf’s presence in folklore and the popular stories by the Brothers Grimm and Perrault, in nineteenth-century horror literature, and its diverse representations in cinema (including by Waldemar Daninsky, who created and interpreted Jacinto Molina—known as Paul Naschy—obsessively, or the varied incarnations of the lycanthrope in Mexican horror films during the Golden Age).

The werewolf is a character connected to the ideas of metamorphosis, transformation, and duality. One that explores animality, savageness, and evil. A figure charged with sexuality, eroticism, and desire, with many faces that allow for many different readings. This book approaches the topic from complementary angles— historical, cultural, psychoanalytical, anthropological—and reveals all of its complexity and richness to us. Roger Bartra analyzes it slowly, with a brilliant mix of erudition and amenity.

“One of the few Mexican intellectuals who, in the academic realm of social sciences, has been able to dialogue with himself, unfolding as author and critic, writer and reader, subject and object of his permeable anthropological meditation.” —Rafael Rojas, Letras Libres

“Bartra places us at the doors of a new critical space.” —Christopher Domínguez Michael, Proceso