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List of contents
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction. Wolf in the Sanctuary: Myth, Literature, Biopolitics
2. Fear of the Pack: Jews and Gypsies as Wolves
3. Wolves and the Indigenous: Migration of a Metaphor to the Colonies
4. Wolves and Wayward Women: Between Condemnation and Empowerment
5. The Wolves of War: Fascism, Terrorism, Resistance
6. No Trespassing: Wolves, Borders and Immigrants
7. Wolf Trails: Re-wilding the World in the Age of Migration
Epilogue. Dreaming of Wolves: The Children of Lycaon in the Age of Psychoanalysis
References
Index
About the author
Peter Arnds is a Fellow and the Director of the Comparative Literature programme at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Elected into the Academia Europaea in 2018, he has published books on Günter Grass, Dickens, Lycanthropy, Holocaust Literature and is the author of Searching for Alice (2019). His literary translation of P. Bolthauser’s ‘Rapids’ was longlisted for the 2016 IMPAC Prize.
Summary
In view of the current rhetoric surrounding the global migrant crisis – with politicians comparing refugees with animals and media reports warning of migrants swarming like insects or trespassing like wolves – this timely study explores the cultural origins of the language and imagery of dehumanization.
Situated at the junction of literature, politics, and ecocriticism, Wolves at the Door traces the history of the wolf metaphor in discussions of race, gender, colonialism, fascism, and ecology. How have ‘Gypsies’, Jews, Native Americans but also ‘wayward’ women been ‘wolfed’ in literature and politics? How has the wolf myth been exploited by Hitler, Mussolini and Turkish ultra-nationalism? How do right-wing politicians today exploit the reappearance of wolves in Central Europe in the context of the migration discourse? And while their reintroduction in places like Yellowstone has fuelled heated debates, what is the wolf’s role in ecological rewilding and for the restoration of biodiversity?
In today’s fraught political climate, Wolves at the Door alerts readers to the links between stereotypical images, their cultural history, and their political consequences. It raises awareness about xenophobia and the dangers of nationalist idolatry, but also highlights how literature and the visual arts employ the wolf myth for alternative messages of tolerance and cultural diversity.
Foreword
A literary and cultural history of the wolf that provokes readers into finding new ways to think about migration, the environment, and the language of dehumanization.
Additional text
Arnds is one of those rare scholars who can write a readerly text. In the present context of heightened nationalist tensions, he analyses how wolf myths are enacted across a wide range of contemporary political landscapes where mythical stories, folklore and imagery are used by political movements to strengthen populist, tribal and nationalist sentiments and to dehumanize and scapegoat minority groups. This is cultural studies at its best in the fluidity with which it moves across history, from high to popular culture, and from close reading to insightful political analysis. A tour de force.
