Red Wolf

Identifier

etd-04102016-231746

Degree

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

English

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Red Wolf is a hybrid fairytale that revises the familiar narrative of “Little Red Riding Hood” through poetry, lyric essay, and illustration. In place of a human girl that traverses the forest on her way to grandma’s house, Red Wolf reinterprets the story to feature a half wolf and half girl protagonist who struggles to reconcile the distinct parts of her identity. She was born with a voracious hunger but was raised to curb her most natural impulses to cultivate a more agreeable sense of humanity. Yet she was also born with a set of teeth, which she has learned to use as weapon against others as well as herself. Thus began a lifetime of violence of inner and outer struggle. To tell this story, Red Wolf weaves together poetic elements, non-linear narrative, and watercolor images to capture the sense of the “flooded” wolf girl who turns to an excess of methods to understand who she is in a world that can only comprehend identity in fixed forms. The project’s hybrid form enacts this restlessness. In its frenetic movement, I hope to forge a larger critique of present social and political discourses on identity politics, particularly ideas of race, gender, and sexuality, which are always changing to reflect the complexity of our times. Red’s literal struggles provide a metaphor for how we comprehend shifting ideas of identity. Her struggles point to the futility of permanent harmony between her different forms just as real world reconciliations with identity feature such social and political discord. This is a project that explores these failures as permission to understand identity politics in new ways.

Date

2016

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Secure the entire work for patent and/or proprietary purposes for a period of one year. Student has submitted appropriate documentation which states: During this period the copyright owner also agrees not to exercise her/his ownership rights, including public use in works, without prior authorization from LSU. At the end of the one year period, either we or LSU may request an automatic extension for one additional year. At the end of the one year secure period (or its extension, if such is requested), the work will be released for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Mullen, Laura

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.2453

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