Honors Thesis Archive

Author	Kimberly Estenson
Title	Old Wives’ Tales, or the Feminist Revisionist Tales: “The Angels Whisper,” “Unyielding Hatred,” and “The Wampus Woman”
Department	English
Advisors	Michael Mattison, Shelley Chan, and D'Arcy Fallon
Year	2019
Honors	University Honors
Full Text	View Thesis (240 KB)
Abstract	This creative writing thesis presents three short stories, "The Angels Whisper," "Unyielding Hatred," and "The Wampus Woman." Each of the three uses feminist revisionist mythological approach, set across several hundred years of American history. In each of these stories the women face a struggle between that of accepting the path that a patriarchal society has prescribed before them or giving into this unnamed, yet ancient understanding of a female existence that is empowered rather than controlled. In "The Angels Whisper," a version of the Lilith story is set in early colonial America. "Unyielding Hatred" sets Grendel and Grendel’s mother as black characters under segregation. "The Wampus Woman" sets the characters of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s Gothic novella Carmilla in the contemporary American south, and recasts Le Fanu’s heroine Laura as the stories monster, illustrating how women are also often the agents of sexist ideals.