Shapeshifting

Ponithea, princess of Chara, had always been a tricky soul. Soon after she was born, she had started shapeshifting into a small bird and flew around her house, annoying her brothers and sisters. Once she had aged and became a young woman, it was no different. As hard as her parents tried, they could not contain Ponithea. When she was sixteen, her parents had finally had enough. Her father, the ruling monarch, banished her to the island of Erimos. She was given a fortnight to pack her things, say…

isn’t always to harm or murder though. Some stories tell of a kitsune marrying a human man and raising a family with him. Kitsune are masters of illusion. They can create buildings, cities, and landscapes that don’t exist. Sometimes they combine shapeshifting and illusions for the ultimate prank, and by prank I mean severe emotional trauma. Kitsune disguise as women and lure men to luxurious mansions for a night of passion. The next morning a man wakes up in a graveyard surrounded by rotting…

The question you may be asking yourself is what is a Kushtaka? The Kushtaka, loosely translated to “land otter man,” by the Tlingit people of Southeastern Alaska, is a legendary shapeshifting creature that is endowed with supernatural powers, and lives in an uncharted rainforest. Kushtaka employs psychological tactics to subdue their victims, the Kushtaka is also said to have telekinetic powers and the ability to manipulate time and space, moving at mind-blowing speed from one position to the…

Shapeshifters: Black Girls and the Choreography of Citizenship, is a cultural ethnography detailing the lives of African American women in the Fresh Start homeless shelter. Author Aimee Meredith Cox argues how different techniques used by homeless black women including the arts allow them to make sense of the different ways they experience things like racism, violence, and poverty as it relates to their everyday lives. Cox also uses these stories to highlight broader issues in society as well as…

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - Carmilla Laura, the narrator in Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella Carmilla, fits into the appearance of a typical female victim in vampire literature. Long before she meets the titular character, she had a dream or rather a nightmare about a woman bearing a striking resemblance to Carmilla, who sang her fangs into the maiden’s body. Despite the fear, she helps the woman after the accident and invites her in. Laura easily and without much thought happens to trust…

He is known as the Trickster God or God of Mischief and Chaos. The clever giant was given the gift of shapeshifting and can be found causing trouble in Asgard among the gods and goddesses that live there. Writers say he shows no concern, or a lack of, for the wellbeing of his fellow gods and will often bring danger to someone to save them, in turn, making himself…

Since 2008, nineteen superhero movies have been made, and not one has had a female superhero in the main role, until Wonder Woman (Behrens). Wonder Woman is one of two superhero films to have a female director. Yet, female superheroes have impacted the world both socially and culturally, while also being a source of feminism, more specifically liberal feminism. Liberal feminism can be defined as a movement fighting for gender equality, autonomy of women, and equal political rights (Bahre). This…

The questing hero’s journey is an archetypal plotline that storytellers of all ages have used to represent some fundamental truths about the meaning of life itself. In The Devil Wears Prada, the director, David Frankel, depicts Andy’s quest to become a hard-hitting and uncompromising author. On the surface, The Devil Wears Prada might seem to offer nothing more than a simple tale of adventure. However, an archetypal analysis of Frankel’s main plot reveals a more symbolic depiction of Andy’s…

In Louise Erdrich’s enthralling novel Tracks, Pauline Puyat is a young woman of Chippewa and Canadian descent. Throughout the course of the story, it is abundantly clear that Pauline wishes nothing more than to shed her Native American culture. Instead of embracing her Chippewa roots, she wants be like her mother, “who showed her half-white”, and her grandfather, who was “pure Canadian” (Erdrich 14). While it is easy for the reader to assume that Pauline is willingly rejecting her Chippewa…

Humiliating. That was the only way to describe how Eli had left the shapeshifter’s office. He had slunk out like a lowly prisoner instead of the high class CEO he really was. No one had ever degraded him like Autumn had and he wouldn’t allow her to get away with it. The doors of the infirmary were thin and he had heard every little part of Autumn’s silly plan. And now, it was finally time to take full control of his life. Autumn would rue the day she thought she could take Osborn Inc. from him.…