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98 THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF
Despite the contribution of both Freud and Jung to conceptualizations
of subjectivity in terms of a ‘beast within’, representations of
lycanthropy in these terms were less prevalent in the early decades
of the twentieth century (the years during which psychoanalysis was
institutionalized) than representations which presented the werewolf
as a Devil-like figure. Only a few treatments of lycanthropy appeared
in English during the years when the psychoanalytic movement was
growing in stature, and by the time werewolves made a comeback in
the pulp magazines of the 1920s, the focus was once again on the
supernatural and the battle between good and evil.
This trend was an obvious recuperation of imagery stemming from
the First World War, during which the Germans were endowed with
the characteristics of the Gothic monster. In the context of subsequent
anticipation of a second war, the focus on the werewolf as an alien or
external threat to internal order and integrity can be understood as
an expression of anxiety about further international aggression. The
regular characterization of the werewolf as a foreigner in particular
must also be contextualized in relation to a burst of creativity in the
Gothic tradition emanating from the USA in the 1920s, inaugurated by
the appearance of the Weird Tales magazine in 1923. The 1920s were,
of course, a period of isolationism for the USA, in which resentment
at the involvement of US troops in the First World War consolidated
into determination not to become involved in the affairs of Europe
again. Consequently, the Gothic literature of this period oozes with
imagery of a corrupt, dangerously seductive, European decadence (a
trend that peaked in The Wolf Man films). The werewolf, perhaps
rivalled only by the vampire, was uniquely able to express American
anxiety about Europe, emanating as it did from a long tradition of
European superstition. 20
The promotion of a ‘no-nonsense’ or ‘straight-talking’ ‘manliness’ in
magazines such as Weird Tales (and also in a number of novels about
lycanthropy that appeared from around 1920) contrasted markedly
with the pathologized masculinity that characterized discourses about
the ‘beast within’. The heroes who brought the demonic werewolves of
the pulp tradition to justice were extremely uncomplicated compared