This week, we discussed Clemence Housman’s The Were-Wolf and its illustrations that were designed by her brother Laurence Housman and wood engraved by her. One thing that really stood out to me about this course and all of my classmates’ presentations was how political the Housman’s art often was. The choice by Clemence to make the Were-Wolf a female and portray has as an incredibly fierce and strong figure might not seem very radical to us now, but at a time when women had very little agency and rights, it was. I really enjoyed learning about Clemence and Laurence’s feminism and political rebellion, and that definitely enhanced my understanding of the novella. 

I was particularly drawn to the illustration “The Race” because it was really intriguing to look at the Were-Wolf in the midst of transformation and see her as this androgynous figure as Mila had mentioned in her presentation. Something I noticed about the picture was how even though Christian is in the foreground, my eyes were immediately drawn to the Were-Wolf because of the choice of shading. By having Christian almost entirely in shadow and the Were-Wolf in light, she is commanding the reader’s attention the second you look at the image. I found that especially interesting with this illustration in particular, but it is something that the Housman duo do in all of the illustrations that feature the Were-Wolf. No matter where she is, your eye is immediately on her.