Therianthrope: part 1 of a speculative fiction novel
| dc.contributor.author | Koopman, Kelly-Eve | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-10-23T06:52:49Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-10-23T06:52:49Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024 | |
| dc.description.abstract | My thesis is Part One of a three-part novel. It consists of an introduction and five chapters, interspersed with short sections in italics. Therianthrope is centred on the Great African Kelp Forest reimagined as an ocean goddess, and the four women she selects as guardians of Cape Town. At the outset the Goddess chooses four emissaries to become a new god in the form of the mythical, chimeric Therianthrope. In the novel the Goddess offers italicized interjections, guiding the reader through her intentions. In the first chapter, ‘Together,’ the Kelp Goddess assembles the women on the Atlantic coastline where she appears to them in a vision. In the water, they become the Therianthrope for the first time. The next chapter, ‘Light,’ is mostly told from Litha’s perspective. After the Goddess visits her in a dream she decides to return to the beach where they first became the Therianthrope where she meets up with the other three women. Here, they change into the creature again to take down an illegal trawler, killing several men on board. In ‘Deeper’, grappling with their guilt, the women find themselves at Aniqah’s house. Her mother explains that sometimes nature produces mysteries that seem impossible, and that when this happens it’s always for a deeper purpose. In the next chapter, Alone,’ Aniqah discovers how to transform into the elephant by herself. Simone is inspired to follow her example and transforms into the raven using the opportunity to assassinate the local politician who is sleeping with and abusing her sister. Finally, in ‘Monsters,’ Coralie as the Eel follows the Goddess’s voice to explore the ocean and discover a monstrous offshore oil rig. The Goddess reveals that this is their collective purpose: to stop the offshore drilling. If they fail, she will catalyse a flood that will engulf Cape Town. Part One of the novel ends with the women on the beach again, feeling overwhelmed. With Therianthrope I intend to tell a story that explores human interaction with ocean ecologies through a fictional lens. The novel uses speculative fiction to explore questions of historical displacement, erasure, and the infrequently told legacies of black women-led existence, resistance, and leadership within a framework of social and environmental injustice. More specifically, by thematically centralising water in the narrative, I aim to write characters who have generational experiences of displacement and placement catalysed by rivers and oceans. In this way, I hope to explore how a group of ordinary women and a fractured society adapt and respond to both the chaos and the possibilities of environmental crisis. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10566/21111 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | University of the Western Cape | |
| dc.subject | Great African Kelp Forest | |
| dc.subject | African Speculative Fiction | |
| dc.subject | Eco-Fiction | |
| dc.subject | Fantasy | |
| dc.subject | Hydrofeminism | |
| dc.title | Therianthrope: part 1 of a speculative fiction novel | |
| dc.type | Thesis |