| Sumario: | Traditional stories of the feline fatale, or of a woman who fantastically transforms herself into a killer cat, serve to reaffirm man's primal fear of the Other, a fear brought on by physical difference and by potential loss of power, both evoked by the fanged "pussy" or vagina. This study first analyzes this image as it is portrayed or retold by Manuel Puig in Kiss of the Spider Woman (1976) and Julio Cortazar in "Throat of a Black Kitten" (Octaedro 1974). These analyses are then juxtaposed and contrasted to the depiction of the cat/woman by Luisa Valenzuela, Lygia Fagundes Telles, and Silvina Ocampo. While the first two texts follow a predictable pattern standardized by the horror film genre, stories of female metamorphosis told by women authors purposely choose not to fit such a mold, re-appropriating instead the image of supernatural transformation as a means of escape from unjust gender expectations.
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