Molding Messages: Analyzing the Reworking of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ in \u3ci\u3eGrimm’s Fairy Tale Classics\u3c/i\u3e and \u3ci\u3eDollhouse\u3c/i\u3e

The story of “Sleeping Beauty” (ATU 410) is one of the most consistently captivating fairy tales. It tells of a cursed princess dreaming in a tower, waiting patiently for her prince to rescue her. Those who recreate the tale for contemporary audiences spin the story anew, reconstructing again and again what it means both to sleep and to awaken. This chapter analyzes two modern television versions of the tale, one for children and one for adults, comparing their incorporation of feminist messages and parallel ideas about shaping narratives and shaping lives. The children’s cartoon Grimm’s Fairy Tale Classics (also called Grimm Masterpiece Theatre) and the adult program Dollhouse each remold the story to advance very specific rereadings of the tale

A Wave of the Magic Wand: Fairy Godmothers in Contemporary American Media

The increased personification of fairy godmothers in contemporary American media corresponds to an aspect of the American worldview that emphasizes magical quick fixes and solutions. The two fairy-tale pastiche works informing this study are a novel, The Fairy Godmother, by fantasy author Mercedes Lackey, and a movie, Shrek 2. Both of these works feature fairy godmother characters that depart from canonical folktale and fairy-tale depictions. Associated with fate and wisdom, fairy godmothers act much as folklorists do by rewarding traditional behavior with gifts. Recent fairy godmother roles are hybrid and multivocal, illuminating ideologies and power structures in both society and story

Queering Kinship in ‘The Maiden Who Seeks Her Brothers\u27

The fairy tales in the Kinder- und Hausmiirchen, or Children\u27s and Household Tales, compiled by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are among the world\u27s most popular, yet they have also provoked discussion and debate regarding their authenticity, violent imagery, and restrictive gender roles. In this chapter I interpret the three versions published by the Grimm brothers of ATU 451, The Maiden Who Seeks Her Brothers, focusing on constructions of family, femininity, and identity. I utilize the folkloristic methodology of allomotific analysis, integrating feminist and queer theories of kinship and gender roles. I follow Pauline Greenhill by taking a queer view of fairy tale texts from the Grimms\u27 collection, for her use of queer implies both its older meaning as a type of destabilizing redirection, and its more recent sense as a reference to sexualities beyond the heterosexual. This is appropriate for her reading of Fitcher\u27s Bird (ATU 3111 Rescue by the Sister ) as a story that subverts patriarchy, heterosexuality, femininity, and masculinity alike (20081 147). I will similarly demonstrate that The Maiden Who Seeks Her Brothers only superficially conforms to the Grimms\u27 patriarchal, nationalizing agenda, for the tale rather subversively critiques the nuclear family and heterosexual marriage by revealing ambiguity and ambivalence. The tale also queers biology, illuminating transbiological connections between species and a critique of reproductive futurism. Thus, through the use of fantasy, this tale and fairy tales in general can question the status quo, addressing concepts such as self, other, and home

Whether it’s coins, fringe, or just stuff that’s sparkly\u27: Aesthetics and Utility in a Tribal Fusion Belly Dance Troupe’s Costumes

As both a scholar and a belly dancer, I believe that belly dance is recognizable on aesthetic grounds. In addition to the movements that belly dancers typically perform—muscle isolations, undulations, graceful hand motions and turns, and lots of hip work—belly dancers wear costumes that are visually identifiable as belly dance costumes. While this description may seem tautological, there are recognizable standards both in the public sphere and among dancers for what constitutes the belly dance image—or images, as belly dance is a diverse phenomenon that encompasses teaching, learning, performing, watching, socializing, and costuming

Sorting Out Donkey Skin (ATU 510B): Toward an Integrative Literal-Symbolic Analysis of Fairy Tales

This article debates the merits of fairy tale interpretive frameworks that privilege the psychological and symbolic, versus those that utilize a literal and feminist orientation. Using ATU 510B as a test case, for its intriguing blend of real-world elements and the fantastic, the author suggests that a synthesis of literal and symbolic theories allows for the fullest understanding of the polyvalent meanings of tale, which is particularly problematic due to its depictions of incest. Drawing examples from canonical as well as contemporary versions of ATU 510B, various psychoanalytic and feminist interpretations of the tale type are put to the test, and ultimately combined to reach a more productive framework

The Thorns of Trauma: Torture, Aftermath, and Healing in Contemporary Fairy-Tale Literature

While classical fairy tales do not portray much depth of suffering, many contemporary fairy-tale retellings explore trauma and its aftermath in great detail. This article analyzes depictions of trauma in fairy tales, utilizing as a primary case study the “Beauty and the Beast” retelling A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, arguing that this text provides a scientifically accurate representation of trauma and its aftermath, thereby articulating the real in fairy tales. Further, this article classifies that work as not simply a “dark” fairy tale (a contentious term that invites rethinking) but rather as fairy-tale torture porn, in a nod to the horror genre that foregrounds torture, surveillance, and the disruption of bodily boundaries and safety. However, the text’s optimistic account of healing is uniquely relevant in a time of widespread trauma due to a global pandemic, thereby demonstrating that fairy tales remain germane in contemporary contexts

Political and Theoretical Feminisms in American Folkloristics: Definition Debates, Publication Histories, and the Folklore Feminists Communication

What role does feminist theory play in American folkloristics, and which versions of feminism have become mainstreamed in the nearly forty years since folklorists first became attuned to the promises and premises of feminism? By attending to these issues, I hope to at least partially answer the question Alan Dundes asked in his 2004 Invited Presidential Plenary Address to the American Folklore Society: What precisely is the \u27theory\u27 in feminist theory? (2005, 388). In lamenting the lack of grand theory in folkloristics, Dundes remarks, \u27\u27Despite the existence of books and articles with \u27feminist theory\u27 in their titles, one looks in vain for a serious articulation of what that \u27theory\u27 is. The idea that women\u27s voices and women\u27s roles in society have been adversely impacted by male chauvinism and bias is certainly true, but does that truism constitute a proper \u27theory\u27? (388-89). I believe that Dundes\u27s notion of feminist theory is overly simplistic and that a careful overview of feminism in the academy, and specifically in folkloristic discourse, will not only reveal complexities and nuances within feminist practices but also contribute a necessary historical perspective on the evolution of our discipline

The Black and the White Bride: Dualism, Gender, and Bodies in European Fairy Tales

Fairy tales are one of the most important folklore genres in Western culture, spanning literary and oral cultures, folk and elite cultures, and print and mass media forms. As Jack Zipes observes: ‘The cultural evolution of the fairy tale is closely bound historically to all kinds of storytelling and different civilizing processes that have undergirded the formation of nation-states.’143 Studying fairy tales thus opens a window onto European history and cultures, ideologies, and aesthetics

(Review) Jones, Christine A. and Jennifer Schacker, eds., Marvelous Transformations: An Anthology of Fairy Tales and Contemporary Critical Perspectives and Raynard, Sophie, ed., The Teller’s Tale: Lives of the Classic Fairy Tale Writers

Jeana Jorgensen\u27s review of: Marvelous Transformations: An Anthology of Fairy Tales and Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Ed. Christine A. Jones and Jennifer Schacker. (Peterborough, ON : Broadview Press, 2013. Pp. 580, introduction, notes on contributors, sources.) The Teller’s Tale: Lives of the Classic Fairy Tale Writers. Ed. Sophie Raynard. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2012. Pp. vi + 183, introduction, list of contributors, index.