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RebR
Registered User
(7/25/00 8:32:23 am)
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Feminist Fairy Tales
Hi there! This is my first posting here. I'm taking an on-line research class and the project I chose is:
Feminist Fairy Tales and Feminist Analysis of Classic Fairy Tales. I have to compile titles and resources and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions.
I've explored Jack Zipes, Jane Yolen and some other popular names. I also found Kay Vandergrift's site at Rutgers University which was fantastic.
Thanks! REBECCA
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Kerrie
Registered User
(7/25/00 8:55:19 am)
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Re: Feminist Fairy Tales
Hi Rebecca!
Now, before I delve into the realm of research, could you state YOUR definition of Feminist Fairytales (ie, how you are classifying them for this specific project)
Are they:
1) Written by proclaimed feminists?
2) Stories that focus around the heroine?
3) Stories that focus around women's contemporary values?
3) Adapted fairytales where the princess doesn't wait for the
prince, the witch is understood better?
4) The general public's labeling of them as Feminist or the possible reader's perception of them that way?
Hmmm, that's all I can think of right now, I'm on my lunch break, but I'll ponder these and your words and hope to hear more from you soon!
Kerrie
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RebR
Registered User
(7/25/00 9:32:12 am)
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Re: Feminist Fairy Tales
Thanks Kerrie for your quick response.
You asked an excellent question.
For this particular research project, I have not defined it. I was interested in what titles would result if I did the research using the term "Feminist Fairy Tales."
However, as a School-Library student and a mother of a 7 year old daughter, my goal is to find tales where:
1. the females are NOT victims
2. the females take an active role
3. being a doormat or comatose is not considered a virtue.
Thanks again, REBECCA
| DH
Unregistered User
(7/25/00 10:55:01 am)
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Feminist Fairy Tales
You'll want to look at the most
recent issue of Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies.
It's a special issue on feminism and fairy tales entitled "Fairy
Tale Liberation--Thrity Years Later." In addition to a survey
and bibliography of criticism on women and fairy tales in the thrity
years since the Lurie-Lieberman debate of 1970, the issue includes
new essays by Ruth Bottigheimer, Lewis Seifert, Jeannine Blackwell,
Elizabeth Harries, Kay Stone, and Jane Yolen--all of whom have published
important works on gender and fairy tales. There's also a translation
by Shawn Jarvis of a nineteenth-century German tale and book reviews
focusing on recent work relating to women and fairy tales. You can
find abstracts at the website: www.langlab.wayne.edu/Mar...Tales.html
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Kerrie
Registered User
(7/25/00 3:18:04 pm)
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Re: Feminist Fairy Tales
Hmmm, in that case, may I suggest you browse Terri's site, Endicott Studio- it has a large amount of links and information regarding adult fairytales and their authors:
www.endicott-studio.com
www.endicott-studio.com/biblipub.html
www.endicott-studio.com/recmdats.html
You may especially want to look at the collections, which I have heard nothing but rave reviews of (my purse is slowly growing with pennies as I save for more books!)- can anyone else give more info which of these (if not all) may be of interest?
Robin McKinley has created some wonderful renditions of traditional fairytales (so far I've read Beauty and Spindle's End- Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty tales, respectively, as well as The Knot in the Grain, which is a collection of short stories also based on fairytales)
Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine is another one I enjoyed, where Ella must obey *every* command and goes on a quest to break the curse.
Another site to look at regarding the fairy tales by general tale is Heidi's page, The SurLaLune Fairy Tale Pages. She has a list of the tales (Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow WHite, etc) and includes bibliographies, recent versions of the tales, annotated tales, similar tales, conections to the arts, etc.
www.surlalunefairytales.com
I'd also like to plug Midori's book, The Innamorati, (especially because I'm almost done reading it!) a tale of many who seek to end their curses by journeying a labyrinth at the center of a town in Italy. I'm not sur eif you wrote them in on purpose, Midori, (I may have missed previous postings about it), but I see definite links to fairy tales in the heart of it. One that keeps haunting me is the scene by the cave- I keep thinking of the Goose Girl story! There's a strong connection with mythology as well, and no weak-kneed women, I might add- at least a good read if not specifically for your project!
Hmmm, another question- are you looking at tales in relation to the traditional European fairytales or world tales? I know I'm missing lots here, but I'll keep thinking!
| Ellen
Unregistered User
(7/25/00 10:51:46 pm)
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Feminist fairy tales
You might also want to take a look at Angela Carter's
*Old Wives Fairy Tale Book.* The stories, which all have female protagonists, are grouped thematically. I'm thinking that you might find two of those themes particularly useful: "Clever Women, Resourceful Girls, and Desperate Strategems" and "Good Girls and Where It Gets Them." Carter's intro. and notes at the end of the book may also be helpful.
Also I remember some particularly strong heroines in Italo Calvino's *Italian Fairy Tales* (one who bests a band of robbers) -- but the house copy is out on loan, so I'm afraid I can't give you specific names at the moment. And there's always Sheherazade, the sister in the Seven Swans, and so many others ...
E.
| Heidi
Unregistered User
(7/26/00 8:07:50 am)
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More collections
For a modern collection of feminist fairy tales, look at Jack Zipes' "Don't Bet on the Prince."
Also look at:
Ethel Johnston Phillips has two collections of retold tales, "Maid of the North" and "Tatterhood."
Rosemary Minard has "Womenfolk and Fairy Tales."
Kathleen Ragan's "Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World."
I enjoyed M. M. Kaye's "Ordinary Princess" which is aimed at middle readers.
For picture books, you can find a lot with diligence. One of the most popular is Robert Munsch's "Paperbag Princess" (which is also my favorite in this subgenre). I can't remember the author of "Cinder Edna." There is also Katherine Patterson's "The King's Equal" which is heavy handed (in my humble opinion) but still an interesting read.
For middle readers there are also several books edited by Bruce Lansky in the "Girls to the Rescue : Tales of Clever, Courageous Girls from Around the World"
series. These books contain retold tales that are simplified (too much so for my taste). I saw him in action at a bookstore a few years ago and he built a great rapport with all of the little girls in the audience.
Now that is all I can think of without my books and bookshelves. (Which will be delivered from storage tomorrow! Hallelujah.....)
Heidi
| Meagan
Unregistered User
(7/26/00 10:55:19 am)
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Bloody Chamber
Hi all.
Ellen suggested Angela Carter's Old Wives, which is very good, but it's fun to read it against THE BLOODY CHAMBER, her collection of retellings of classic tales. All the stories are great, but the title story is especially useful (at least it was to me when I was writing my thesis) in feminist fairy tale research, specifically because the protagonist tells the story in first person, past tense. She tells a version of the Bluebeard tale, as she lived it, as it transformed her, with a brutal, unforgiving self-awareness. Plus there's some great ballad stuff, startling tableau moments, and best of all, wonderful layered metaphors of woman as meat or as hunter. As the collection progresses, the protagonists are less and less meat and more and more wolf/cat huntresses. There's a great one at the end about Little Red Ridinghood where the wolf and Red exchange the old "what big eyes" "what big arms" bit, but when they get to "The better to eat you with!" Carter writes something like:
And she laughed when he said that. She knew she was nobody's meat.
Ahhhhh....Am I rhapsodizing? I do that with Carter...
Anyway...as far as scholarship goes, besides the many wonderful books listed by everyone else above, I also found Marina Warner's Beast to the Blonde useful in parts and Maria Tatar's research on the Grimms (I'm at work and I can't remember the title, sorry). You also may want to check out the Aarne-Thompson Index of Fairy Tale Types (not the five volume motif index) for useful if imperfect multi-cultural cross referencing.
Good luck!
Meagan
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Kerrie
Registered User
(7/26/00 1:31:12 pm)
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Yes, it's the crazy one crowing...
Yet again, if you're interested in librettos to include with your research, I might add...
INTO THE WOODS!
It has a wonderful mix of characters, the women of fairy tales who try to change their lives all interacting together (mainly Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, the Baker's Wife, the Witch, with secondary characters of the Wicked stepsisters and mother, Granny, Jack's mother, Rapunzel, and tiny appearances and mentions to Sleeping Beauty and Snow White), with their male companions, trying to get to the end of their stories, then continuing after Happily Ever After and taking over the story.
expert.cc.purdue.edu/~hah...bretto.htm
| Meagan
Unregistered User
(7/26/00 1:39:48 pm)
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The ugly sister
Also...another favorite contemporary feminist author (who has a new book coming out this fall, yeah!), Margaret Atwood, has been know to dabble in fairy tales.
Of course there's her short story "Bluebeard's Egg"--but I was thinking of her collection of poems "Good Bones and Simple Murders". She includes several poems that deal directly with fairy tales. I can't remember any titles (sorry, still at work) but one is about the witch and the ugly stepsister. The gist is, there would't be any story without the witch. Another one titled something like "All Praise Stupid Women" uses literary and fairy tale motifs.
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Kerrie
Registered User
(7/27/00 5:55:30 am)
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Re: More collections
Just a little correction, in case you're looking by author's last name. Heidi mentioned:
Ethel Johnston Phillips has two collections of retold tales, "Maid of the North" and "Tatterhood."
The author's last name is Phelps (one of my coworkers *just* handed me a copy of "The Maid of the North: Feminist Folk Tales From Around The World") Looks pretty interesting!
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Kerrie
Registered User
(7/28/00 2:57:22 am)
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Another book I just remembered
The mother of my boyfriend/fiance (I'll call him Jansen from now on)gave me a lovely book once, Noble-Hearted Kate: A Celtic Tale by Marianna Mayer, Winslow Pinney Pels (Illustrator). It's based on the ballad of Tam Lin, Kate Crackernut, and other folklore. A good read!
| Terri
Unregistered User
(7/30/00 11:47:10 pm)
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Feminist fairy tales
Everybody has mentioned so many of the best books on the subject already (Marina Warner, Angela Carter, etc.), but I'd also like to mention Forbidden Journeys: Fairy Tales and Fantasies by Victorian Women Writers edited by Nina Auerbach and U.C. Knoepflmacher, and Kate Bernheimer's wonderful collection of essays: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales.
If you're looking for feminist fiction that makes use of fairy tales, then Angela Carter's Bloody Chamber is indeed the very best, but also try Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue, Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice by A.S. Byatt, and Red as Blood by Tanith Lee. There's good feminist fairy tale poetry in Transformations by Anne Sexton, Dreaming of Frankenstein by Liz Lochhead, Beginning With O by Olga Broumas, Trail of Stones by Gwen Strauss and the various collections of Lisel Mueller. There are also a lot of feminist tales in the six "adult fairy tales" collections that I edited with Ellen Datlow: Snow White, Blood Red; etc.
Great subject to chose. Good luck!
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