|
Author
|
Comment
|
Rose Deo
Unregistered User
(7/31/03 8:40 pm)
|
finding modern fairy tales
Hi All
Some of you might remember that I recently ran an online study on readers' responses to a sample of fairy tales from around the world. I am still in the process of analysing the data, but some of my initial evaluations have suggested that many adult readers find traditional fairy tales interesting, but not always enjoyable. This could be because of the sample of readers I used (adult) or it could be because of the tales (e.g. adult readers may have found them to be too predictable or of poor literary quality).
I am therefore trying to find some sources (preferably e-text) of modern fairy tales so that I can compare reader evaluations of these fairy tales with the more traditional fairy tales. Also, any fairy tales with negative endings- I have read hundreds and hundreds of tales but there are relatively few tales with negative endings ..at least in the collections I have had at hand.
If anyone could recommend some good sources of unusual or non-traditional fairy tales, either via this list or using my email (r.deo@psy.uq.edu.au) I would very much appreciate it.
I will post up some of the results on this discussion board when I get my analyses finished and the study written up for publication.
Regards
Rose Deo
PhD Candidate
School of Psychology
University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia
|
Midori
Unregistered User
(8/1/03 5:56 am)
|
just a question
Rose,
I was just thinking that perhaps it really does matter which fairy tales you select--since it would seem from glancing at the Calvino thread that readers have a definate comfort zone with certain types of narratives and a negative reaction to stories that seem too "alien." Before I make a suggestion about an "unusual" collection of fairy tales, it might be more useful to know who your audience is? and should you perhaps try to select a collection that will at least theoretical within their cultural comfort zone?
|
Midori
Unregistered User
(8/1/03 6:12 am)
|
corrections
ugh..this is the problem with doing this first thing in the morning!
That last sentence should have read "at least theoretically be within their comfort zone."
I probably should qualify that remark (it seems strangely snotty when I re-read it!). As you are in Australia, it occured to me that you would be working with potentially very different cultural backrounds of the tales--from Aboriginal/Maori and then immigrant cultures of Asian and European. Your readers might identify more naturally with one body of narratives over another...
Also I was wondering--your thread title seems to suggest that you might be looking for modern fairy tale collections, but you asked about more unusual traditional fairy tale collections? Did I read that right?
|
Rosemary
Lake
Registered User
(8/2/03 1:21 pm)
|
modern fairy tales
As for modernish stories, I have done about thirty retellings and a few original stories following classic formulas. They're linked at
www.midnightengineers.com/rl/stories/
in order of originality. Most of these are complete online; if you'd
like a review copy of the ebook containing the rest, let me know.
Warning: they all have very happy endings. :-)
Rosemary
|
Rose
Deo
Registered User
(8/8/03 3:12 pm)
|
cultural background of readers
Hi Midori
I totally agree with your concern about the cultural background of readers - my readers are primarily undergraduate university students, and are of anglo-celtic heritage (although I have a nice little sample thanks to the webpages here, of readers from a variety of countries).
Not a lot of Australians read that much Maori or Aboriginal folk literature, which is possibly surprising, but then again, there aren't many examples of tales that fit in to the category of fairy tale from these cultures (at least that I had available to me). MOst of the readers are far more familiar with, and identify with, the classic European-style fairy tale, and certainly have expectations regarding what a fairy tale should be like, although the majority rated the fairy tales from other cultures as a little more interestins (presumably because they were different and less predictable).
The last study I ran used a cross-cultural sample of fairy tales, so basically I, and two other raters, read about 1000 tales and randomly selected 52 (26 short and 26 long) tales from cultural areas such as Japan, Korea, INdia, Germany and so on. The reason that I am looking for modern and unusual fairy tales is that I am wanting to compare the results for the more typical tales with a sample that differs from this - this will help me to determine the role of things such as cultural background, and so forth.
Does this make more sense? I tend to ramble sometimes
Rose
|
Rose
Deo
Registered User
(8/8/03 3:16 pm)
|
thank you :)
Thank you so much, Rosemary
I really appreciate your very kind offer to let me use your tales - if you could send me some details I will list you in any acknowledgements so that you get full credit for the use of your stories.
Regards
Rose
(r.deo@psy.uq.edu.au)
|
Rose Deo
Unregistered User
(8/8/03 3:21 pm)
|
modern or unusual?
In regards to your question on whether I was after modern or unusual
fairy tales, the answer is ..both Anything I can get my hands on,
and any examples of fairy tales with negative endings would be great
too
Cheers
Rose
|
Ron McCutchan
Unregistered User
(8/8/03 4:34 pm)
|
Negative Modern Fairy Tales
Doesn't this shade over into the horror genre? Sarah Ellis has several very good (and creepy, though they all end happily) near-fairy tales in BACK OF BEYOND [Margaret McElderry Books] that have contemporary settings. And Garth Nix's "The Lightning Bringer" in Michael Cart's anthology LOVE AND SEX might be something to look at (I'm not quite sure if it counts as fairy tale, but it's definitely supernatural--deals with a serial rapist who kills his victims by calling down lightning, though it does have a very moral ending. Neil Gaiman's CORALINE and NEVERWHERE both would fit, I think--again, though they're dark, they don't fall completely to the negative. Is a "negative" fairy tale of necessity a cautionary tale?
By "modern" are you meaning modern in creation or modern in setting? Nancy Etchemendy has a lovely original folk/fairy tale in her collection CAT IN GLASS [disclaimer--it's published by Cricket Books, which is my place of employment] called "The Lily and the Weaver's Heart," which is very much informed by feminism and features differently-abled protagonists. But though its copyright and sensibilities are very much "modern," its setting is entirely traditional. Robin McKinley's retellings would fall under this category, too.
If you're looking for modern settings, then I think any number of Charles de Lint pieces--short or novel-length, might fit the bill on both modern and negative (or at least very dark) counts--of course, he's drawing on Celtic and Native American traditions. The same for Emma Bull's WAR FOR THE OAKS and Holly Black's TITHE (well, Celtic for both of them, not Native American).
Playing devil's advocate here--In thinking of what a truly "modern" fairy tale is I'm reminded of the proposition (don't recall its attribution) that little green men from Mars are the contemporary fairies, and so in some respects, some categories of science fiction might be considered under the heading of fairy tales. So would some of Ray Bradbury's MARTIAN CHRONICLES be completely out of line?
|
Philippa777
Registered User
(8/10/03 4:28 pm)
|
finding modern fairy tales
Hi Rose,
I've just joined the group and was interested to read these comments and questions. My first children's book, 'Miz Margenon's Jungle' was a modern fairy tale, (an original story). It was published as a rather beautiful, professionally laid out e-book by www.bowbridgepublishing.com
with illustrations by Sybille Sterk.
There may be a print edition at a later stage, but the e-book is available now. Do feel free to email me privately if you want more information.
There are also more details of my work on my website, at www.modernfairytales.co.uk
Phil.
|
Rose Deo
Unregistered User
(8/11/03 4:02 pm)
|
negative and modern fairy tales
Thanks for that, Ron.
I will look up your references.
What I meant by negative fairy tales is probably best illustrated by some of the IRish fairy tales - it is not so much that the fairy tale is negative; more that the ending for characters doesn't always much up with their attributes. This is referred to as the match between character and outcome valence,and an example would be the Irish fairy tale "The Story of Diedre" (although this is almost better placed in the realm of a romantic tragedy).
I see also what you mean about the setting - a modern fairy tale would, I guess, be one that changed either the setting (to make it set in the current day or the future) or another feature such as the representation of characters so that the tale better reflects modern values and social rules.
I think it was Diane Purkis who talked a bit about sci-fi being the "new" perilous realm, because it represents one of the few areas that we still find unfamiliar (you can also get the same effect in tales like Harry Potter where there are parallel worlds). Her work seems to reflect psychoanalytic perspectives on fairy tales in regards to the importance of fairy tales in encouraging people to explore new worlds and go beyond their comfort zone.
Anyway, I'm rambling again
Thanks very much for your input - much appreciated!
cheers
Rose
|
Rose Deo
Unregistered User
(8/11/03 4:06 pm)
|
thank you!
Thank you very much, Philippa
I am so impressed with the the level of support and encouragement that is present in this website - it is by far the most interesting site devoted to fairy tales that I have come across. I will definitely look up your website and your references
Regards
Rose
|
Terri
Registered User
(8/12/03 2:24 am)
|
modern fairy tales
Rose, maybe I'm just thick-headed this morning, but I'm still confused by what exactly you're looking for. Are you seeking modern fairy tales that are completely original (ie: not based on older tales in any way), or modern stories based on older tales?
If the later, for adult readers, there's Angela Carter's classic The Bloody Chamber, Emma Donoghue's Kissing the Witch, the anthology Don't Bet on the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North America and England (edited by Jack Zipes), and the various volumes of the "Snow White, Blood Red" anthology series, to start with, and many many more besides.
For younger readers, you might try the anthologies A Wolf at the Door and Swan Sister, and (as Ron mentioned) Robin McKinley's story collections.
And Jane Yolen has written many good tales of both varieties.
Or are you looking for something else altogether?
In puzzlement,
Terri
Edited by: Terri at: 8/12/03 2:47 am
|
Terri
Registered User
(8/12/03 2:27 am)
|
double post
Double post, sorry.
(By the way, how *does* one get rid of those darn smiley faces???)
Edited by: Terri at: 8/12/03 2:48 am
|
wrightales
Registered User
(8/13/03 12:51 pm)
|
Re: finding modern fairy tales
Hi Rose,
If you are interested in contemporary fairy tales (not rewritings
of traditional tales) you could visit my site wrightales.com
If any of the stories there seem to suit your quest let me know and I can email you the text.
Lisa
|
dorisi
Registered User
(8/14/03 12:15 am)
ezSupporter
|
fairytales with unhappy endings
You mentioned that you were looking for fairytales with an unhappy ending. The King of the Golden Mountain has a seriously grim ending (forgive bad pun) and can be found in the Grimm brothers collections. I retold and explored it in my book 'Eating the Underworld' (Random House, Australia)
|
Rose Deo
Unregistered User
(8/25/03 3:12 pm)
|
modern fairy tales
Hi Terri
Yes ... I think I'm confused myself... I think what I was really
after were fairy tales that were "new" tales set in contemporary
times with appropriate characters rather than reworkings of old
fairy tales. I was thinking along the lines of some of the anime-style
japanese stories and things like that. What I am interested in seeing
is if readers might prefer the modern tales to the traditional -
something along the lines of Jung's thesis that archetypes become
stale and have to be renewed every once and a while. I would be
interested to see if his thesis was supported by a comparison of
new and old fairy tales.
Having said that, I am also interested in traditional-style stories written by contemporary authors such as Angela Carter. This would further enable me to compare traditional with re-worked tales, and would definitely increase the scope of my study. The same with the tales with negative endings. Because I am conducting naturalistics studies at the moment (ie ones where I am using existing material rather than constructing and manipulating my own tales), I need to find samples of tales that differ along some of the parametres I am interested in such as the tale's ending, modern vs traditional and so on.
Thanks for all of your comments, by the way, and helpful suggestions. I am busy compiling sets of tales to be used in my next series of studies.
Cheers
Rose
|
Rose Deo
Unregistered User
(8/25/03 3:26 pm)
|
modern fairy tales
Hi Lisa
Thanks for the link. I really liked the samples of the tales that I got to see .... can I ask if it is possible to get a complete sample of one the tales? The Accidental Sage looked particularly interestings ....
cheers
Rose
|
janeyolen
Registered User
(8/26/03 1:48 am)
|
Re: modern fairy tales
You might look at the following books by me, chock full of original fairy tales:
THE GIRL WHO CRIED FLOWERS
MOON RIBBON
THE HUNDREDTH DOVE
NEPTUNE RISING
SISTER EMILY'S LIGHTSHIP
DRAGONFIELD
TALES OF WONDER
HERE THERE BE DRAGONS
HERE THERE BE WITCHES
HERE THERE BE ANGELS
HERE THERE BE GHOSTS
HERE THERE BE UNICORNS
THE FAERIE FLAG
Also look at THE WONDER CLOCK by Howard Pyle
SALT & PEPPER by Pyle
THE LADY AND THE TIGER by Franbk Stockton
Oscar Wilde's fairy tales
Jane
|
wrightales
Registered User
(8/26/03 8:09 am)
|
Re: modern fairy tales
Hi Rose,
I would be delighted to send you the text of the Accidental Sage, but it is too long to post here. If you go to the bottom of the main page of my site, you can click on my email. Send me your email and I will send you the text.
Lisa
|
