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Author
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Comment
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Erica Carlson
Registered User
(11/4/04 6:43 pm)
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Goose Girl
I'm working on a paper discussing the Goose Girl tale (AT533)--looking at some of its history and enduring motifs and then looking at contemporary (last 10 years or so) re-tellings in light of feminist perspectives and questions of fairy tales. I'm having a great time doing it, but I haven't found much written about this tale in particular. Bettelheim has a chapter about it, and there are a few interesting psychoanalytic readings of it, but other than that I haven't found much besides passing references.
So, my big question is, does anyone know of anyone or any work that discusses this tale in any sort of depth?
Barring that, would anyone care to speculate about why so few people have written on it?
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redtriskell
Registered User
(11/4/04 11:23 pm)
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Re: Goose Girl
Well, to take you up on the second part of your query... I certainly can't speak for anyone else, but I have always found the goose girl herself a bit... insipid. Her situation always seemed to me mostly a product of her lack of backbone. How did she allow herself to get in that situation? I suppose one could argue that her previous life hadn't encouraged any sort of stand up for yourself characteristics, but she came across to me as a rather damp dishrag personality. Falada, on the other hand, was immensely wonderful. So perhaps she isn't as inspiring as other fairy tale heroines? The ones who have to stuggle and use thier pluckiness to succeed. Just a thought...
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Terri Windling
Registered User
(11/5/04 1:24 am)
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Goose Girl
Don't miss Nancy Farmer's re-telling, "Falada: The Goose Girl's Horse," in the anthology A Wolf at the Door. It's a treat.
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Helen J Pilinovsky
Registered User
(11/5/04 11:46 am)
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Re: Goose Girl
Also, I highly recommend Shannon Hale's _The Goose Girl_, which provides beautiful characterization (her goose girl's actions are eminently understandable).
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Midori
Unregistered User
(11/5/04 12:42 pm)
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goose girl here and elsewhere
Heidi has put together pages on the Goose Girl...on the Surlalune site at www.surlalunefairytales.com/goosegirl/index.html. What you might find really interesting is looking at the wide range of variants--I contributed "Untombi Yapansi" which is a South African tale that follows the structural pattern of the Goose Girl.
Far from insipid I find the Goose Girl quite canny. This narrative falls into the pattern (in some ways like Armless Maiden) of the girl turned out on the road to experience her rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood. She seems docile...meekly accepting the servant's demand that she change clothes (in Untombi Yapansi the youg girl is turned out as her village is engulfed in flames and as she steps off the path, she encounters a curios creature called the imbulumakasana--a sort of pale lizardy creatures who always shows up in these sorts of narratives to force young women into switching places with it). But this switching of clothes and roles is an important part of the rite of passage--her identity as a girl must appear (at least metaphorically) to die--to allow for the transformation of the girl into an adult woman. That old identity subsumed into the disguised servant or imbulu serving as proxy at the house of marriage while the girl orchestrates the rest of her rite. The real stuff happens out there in the fields...think of the goose girl's powerful and intimate relationship with Nature--the horse's head that speaks to her, the wind that obeys her command (in Untombi Yapansi she has a stick that brings up food from her village--since to eat at the house of marriage before being recognized as a the bride would be wrong). From her place out there in nature the goose girl rules--eventually bringing the Prince out to meet her--on her terms. Once he acknowledges her, correctly identifies her through the disguise (additionally revealing his good sense at last), the Goose Girl willingly returns to her rightful place--but now as an adult, and ready for marriage. Untombi Yapansi takes this a step farther--as she re-emerges from her disguise, she resurrects her entire village from the underworld, restoring them to health--underscoring the fertility and creative power of the bride.
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Erica Carlson
Registered User
(11/9/04 3:02 pm)
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Re: goose girl here and elsewhere
Thanks for the responses!
Obviously, since I'm writing about the tale I don't personally find it insipid, but I'm very aware that some people do. It's the sort of tale that tends to get criticized for its pretty, passive heroine. However, I've always wanted to be able to talk with the wind myself, and, as I've mentioned on some earlier board, I find it an easy tale to identify with--journey to a strange land and the acceptance/achievement of adulthood and all that. The inactivity, or perceived inactivity of the Goose Girl is part of what makes this an interesting project-- sort of a challenge for modern writers, if you will, yet at the same time it seems to pose a question about whether or not patience, acceptance, or even silence can (or should be) traits of value, especially for women/girls. It's quite fascinating to see how different writers handle the tale.
I've accessed several variants that are making me pay attention to different parts of the tale at different times. Untombi Yapansi is fabulous, and quite fun to read (for anyone who hasn't read it yet), and I'm quite taken at the maternal love and connection emphasized by the bracelet in The Golden Bracelet. It's nice to be up to my neck in research and still to be enjoying so much of it. If only I didn't have any other classes to worry about!
Best,
Erica
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midori snyder
Registered User
(11/10/04 5:13 pm)
ezSupporter
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Re: goose girl here and elsewhere
Yeah, Untombi Yapansi is one of my favorites. Actually as I read over my post, I inadvertently made it sound like I had written the tale. In fact it was collected end of the 19th century by Rev. Canon Callaway and is called Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus. (published by Negro Universities Press). What makes it such an wonderful collection is Callaway was faithful in his transcriptions of the tales as they were told him--also the collection is one of few bilingual collections. The other stories in it are spectacular as well. It should be fairly available in a good university library.
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Erica Carlson
Registered User
(11/11/04 12:07 am)
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Re: goose girl here and elsewhere
Yes--the class I'm writing the paper for is a folklore seminar, and from a strict folkloric perspective, the Grimms' tales are somewhat suspect (I understate), so it's good to have some more, well, faithfully transcribed tales to use for comparison. It helps when they are as fascinating to read as Untombi Yapansi. The trick is keeping myself from being sidetracked by reading the other tales in the volume. I keep comforting myself by the thought of curling up with them over the winter break.
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