Cinderella in America The Evolution of an American Fairy Tale

Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Sutherland, Wendy

Keywords

Cinderella, Fairy Tales, American Literature, Feminism

Area of Concentration

English

Abstract

In �Cinderella in America: A Feminist, Historicist View on the Evolution of an American Fairy Tale,� I examine the changes in the Cinderella story from its classic roots to its transformation into an American tale. I argue that Cinderella has become a truly American story and that its evolution reflects contemporaneous American ideology and conceptions of gender, feminism and equality. To address these issues, I examined and analyzed the Cinderella story as it was introduced to pre-American mentality, its changes as the United States began to experience cohesiveness, and the resulting popular tales as American underwent fundamental changes. I argue that modern Cinderella stories reflect a newfound gender equality and liberalism in the United States and that the Cinderella character has moved from a place of absence and passiveness to that of presence and activeness.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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