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.

Download

Share

COinS