"Feminist Fairy Tales" Female Agency and Subversive Message in Fairy Tales of the Traditional European Canon

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Wallace, Miriam

Keywords

Fairy Tales, Feminism, Feminist Literary Critique, Literary Critique, Marriage, AT425A, Socialization, Pedagogy

Area of Concentration

Humanities

Abstract

The thesis is situated in the context of previous feminist literary critique of fairy tales, attempting to answer common questions of whether fairy tales can be considered "feminist" or pro-woman. The author uses tale type AT 425A from the traditional European canon of fairy tales to examine this question and attempt to answer it. This tale type, The Search for the Lost Husband, is based on the plot structure and themes of Apuleius's second-century AD work, The Tale of Cupid and Psyche, and is a story about arranged marriage from the wife's perspective. The thesis first discusses the history of the fairy tale genre, with an emphasis on its frequent uses in socialization purposes and in giving voice to women writers. It then goes on to discuss the history of marriage in early-Modern European history, with the goal of establishing a cultural-historical context and to enable an approach from the angle of cultural specificity. The tale type itself is then discussed, with attention given to why this tale type might be a likely site for female agency and the female voice to be displayed. The second section of the thesis deals with close readings of five selected variants of the tale type, each chosen for different contributions they can make for or against the argument for the tale type's progressive message. Multiple possible interpretations are examined for how a modern reader might answer the question of the tale type�s value to feminism and how a reader in the potential original audiences might answer it. The final conclusion drawn from these analyses is that the question is ultimately too complex and open to too many different interpretations based on reading and reader to answer simply. The thesis ends with the conclusion that readers should be careful in asking and attempting to answer these questions because of the multiple possibilities and ambiguity in approaching them. A final note is made of the significance of the genre of fairy tales to feminist dialog, with a hope that research such as is performed in the thesis will work toward the goal of revitalizing popular interest in, and positive opinion of, the genre.

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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