Postmodern Fairy Tales

Gender and Narrative Strategies

Cristina Bacchilega

• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780812200638
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Postmodern Fairy Tales seeks to understand the fairy tale not as children's literature but within the broader context of folklore and literary studies. It focuses on the narrative strategies through which women are portrayed in four classic stories: "Snow White," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Beauty and the Beast," and "Bluebeard." Bacchilega traces the oral sources of each tale, offers a provocative interpretation of contemporary versions by Angela Carter, Robert Coover, Donald Barthelme, Margaret Atwood, and Tanith Lee, and explores the ways in which the tales are transformed in film, television, and musicals.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. Performing Wonders: Postmodern Revisions of Fairy Tales
• 2. The Framing of “Snow White”: Narrative and Gender (Re)Production
• 3. Not Re(a)d Once and for All: “Little Red Riding Hood”'s Voices in Performance
• 4. In the Eye of the Beholder: “Where is Beast?”
• 5. “Be Bold, be Bold, but not too Bold”: Double Agents and Bluebeard's Plot
• Epilogue. Peopling the Bloody Chambers: “Once upon Many Times” and “Once upon One Time”
• Notes
• Works Cited
• Index