Book description
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.
"Examining the workings of the powerful desire machines built
into postmodern versions of 'Snow White,' 'Little Red Riding Hood,'
'Beauty and the Beast,' and 'Bluebeard,' Cristina Bacchilega's astute
rereadings uncover intriguing mirrorings and revisions."-Ruth B.
Bottigheimer, State University of New York at Stony Brook
Cristina Bacchilega is Associate Professor of English at the
University of Hawaii at Manoa and editor of the Italian-language volume
La narrativa postmoderna in America: Testi e contesti.
