Reimagining “Beauty”: Young Adult Fairytale Retellings in Perpetuation of & Resistance to Patriarchy

Abstract

This paper utilises an intersectional, feminist lens in order to analyse the narrative and characterisation choices made by the authors of several different iterations of the 18th century French fairytale 'Beauty and the Beast': the 1740 original, _The Beauty & the Beast_ by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve; Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s _Beauty & the Beast_, published in 1756; Robin McKinley’s acclaimed 1978 Young Adult retelling _Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast_; and my own 2016 Young Adult reimagining _Barefoot on the Wind_. By examining the changing ideals of femininity, depictions of masculinity, and the evolving notion of a ‘happily ever after’ revealed in these distinct imaginings of the same story and main characters, and examining my own creative process during the writing of _Barefoot on the Wind_, I hope to convincingly argue that while fairytales and their retellings are inescapably reflective of the cultural context in which they are created (or re-created), they may also, through an author’s choices, become a site of intentional resistance to the ingrained misogyny and classist prejudices which, through time, have been inscribed on the body of such narratives by patriarchy.