Smart Princesses, Clever Choices. The Deconstruction of the Cinderella Paradigm and the Shaping of Female Cultural Identity in Adult and Children's Contemporary Rewritings of Fairy Tales

Abstract

As a hybrid or transitional genre, intended for children and adults alike, the fairy tale has been the object of investigation of several critical approaches. Feminist critics and writers, for example, have collaborated in the critical exposure of fairy tales as narratives voicing mainly patriarchal values by providing critical readings which investigate the social construction of gender involving power relations, as well as by writing adult and children's versions of traditional fairy tales in an attempt to express a non-sexist view of the world. Postmodernist rewritings by Carter, Atwood and others challenge accepted cultural paradigms which posit passivity, endurance and jealousy as essential qualities for women to be assimilated into the adult community. A similar process is currently talcing place in children's literature, where a growing tendency to re-tell princess stories which dispense with marriage-dominated plots and the traditional equation between beauty and goodness, can be detected. In these rewritings fairy-tale discourse becomes emancipatory and innovative, rather than a reinforcement of patriarchal culture.

Keywords

• Fairy tales
• Cinderella
• Gender studies
• Children's literature
• Parody