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Confronting the Real in Fairy Tales
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Confronting the Real in Fairy Tales

A special issue of Humanities (ISSN 2076-0787). This special issue belongs to the section "Literature in the Humanities".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 June 2021) | Viewed by 20438

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Susan Redington Bobby

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Department of Literature and Languages, Wesley College, Dover, DE 19901, USA
Interests: fairy tale studies; adolescent literature; magical realism; goddess archetypes

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Writer and filmmaker Guillermo del Toro writes: "Es imposible encontrar lo hermoso sin explorar antes todo lo terrible" ("It's impossible to find the beautiful without first exploring everything that is terrible"). As scholars of fairy tales, we find ourselves inhabiting the liminal space between diverging paths. Deep in the midst of a forest clouded by fog, we are drawn to the path that leads to light and salvation, delving into the myriad meanings of the world of magic and the supernatural. However, the trail we often avoid is the one that leads to darkness. Here is the place from which fairy tales originate: the social, political, historic, economic, and cultural conditions that inspired these stories to be told. Marina Warner argues that "wishful thinking and the happy ending are rooted in sheer misery." This collection of essays aims to examine the dark world of human experience that catalyzed the creation of fairy tales.

I am pleased to invite fairy-tale scholars, folklorists, historians, and others to submit for consideration essays that confront the real in fairy tales. I seek work that engages with classic and contemporary variants, single-author literary tales, and fairy-tale-themed films.

The essays in this Special Issue will illustrate Italo Calvino's observation that "le fiabe sono vere" ("folktales are real"). Their resonance owes to their realism as much as to their wish fulfillment. For it is not only in walking the path of magic that fears, anxieties, and hardships may be vanquished, but also through taking the courage to confront the terrible things that lie in the darkness. 

Prof. Susan Redington Bobby
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Humanities is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • fairy tales
  • magic
  • supernatural
  • darkness
  • realism

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 256 KiB  
Article
“You Have to Set the Story You Know Aside”: Constructions of Youth, Adulthood and Senescence in Cinderella Is Dead
by Michelle Anya Anjirbag and Vanessa Joosen
Humanities 2022, 11(1), 25; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/h11010025 - 10 Feb 2022
Viewed by 2700
Abstract
As with other twenty-first-century rewritings of fairytales, Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron complicates the classic ‘Cinderella’ fairytale narrative popularized by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm for new audiences, queering and race-bending the tale in its decidedly feminist revision of the story. [...] Read more.
As with other twenty-first-century rewritings of fairytales, Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron complicates the classic ‘Cinderella’ fairytale narrative popularized by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm for new audiences, queering and race-bending the tale in its decidedly feminist revision of the story. However, as we argue here, the novel also provides an interesting intervention in the construction of age as related to gender for its female protagonists. Drawing on Sylvia Henneberg’s examination of ageist stereotypes in fairytale classics and Susan Pickard’s construction of the figure of the hag, we explore the dialogic between the fairytale revision, traditional fairytale age ideology and the intersection of age and gender in this reinvention of the classic narrative. By focusing on constructions of age, particularly senescence, we demonstrate how complex constructions of older characters might aid in overall depictions of intergenerational relationships, and how these intergenerational relationships in turn reflect historical and cultural impetuses of retelling fairytale narratives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Confronting the Real in Fairy Tales)
17 pages, 291 KiB  
Article
But There Is Magic, Too: Confronting Adolescents’ Realities in Francesca Lia Block’s Fairy-Tale Rewritings
by Marie Emilie Walz
Humanities 2021, 10(3), 93; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/h10030093 - 29 Jul 2021
Viewed by 3719
Abstract
Many rewritings of fairy tales use this genre to address the darkest, most violent, most unjust, and most painful aspects of human experiences, as well as to provide hope that it is possible to overcome or at least come to terms with such [...] Read more.
Many rewritings of fairy tales use this genre to address the darkest, most violent, most unjust, and most painful aspects of human experiences, as well as to provide hope that it is possible to overcome or at least come to terms with such experiences. Francesca Lia Block’s The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold (pub. 2000) is an example of such a use of fairy-tale material. Block’s stories transform traditional fairy tales to narrate the painful realities adolescents can be faced with in modern-day American society. In doing so, Block’s stories draw attention to the violence, both literal and ideological, inherent in well-known versions of fairy tales, as well as to the difficulty of confronting painful realities. Yet, as they depict young heroines (not) facing all kinds of ordeals, the stories also use the figure of the helper to restore hope to the protagonists and lead them to a new, often re-enchanted, life. Employing fairy-tale elements to both address suffering and provide hope, The Rose and the Beast thus offers complex and liminal narratives, or ‘anti-tales’, which deeply resonate with their intended adolescent audience’s in-between stage of life. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Confronting the Real in Fairy Tales)
18 pages, 317 KiB  
Article
Aronofsky’s Black Swan as a Postmodern Fairy Tale: Mirroring a Narcissistic Society
by Margarete Johanna Landwehr
Humanities 2021, 10(3), 86; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/h10030086 - 30 Jun 2021
Viewed by 7213
Abstract
Based on the plot of Swan Lake, Black Swan depicts an ingenue’s metamorphosis into a woman and a prima ballerina that contains a fairy-tale plot in which a naïve heroine overcomes enemies and obstacles in order to achieve success and sexual maturity. Unlike [...] Read more.
Based on the plot of Swan Lake, Black Swan depicts an ingenue’s metamorphosis into a woman and a prima ballerina that contains a fairy-tale plot in which a naïve heroine overcomes enemies and obstacles in order to achieve success and sexual maturity. Unlike a traditional fairy tale, this cinematic tale concludes with death and the clear distinctions between good and evil, helper and adversary and reality vs. fantasy are fluid. As in many fairy tales, the film criticizes the values of its era, namely, the narcissistic aspects of contemporary society with its excessive worship of youth, beauty and celebrity, and its most pernicious results—escape into fantasy and insanity, aggressive rivalry, violence, and self-destruction. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Confronting the Real in Fairy Tales)
15 pages, 260 KiB  
Article
The Thorns of Trauma: Torture, Aftermath, and Healing in Contemporary Fairy-Tale Literature
by Jeana Jorgensen
Humanities 2021, 10(1), 47; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/h10010047 - 11 Mar 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4981
Abstract
While classical fairy tales do not portray much depth of suffering, many contemporary fairy-tale retellings explore trauma and its aftermath in great detail. This article analyzes depictions of trauma in fairy tales, utilizing as a primary case study the “Beauty and the Beast” [...] Read more.
While classical fairy tales do not portray much depth of suffering, many contemporary fairy-tale retellings explore trauma and its aftermath in great detail. This article analyzes depictions of trauma in fairy tales, utilizing as a primary case study the “Beauty and the Beast” retelling A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, arguing that this text provides a scientifically accurate representation of trauma and its aftermath, thereby articulating the real in fairy tales. Further, this article classifies that work as not simply a “dark” fairy tale (a contentious term that invites rethinking) but rather as fairy-tale torture porn, in a nod to the horror genre that foregrounds torture, surveillance, and the disruption of bodily boundaries and safety. However, the text’s optimistic account of healing is uniquely relevant in a time of widespread trauma due to a global pandemic, thereby demonstrating that fairy tales remain germane in contemporary contexts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Confronting the Real in Fairy Tales)
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