Sexuality and Gender in Contemporary Retelling of Snow White

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the representation of sexuality and gender in four 20th century retellings of the Grimms' Snow White: Snow White by Donald Barthelme, The Snow Child by Angela Carter, Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman and The Tale of the Apple by Emma Donoghue. The main purpose of this thesis is to compare the retellings with the traditional fairy tale in order to see what kind of choices have been made by the contemporary authors to introduce contemporary views on sexuality and gender into the story and to what extent have they been entered into dialogue with fairy-tale scholarship. The thesis consists of an introduction, two core chapters and a conclusion. The introduction will briefly comment on the works of the brothers Grimm, their relationship with fairy-tale scholarship and introduce the authors of the retellings this paper analyses. The theoretical framework of the paper will be laid out in chapter one which elaborates on the nature and functions of fairy-tale retellings and their relationship with feminism. In addition to that, the first chapter explores the representation of sexuality and gender in Grimms' fairy tales, providing a backdrop necessary for analysing the retellings. The empirical chapter consists of the comparison of the traditional tale and its retellings. The chapter will look into the similarities and differences in the representation of sexuality and gender in the the Grimms' version of Snow White and its retellings and determine the instances where the authors have entered into dialogue with fairy-tale scholarship. The results of the study will be presented in the conclusion.