Tag: cinderella

Annotation

On By lausou17In LaurenLeave a comment

My topic is currently how specific reinterpretations of the Cinderella tale are affected by the changing gender roles of the surrounding time period.

Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Folklore Casebook. Garland Pub., 1982.

The source I will be looking at is Cinderella, A Folklore Casebook by Alan Dundes.  This book contains both a small collection of early Cinderella tales, such as Perrault’s and the Grimm Brothers’, as well as small essays analyzing different aspects of the tale and its interpretations.  I find this source useful for its translation of both Perrault’s and the Grimm Brothers’ versions, as they were written in French and German, respectively, and the first section of this book gives me easy access to the translated versions and annotates where they came from.  This will give me original texts to work with and compare to other versions.  I had been planning on using some of the essays in the next section of the book, but the one I was looking at specifically turned out to use psychoanalysis theory rather than cultural, feminist, or gender theory as I had hoped.  I plan on looking at a few more of the essays included, but I don’t hold much hope of finding something useful, not least of all because this book was published in the 1980’s and uses essays from a few decades before.  What I find more useful is the bibliography of this book.  It will hopefully lead me to more helpful sources.  I plan on using both the bibliographies of the essays that are included as well as the selected bibliography at the back that is intended for further research.

Elevator Speech 2 – Cinderella and Gender Roles

On By lausou17In LaurenLeave a comment

My project has changed since the last post, so here is a new elevator speech. For my project, I want to use New Historical and Cultural theory to look at how multiple renditions of the Cinderella fairy tale reflect the gender roles of that time and how they have changed.  The Cinderella tale is very popular, appearing in many different cultures and having many popular retellings, to the point where it has become a standard story type.  Because this story is so popular, and because it is something that is told to our children literally from birth so many times that they have it memorized for the rest of their lives, I think there is an interesting connection between how Cinderella is portrayed and what we want her portrayal to teach the children who are absorbing this story.  My topic is the cultural impact of the Cinderella tale, my question is how does the portrayal of Cinderella reflect the gender roles of the culture that produced that particular tale, and my hypothesis is that they show the ideal girl to fit those roles and that they show the qualities that are valued in women at that particular time.  One of the sources I plan on using is Cinderella: A Folklore Casebook by Alan Dundes which is a collection of both different versions of the Cinderella tale from different cultures and essays analyzing them and how they relate to one another.  This will be a useful source for me because it will give me both tales to look at and comparisons between them, which will show me how the retelling have changed.  The specific versions I want to look at are the Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, the Disney 1950’s animated film, and the Ella Enchanted film.

Dundes, Alan. Cinderella: a Folklore Casebook. Garland, 1982.

Further Reading – Cinderella and Culture

On By lausou17In LaurenLeave a comment

When I read about Cultural Criticism, what came to mind was the Cinderella fairy tale.  This famous tale has been retold and reshaped so many times throughout history and across so many cultures.  Tyson says, “while we are constrained within the limits set for us by our culture, we may struggle against those limits or transform them.” (280)  I think the Cinderella tale reflects that.  Fairy tales are stories that we tell to children literally from birth so many times, kids can recite them off the top of their head years to decades later.  They become cultural references and familiar touchstones for other stories.  Fairy tales have been told so many times, they have been ground into our culture and affect it in many ways.  Looking at how could reveal some interesting truths about both the story and the culture around it.

I think a close look at the multiple versions of this fairy tale could show the cultural impact on gender roles that they had.  Cinderella is usually portrayed as a girl who does all of the house work and as someone who is submissive to a point.  More recent versions have changed Cinderella’s submissive personality or sometimes even her role in the story itself.  Many people are familiar with the 1950’s cartoon that was made by Disney, which shows Cinderella as the ideal 50’s house wife.  She cooks, cleans, sews, and does housework for most of the movie, singing the whole time.  She doesn’t even go to the ball until the Fairy Godmother intervenes.  This Cinderella really only does as she’s told and relies on her Prince Charming to get her out of her awful home situation.  On the other hand, if you look at an adaptation like the movie Ella Enchanted, it shows a girl who is much more in control of her situation.  In this particular movie, Ella, who is the Cinderella figure, is put under a curse to follow any and every command she is given.  This movie shows a much different girl, one who constantly rebels against what she is told and eventually finds a way to be her own person.  The movie ends with Ella breaking her curse herself, not having to rely on anyone else to help her.  This protagonist fits an entirely different mold than her predecessor and shows a completely different person to a new generation of children.  These movies are only 50 years apart, but show vast differences in how Cinderella is interpreted in these time periods.  Our culture is reflected in the stories we tell, as well as the ones we continuously re-adapt.  Cinderella is a prime example.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: a User-Friendly Guide. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.