Contents of
Vol. 13, No. 2 (1999)

(Copyright © 1999 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI)

 

Editorial Policy

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ARTICLES

Docile Bodies of (Im)Material Girls: The Fairy-Tale Construction of JonBenet Ramsey and Princess Diana

JoAnn Conrad

The sediments of classic fairy tales continue to be imbricated in contemporary discourses of gender, power, and consumption, reflecting and shaping deeper ideological tendencies. Nowhere is this more emphatically presented than in women's magazines and tabloids. This article analyzes the news and tabloid presentation of the stories of JonBenet Ramsey and Princess Diana in the larger context of narratives about fairy-tale princesses, arguing that in order to understand the pervasiveness of the images of JonBenet and Diana, we must locate them within the nexus of traditional fairy-tale princess narratives, the social construction of gender, and the historical trajectory of women's magazines in their visual ordering of femininity and female desire.

 

Undermining a Grimm Tale: A Feminist Reading of "The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes" (KHM 133)

Hayley S. Thomas

Employing a critically disenchanted analysis influenced by Luce Irigaray and other contemporary feminist thinkers and cultural scholars, this paper offers a subversive reading that highlights the disruptive subtext of the Grimm tale, "The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes" (KHM 133). I argue that the princesses' nightly forays into the wondrous and festive netherworld they construct explicitly rejects the deep paralysis commonly prescribed for Grimm heroines. At the same time, they remain vulnerable to the socioeconomic imperatives of the typical male career märchen. If only momentarily, the princesses' nocturnal activities suspend and undermine the compulsory heteronormative enactments of femininity and masculinity.

 

The Challenges of Translating Perrault's Contes into English

Claire-Lise Malarte-Feldman

To translate is indeed a challenge since gaps, misinterpretations, or discrepancies between languages can reveal a wealth of differences that are not only linguistic but cultural as well. To move from one language to another in the case of Perrault's Contes means also to move from one period (seventeenth century) to another (twentieth century), from one public (the aristocratic elite of the Parisian salons) to another (young readers mainly), from a literary fashion to the imperatives of a highly competitive book market. A close analysis of a number of English translations of Perrault's fairy tales will enable us not only to measure those gaps but also to emphasize some puzzling aspects of the text.

 

TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS

The Cat Cinderella

Giambattista Basile / Translated by Nancy L. Canepa

 

The Green Bird

Juan Valera / Translated by Robert M. Fedorchek

 

Ellice Island Rimenanwi

Iban Edwin / Translated by Daniel A. Kelin II

 

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