Contents of
Vol. 15, No. 2 (2001)

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ARTICLES

Nature and Culture in the Fairy Tale of Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy

Anne E. Duggan

In many ways Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy's "The Bee and the Orange Tree" can be read as a commentary on the relation between nature and culture, which has implications, as I will argue, regarding d'Aulnoy's perspective on gender and society. In order to highlight the ideological underpinnings of d'Aulnoy's tale with respect to nature and culture, this article examines the ways in which Charles Perrault defines "feminine nature" in his tale "Patient Griselda," and then looks at how d'Aulnoy uses "nature" to legitimate the equality of the sexes in "The Bee and the Orange Tree." Finally this paper explores how d'Aulnoy situates her ideal society within the nature-culture spectrum in ways that anticipate the theories of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Robin McKinley's Deerskin: Challenging Narcissisms

Amelia A. Rutledge

Robin McKinley's Deerskin (1993) is both a reconfiguration of Charles Perrault's "Peau d'Ane" and a powerful contemporary fantasy that makes prominent the flawed family structures, especially the mutual narcissism of the heroine's parents, that underlie the sexual violence of the story. An examination of these destructive relationships in terms of Jacques Lacan's schemata demonstrates the aptness of McKinley's characterizations. This study also considers Deerskin in the context of tales of the Catskin type (AT 510B), as well as some questions of implied audience raised by the novel's fairy-tale background and its other fantastic elements.

TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS

The Two Merchants: Adapted from an Italian Folktale

Jack Zipes

This adaptation is based on a Neopolitan tale recorded and published in the late nineteenth century. Most interesting in this tale is the valorous role played by the youngest daughter of a family blessed with too many daughters and the way she outwits a king with cross-dressing and a magic puppy.

The Devil's Mother-in-Law

Cecilia Böhl de Faber / translated by Robert M. Fedorchek

This translation of "La suegra del diablo" presents a sample of the fairy-tale fiction by Cecilia Böhl de Faber, one of the great women writers of nineteenth-century Spain. The story belongs to her collection of Popular Andalusian Tales and Poems (1859), which was inspired by the oral tradition that forms the core of her stories.

The King's Son-in-Law

Antonio de Trueba / translated by Robert M. Fedorchek

This fairy tale from a nineteenth-century collection by Spanish folklorist and short-story writer Antonio de Trueba illustrates Trueba's systematic attempt to emulate the Brothers Grimm by giving written form to the oral tradition. Marked by humor, Trueba's tale of good and evil gives a political edge to its morality and happy end.

The Flower of Life

Jürgen Werner / translated by M. G. Hesse

This translation of a story by Jürgen Werner represents a form of the literary fairy tale popular in contemporary Germany. Included in the collection Traumsegel (1994), the idealistic story presents characters on the threshold of life and takes up the themes of beauty and its transitoriness, and the struggle to affirm individual independence and freedom.

Kublai Khan and the Sun Bird: A Fairy Tale

Shaena Lambert

Reminiscent of H. C. Andersen's "The Emperor and the Nightingale," this original literary fairy tale by the contemporary Canadian author Shaena Lambert is published here for the first time.

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