Reimagining possibilities for fairy tales is in part accomplished through the structural reliance on
fairy-tale fragments instead of whole tales.
In her study, Duggan combines film theory and queer theory, as well as
fairy-tale studies, to underscore the "queerness" of Demy's films against a socio-cultural backdrop of postwar France in the 1950s and '60s, where heterosexuality and consumerism were promulgated as ideal social norms.
Divided into an intriguing introduction, four elaborately structured and styled chapters, and a compelling epilogue, the book highlights interwoven-and-yet-divergent social projects envisioned and instigated by
fairy-tale adaptations circulating in modern popular culture.
At the same time, however, it struggles to define the
fairy-tale world and the ordering of significant events in the novel clearly.
However, far from providing simplistic, happily-ever-after solutions in Hawthorne's fiction,
fairy-tale imagery, allusions, and narrative structures complicate our reading.
Fantasy and
fairy-tale lovers should enjoy this story.
Although she has made a name for herself with her novels, some of which have been published in the United States, it is in the modern
fairy-tale genre that she finds herself at home and excels as a storyteller.
But that doesn't mean the man didn't sometimes break free of his own
fairy-tale curse.
The first text Hans Christian Andersen called a ``fairy-tale'' was The Diving Bell: A
Fairy-tale from the Bottom of the Ocean, which appeared in 1827 in Johan Ludvig Heiberg's literary magazine KjAbenhavns flyvende Post.
Dasgupta's stories, however, diverge from those of Chaucer in adopting the
fairy-tale genre to enliven the narrative.
A second Italian writer, Giambattista Basile (1575-1632), further nourished the European
fairy-tale tradition by creating fifty stories, which brought scores of plots (including 'Rapunzel' and 'Cinderella') and magical motifs from ancient sources into the modern Italian and northern European tradition.
Bruno Bettelheim's essay, "The Struggle for Meaning" (376-391) appears to build, to some extent, on Max Luthi's essay "The
Fairy-Tale Hero: The Image of Man in the Fairy Tale" (365-376).
Chapter 5, "The Disenchantment of Power: Kings and Courtiers," views the incompetent kings of Basile's fables as veiled parodies of Spanish viceroys, and interprets
fairy-tale courtiers as reflecting Basile's checkered career.