Disenchanting the Enchanted A Postmodern Reading of Select Retold Fairytales

Abstract

Fairytale is one of the literary genres that play a significant role in shaping our perspective towards life and its meaning. Keeping in tandem the shifting paradigms and cultural context, the genre evolved into multiple variants. Despite its evolvement reflecting the changing trend, it always retained its distinct narrative patterns, restrictive tropes and fixed narrative style. This eventually led to the resonance of grandnarrative ideology that exerted an influential perspective and restrictive knowledge towards life and other crucial function concerning human society. newlineOn the contrary, the retold fairytales innovatively reconstructed the traditional genre that idealizes pragmatic approach and revolutionary insight. The works chosen for the study are Angela Carter s The Bloody Chamber (1979), Tanith Lee s Red as Blood: Tales of the Sisters Grimmer (1983), Robert Coover s Briar Rose (1996), Emma Donoghue s Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skin (1997) and Michael Cunningham s A Wild Swan and other Stories (2015). Advocating a postmodern reading, the study elucidates the ways the retold fairytale narrative deconstructs and reconstructs the traditional configurations to reflect contemporary sensibility. In doing so, the study explores structural, mythical and ideological facets of the genre exclusively in each chapter. Chapter II featuring the structural aspect focuses on the various postmodern strategies used by the retold fairytales in subverting the restrictive functions of the physical and narrative properties of the genre. Chapter III dealing with the mythical aspect elucidates various contributing factors that lead to mythicization of fairytale genre counterpoised with postmodern strategies that de-mythologize the contrived patterns. Chapter IV exploring the ideological aspect explicates the concept of truth and its contemporary significance and the role of the retold fairytales in invalidating the grandnarrative stand by exposing its artificial constructedness. The study through the select retold fairytal