Dioramas of Girlhood: The Faerie Recast

Book excerpt: From the Cinderella who won the Prince to the Cinderella who rejects him, the fairy-tale heroine has journeyed long and hard through the rough and tumble of the cultural highway. From simple pliancy to subtle shades of desire and its complex expression, the fairy-tale heroine, and her co-habitant, the Witch, have found new panoramas of being. The postmodern plurality of voices finds an echo in the plurality of narrative possibility. Few works have so assiduously attempted to locate, situate and debate the fairy tale in the complex milieu of literary genres and cultural production. Sifting through the sands of time--from their classical, yet not apolitical origins-- to their fiercely political post-modern avatars, the book analyses some prominent fairy narratives against the most enduring themes of gender discourse—female identity, portrayal, sexuality, desire, heteronormativity, etc.