Hansel and Gretel (and other stories of Cannibalism)

The folk tale of Hansel and Gretel revolves around the contant fear of starvation experienced by peasants at the time of this story's creation.  This story conforms with the social problem of famine and the self-centered attitude of Hansel and Gretel's parents.  Wilhelm Grimm changed the maternal presence to a stepmother because he couldn't bear to pen a story where a biological mother would sacrifice her own children so that she could survive.  Most of the variations allow the father to be rehabilitated, while his maternal counterpart retains her sense of selfishness and cruelty. 

Hansel and Gretel and The Juniper Tree (aka My Mother Slew Me; My Father Ate Me) "give us high melodrama - abandonment, treachery, betrayal, and joyous reunions" Mollie Whuppie and Tom Thumb "offer comic relief in the form of spunky adventurers who use their wits to turn the tables on adversaries with daunting powers." (pg. 183)  I loved the story of Little Thumbling because it allowed the weakest, most sickly child to overcome his disabilities and save the remaining six children.  The main character used his brains to outwit the Ogre, who inadvertently kills HIS daughters rather than the boys.

Now, to the readings that described the various "Posts".  It did clarify "Postmodernism" and made "Postcolonialism" easy to understand, yet I am still confused on "Poststructuralism".  According to "The Bedford Glossary", the goal of poststructuralist theorists "is to understand what controls interpretation and meaning in all possible systems of signification." (pg. 402)  What exactly does that mean?  And how does it differ from Structuralism?

Anyway, I really enjoyed learning about Postcolonialism and how it developed.

My "Has-Been Life" in 1850.

I start this blog saying "has-been", because at my current age (45), I would have already given birth to seven or eight children, losing one or two to disease or accident (the infant mortality rate in 1850 was 22%).  I probably wouldn't even be around, as the average age for a woman in 1850 was 39.5 years of age.  So...if I'm still around, I'm living in a state in its infancy (Texas became a state in 1845), and I'm probably teaching my grandchildren how to sew and preserve food.  I will never have the experience of using a sewing machine, riding a bicycle, or learning the conveniences of plastic, as these were all invented after 1850.  My skirts will continue to widen at the bottom with with invention of the crinoline (just look at prom pics from the 1980s and you'll know what I'm talking about), and I'll fret over my grandchildren migrating to the big cities to work in the new industries being developed thanks to the combustible engine. 


I will have never worked outside the home, nor would I have wanted to.  My children and grandchildren will possess this desire thanks to women role models like Florence Nightengale. 

A Perfect World

Here is my list.  I can't help but think that we should leave the world alone.  God made it this way, and allows the problems to persist for a reason.  Anytime you change things, there are going to be implications.

1. The world would be void of greed and malice. Theft and war would no longer prevail.

2. All environments, both land and sea, would become sustainable, providing enough food for the masses.

3. There would be no such thing as a communicable disease.
 
4. A cure for cancer would become accessible to all.

5. There would be no such thing as pollutants. Every substance manufactured would have a secondary use after the first use is depleted.

Cinderelly Cinderelly

Can you believe these fairy tales?  They're more like B-rated horror movies!  Maybe that's where the twisted authors of those movies got their ideas.  However, it's the German, Indonesian, and Filipino versions that are perverse, while the American version makes Cinderella bend over like a wet noodle.  If children nowadays read these tales, they'd threaten harry-karry at the thought of their fathers remarrying.  For all the versions are driven by the jealousy displayed either by the biological mother or the stepmother.  From
Yeh-hsien's magical fish, to the unorthodox attire in Donkeyskin and Catskin, the underlying message remains the same:  goodness prevails over evil. 

Literary Theory:  Chapter 8
I found the most profound writing in Chapter 8, especially under the subtitle "Theory".  This summation has clarified the purpose of theory, stating:
      Theory, then, offers not a set of solutions but the prospect of further thought.  It calls for
      commitment to the work of reading, of challenging presuppositions, of questioning the
      assumptions on which you proceed.
This goes back to Rule #1 - EVERYTHING IS SUSPECT.

Theory Toolbox:  Chapter 7
Entitled "History," this chapter emphasized the fact that history is an inpretation of past facts.  History is not an unbiased account of an event, as many would like to believe.  It can be said that "history narrates the lives of the victorious and powerful from their prospective, whereas literature tends to side with the vanquished and powerless" (p. 105). 

This has been an interesting week for readings, and look forward to watching the "G" rated version of Cinderella.

J.L. Austin and Judith Butler

Performative Utterances vs. Constative Utterances

J.L. Austin describes performative utterances as utterances that actually perform the action to which they refer. Constative utterances make a statement, describe a state of affairs, and are true or false. Constative utterances also perform actions – actions of stating, affirming, and describing. An example of a performative utterance is “I promise to pay you.” An example of constative utterance is “George promised to come.”


The literary utterance does not refer to a prior state of affairs and is not true or false. The literary utterance:
1. Brings into being characters and their actions, and
2. Bring into being ideas and concepts which they deploy.

Judith Butler’s Performatives

American philosopher Judith Butler spearheaded the emergence of a ‘performative theory of gender and sexuality’ in feminist theory and in gay and lesbian studies.


I found it interesting that the avant-garde have adopted the name ‘Queer Theory’ to represent works in cultural theory that are linked with political movements for gay liberation. This is ironic, since the word ‘queer’ was deemed as such a derogative term that it was almost considered taboo.


Butler proposes that we consider gender as performative, meaning that it is not was one is, but what one does (your gender is created by your acts).
 This chapter in Literary Theory presented many new ideas. I’m still trying to comprehend why feminism, lesbianism, and any other –ism relating to gender and sexual preference can’t be consolidated into one category. It seems that everyone wants to have their little “niche” and none of the experts wants to be associated with the other experts claiming some sort of sexual expertise.

Snow White, Lisa, and Lasair Gheug

“Snow White” has variations ranging from family-oriented (Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) to macabre, Giambattista Basile’s “The Young Slave”. Yet every version shares the same core: origin, jealousy, expulsion, adoption, renewed jealousy, death, exhibition, resuscitation, and resolution.
The overtly common theme is the conflict between (step)mother/daughter. Some have described it as a feminine Oedipus complex. The evil stepmother cannot bear the thought that Snow White is more beautiful than she. Most versions banned Snow White to the forest, yet in “The Young Slave” the Baroness dressed her niece in rags, cut off her hair, and beat her daily. This version also varied in that the niece was not the product of a loving mother and father, but a fatherless child borne from a rose leaf that the mother ingested. The niece’s morbid threats of suicide made her unpleasing to me, and it wasn’t some handsome prince that releases her from slavery. Her uncle overhears her telling the story of life to a doll, and insists that she repeat it. The prince is nonexistent, and a handsome husband is mentioned only once at the end of the story.
The Brothers Grimm version, entitled “Snow White” is where the famous phrase is first used:
“Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who’s the fairest one of all?”
The evil Queen, who was Snow White’s stepmother, envied Snow White’s beauty so much that one day she ordered a huntsman to take Snow White out into the woods, kill her, and bring back her lungs and liver. The huntsman had pity, let Snow White live, and brought back the lungs and liver from a boar. This rendition is the first to mention the seven dwarfs and their affection for Snow White. In the end, the Queen dies at Snow White’s wedding by being forced to wear red hot iron shoes and dancing. Anne Sexton’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” mirrors the Brothers Grimm story in content, yet Sexton chose to retell the story in poetic form.
“Lasair Gheug, the King of Ireland’s Daughter” is the Scottish Gaelic version, placing manipulation and murder in the hands of the stepmother. Eventually, she feigns illness and tells the King (her husband) that the only way she will recover is if he brings her the heart and liver of his daughter. The King acts as if he is going to follow through, yet hides his daughter and gave his wife the heart and liver of a pig. The King sends his daughter off into the forest, where she meets and marries a Prince. Her stepmother discovers that Snow White is still alive and places a curse on her, thinking that she is dead. Snow white is enshrined in an iron casket, and her widower remarried. The new wife breaks the curse and Snow White comes back to life. Snow White’s father discovers the truth and the evil stepmother is burned to death. Snow White’s father takes the Prince’s second wife as his own. This is by far the most complicated version, and the idea that this was told in 1891 is incredulous.

Little Red Riding Hood

In The Classic Fairy Tales edited by Maria Tatar the variations of the popular story, “Little Red Riding Hood” are astounding. They ranged from “G” rated to almost “Adult Only” content, changing the whole purpose of the story.
The most shocking variation was told by Louis and François Briffault in 1885. Titled “The Story of Grandmother”, the wolf mercilessly kills the grandmother, placing some of her flesh in the pantry and a bottle of her blood on the shelf. When the girl arrives, she eats the meat and drinks the “wine” at the wolf’s urging. A cat in the room says, “You’re a slut if you eat the flesh and drink the blood of granny.” The wolf then orders the girl to undress and climb into bed with him. After realizing the true identity of the wolf, the girl convinces him to let her go outside to urinate. He ties a rope around leg, which she ties to a plum tree once outside. The wolf begins to question the girl about her bodily functions, then realizes that the girl escaped. This story would be horrifying to a young child of modern times.
Charles Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood” ends with both the grandmother and girl eaten by the wolf, however the story outlines moral objectives:
     1) Little girls should not listen to just anyone.
     2) Don’t talk to wolves, even the nice ones, because they are the most dangerous.

The Brothers Grimm tell the story of “Little Red Cap” which chronicles the origin of the girl’s red cap and provides an alternate ending to the story. The first piece has the girl become preoccupied with the wildflowers, allowing the wolf to beat her to grandmother’s. The wolf eats both of them, then falls asleep. A hunter hears the loud snoring and enters to investigate. He cuts the wolf’s stomach open, saving the grandmother and girl. The second story has the girl going directly to grandmother’s, telling her of the wolf, then locking the door behind them. The wolf tries to get in, but ends up drowning in the trough filled with sausage water.
The most comical rendition was James Thurber’s “The Little Girl and the Wolf”. The girl immediately realizes that the figure in bed is not her grandmother, “for even in a nightcap a wolf does not look any more like your grandmother than the Metro-Goldwyn lion looks like Calvin Coolidge.” The girl shoots the wolf.
I enjoyed all the variations, but especially enjoyed the story as told by the Brothers Grimm. It provided back story into the hood, and gave two happy endings.