This was a 4 hour immersion in Fairy Tale.
Beginning
with a paper from Rebecca-Anne Do Rozario who was dressed like Puss in Boots,
we were informed that Puss in Boots was originally female! With an
interest in contemporary fairy tales, including novels, comics and animated
features, Rebecca-Anne is also researching the female fairy tale writers of France under
Louis XIV. And this was her focus at the salon. The presentation drew our
attention to the culture of the French Court and the tales of Charles Perrault
and Marie Catherine D’Aulnoy. Rebecca-Anne alerted us to the technology and
fashion that is referenced in the tales – like shoes and large mirrors. Less
familiar 17th century French creators of fairy tale were discussed:
Catherine Bernard, Marie-Jeanne L'Heritier and Henriette-Julie de Murat. The tale of Cinderella and variants were
explored and now I urge you all to google these names and search for ‘Finette' and the tale of The Discreet Princess.
Sarah Kelly’s paper: Tale as Old as Time: Examining
the Enduring Popularity of Beauty and the Beast. With an interest in Irish
mythology and feminism, Sarah posed the question of the relevance of the Beauty
and Beast tales and encouraged us to go back and read the original by Jeanne
Marie Leprince de Beaumont. She asked us to consider the myths
of Cupid and Psyche, to read Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and to watch the Disney animated version with an
open mind. Can fairy tales be a space for discussing feminine issues?
To close the first half, three students and teachers
of fairy tale, Belinda Calderone, Rebecca-Anne Do Rozario and Weibke Eikholt, fielded a discussion with the audience.
Afternoon tea
Jay Peterson from the Spinners and Weavers Guild
drew us back into the story space with a spinning demonstration – using both a
spindle and spinning wheel. Sleeping Beauty was pricked with a spindle (well in
another she was pierced by a piece of flax). As so many tales reference
spinning, Jay’s contribution was a marvelous and informative addition to the
program.
Vic teller, Suzanne Sandow, followed
with the marvelous and creepy tale of Mr
Fox credited to have been first anthologized by the English folklorist,
Joseph Jacobs
Reilly McCarron, musician and folklore student, took
us into the story of Sleeping Beauty,
comparing the Grimm and Perrault versions, the variations in plot and character
and alerting us to the gender changes. What happened to all those heroines?
Reilly told a version of the tale that would have been unfamiliar to many in
the room. The prince took advantage of the Sleeping Princess, she became
pregnant and even gave birth and all the while she did not wake … not until the
newborn mistook her finger for a nipple and by chance sucked the flax splinter
from under her skin …
Belinda Calderone completed the Salon with her
paper: Between Fantasy and Reality: Fairy Tales and Early Modern Cheap Print.
Her focus was on motherhood in fairy tales, the fascination and fear of what
can go wrong – the collapsing of boundaries between the animal and human. The
Modern Era is described as the period between the 1500 – 1800s. Belinda’s
studies compare sensational articles of strange monstrous births in broadsheets
and pamphlets from this era, with similar phenomena in fairytale. She suggested
reading Babiole by Marie Catherine D’Aulnoy.
A
long post for this blog indeed! But this was a rich and wonderful afternoon and
there is much to share with those of you who could not be there. I hope I got
it right – my notes are a scribble!
Have fun googling those beautiful French names.
