These articles seemed particularly interesting in looking at the way in which narratives and fiction if they have really evolved at all other than just superficially and how they are exploited in new contextual environments, being reworked and recycled since the Bronze Age and possibly beyond.
“fairy stories they popularised were rooted in a shared cultural history dating back to the birth of the Indo-European language family”
“The new method of mapping the stories through common languages and geographical proximity worked, ‘because in oral tradition, folk tales are transmitted through spoken language, so a correlation might be expected; and also because both languages and folk tales are transmitted from generation to generation.”
“the motifs present in fairytales are timeless and fairly universal, comprising dichotomies such as good and evil; right and wrong, punishment and reward, moral and immoral, male and female,’ she added. ‘Ultimately, despite being often disregarded as fictitious, and even as a lesser form of narrative, folk tales are excellent case studies for cross-cultural comparisons and studies on human behaviour, including cooperation, decision making, [and so on].”
But again, who are these dichotomies addressing and why are they still pressing a particularly hegemonic, straight, white, patriarchal message? Its particularly interesting that these perpetuated dichotomies of dangerous female agency and animalistic desires and the ultimate ‘happy ending’ of a beautiful girl being married to a rich and masterful prince, to name but a few, transcend cultural and linguistic boundaries. Similar stories, no matter the culture or society, are repeated again and again, slightly varied, but deep down exceptionally similar at heart. We didn’t need a globalised world in order for these narratives to spread parasitically as part of all cultures, recognisable to some extent almost anywhere. Thousands of years of indoctrination and recycling of these narratives has infected the cultural and societal consciousness without us questioning why these stories are comforting, a good guide for us or somehow deeply nostalgic and why we should aspire to these codes and beliefs without a second thought as to why or who they were construced by.
“Beauty and the Beast, or The Animal Bride, shows a similar kind of imagining, she added. ‘It’s making sense of our relationship with the natural world – eliminating the threat. A beast figure marries a woman, and then the stories take different turns; in one she kills him, in one she finds he turns into a man when she kisses him.”
Why is the natural world and a wild, untamed view of sexuality and freedom expressed as something which needs to be controlled, contained or destroyed. Most versions of the story end in either this symbolic wild entity being transformed or destroyed Only in works such as that of Angela Carter’s The Tiger’s Bride or The Courtship of Mr Lyon are these transformations subverted and channeled into a different dichotomy of embracing wild and bestial desires and actions and being able to find how to challenge them in a balanced and independently strong way for both men and women.
Whilst the Independent article suggests that designers and companies are embracing the ‘darker’ side of these fairy tales in looking at concepts of metamorphosis and subversion, these seem entirely superficial. In playing on these stories and failing to engage in the fact that the commodification of these stories and using their ‘dark and mysterious’ histories and underlying themes simply as a nostalgic aesthetic selling point is undermining the repressive societal narratives that are constantly being played out in their stories. For example, by embracing the hoods and petticoats of the Disney-fied fairytale iconography we are failing to address the symbolic control and shielding of female agency and sexuality through the use of engaging in complex narratives which are over-simplified and pushed as another hegemonic ideology. Fairy tales used simply as an ‘enchanting’ nostalgic selling point simply pander to the reinvention of these narratives in a new context without addressing the ancient ideals which they are constructed on, simple divergent morals are the very basic format on which they thrive, but these ‘divergent morals’ need to be questioned as to what they reinforce as deviant and whom for. Aestheticising them is just providing a new environment and language for them to continue being perpetuated.
Rebecca Elysium 