Heidi Anne Heiner's Blog, page 18

Newish Book: Fashion in the Fairy Tale Tradition: What Cinderella Wore by Rebecca-Anne C. Do Rozario

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Fashion in the Fairy Tale Tradition: What Cinderella Wore by Rebecca-Anne C. Do Rozario was released last year but I just discovered it myself. I've not seen more than the preview pages available online but what I've seen is very interesting!

Book Description:

Examines well-known fairy tales from the Grimm brothers and Perrault
Reveals a critical nexus of fairy tale and fashion that sheds light upon constructs of privilege with ramifications for class and gender studies of the genre
Covers early modern tales and the gradual decline of fashion-orientated fairy tales as well as identifing a resurgence in the twentieth century, when the stage and screen revived the glamour of fairy tale to appeal to the masses, culminating in the phenomenon of Disney princesses.

This book is a journey through the fairy-tale wardrobe, explaining how the mercurial nature of fashion has shaped and transformed the Western fairy-tale tradition. Many of fairy tale’s most iconic images are items of dress: the glass slippers, the red capes, the gowns shining like the sun, and the red shoes. The material cultures from which these items have been conjured reveal the histories of patronage, political intrigue, class privilege, and sexual politics behind the most famous fairy tales. The book not only reveals the sartorial truths behind Cinderella’s lost slippers, but reveals the networks of female power woven into fairy tale itself.

From a review of the book:

“This book seeks to investigate the role clothing and fashion plays in fairy tales and how fashion has actively shaped fairy-tale traditions, revealing the material cultures behind the most sartorial gestures. … The book is a useful addition to this expanding area of literature. It is well referenced and highlights a novel aspect of the fairy-tale tradition.” (B.C. Kennedy, Gramarye, Issue 14, 2018)

International Women's Day 2019 and Women in Folklore: Leonora Lang

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Hello dear readers,

I didn't want to miss acknowledging International Women's Day on the SurLaLune Blog today but my time is short. So this will be quick and sloppy. One of the many things I love about fairy tales and folklore is how much they represent women's voices over the centuries. I have spent thousands of hours reading folklore collections and studies over the years. During these experiences, I have been impressed over and over with how often the folklorists involved were women. My sloppiness is my lack of time to compile the list of so many women past and present whose work I value in the field.

I was raised by a strong woman who taught and gave me so much, especially a value for education and continued learning, which has fueled my passion for SurLaLune. March this year began with the news that my mother has terminal cancer. As I cope with the process of saying good-bye to her for now, I am even more aware than usual of those precious gifts and legacies she made possible for me. Another gift was her awareness of women's issues and acknowledging the challenges that come with being a woman past and present, too, on this earth.

As I work on SurLaLune projects, I am also reminded of the work of so many women who are lesser known, whose work I build upon in this field, and whose work I try to keep visible for others to discover and enjoy as they delve into reading fairy tales and folklore.

If time allows, I will share more names and work of some of those women this month and in the months to come. Many will have their work represented in the forthcoming SurLaLune Tales Database.

Today, on the quick and sloppy note, I wanted to highlight Leonora Blanche "Nora" Lang (née Alleyne), wife of Andrew Lang, whose work is often overshadowed by her husband's name. The Lang Colored Fairy Books are more her work than that of her accredited husband--something he freely stated in his introductions. If you want to read more about her, visit the Wikipedia entry devoted to her.

In his introduction to The Lilac Fairy Book, Andrew Lang writes:

The fairy books have been almost wholly the work of Mrs. Lang, who has translated and adapted them from the French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, and other languages.

The failure to put her name on the cover appears to be more marketing issues than not in this instance, still not acceptable in this day and age, and it shouldn't have been then. Her husband was famous. The publishers wanted his name on the cover and they did publish other books with her name on the cover. Which begs as to why they didn't add hers to the fairy books, too. But it is the past and we cannot change it.

However, when the SurLaLune Tales Database launches, I have decided to include Mrs. Lang's name in the bibliographic information for the fairy books and their respective tales. Those books have already been added and here is a screen shot of the decision I made last year on how to give some of the credit back to her for this series that has influenced countless people for many generations already.



Finally, to see my past posts about Women and Folklore just follow that link.

New Book: Gingerbread: A Novel by Helen Oyeyemi

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Gingerbread: A Novel by Helen Oyeyemi is a new book released this week. Oyeyemi is marketed more under literary fiction than genre fiction although she uses fairy tales to inspire her novels.

You can read an interview with Oyeyemi about the book on Vulture at Helen Oyeyemi at Gingerbread, Her Twist on Hansel and Gretel, and Reading Amazon Reviews.

Book description:

The prize-winning, bestselling author of Boy, Snow, Bird and What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours returns with a bewitching and imaginative novel.

Influenced by the mysterious place gingerbread holds in classic children's stories, beloved novelist Helen Oyeyemi invites readers into a delightful tale of a surprising family legacy, in which the inheritance is a recipe.

Perdita Lee may appear to be your average British schoolgirl; Harriet Lee may seem just a working mother trying to penetrate the school social hierarchy; but there are signs that they might not be as normal as they think they are. For one thing, they share a gold-painted, seventh-floor walk-up apartment with some surprisingly verbal vegetation. And then there's the gingerbread they make. Londoners may find themselves able to take or leave it, but it's very popular in Druhástrana, the far-away (or, according to many sources, non-existent) land of Harriet Lee's early youth. The world's truest lover of the Lee family gingerbread, however, is Harriet's charismatic childhood friend Gretel Kercheval —a figure who seems to have had a hand in everything (good or bad) that has happened to Harriet since they met.

Decades later, when teenaged Perdita sets out to find her mother's long-lost friend, it prompts a new telling of Harriet's story. As the book follows the Lees through encounters with jealousy, ambition, family grudges, work, wealth, and real estate, gingerbread seems to be the one thing that reliably holds a constant value. Endlessly surprising and satisfying, written with Helen Oyeyemi's inimitable style and imagination, it is a true feast for the reader.

Bremen Town Musicians by Krista Baumgaertel in Riga, Latvia

Nearly two years ago, I had the opportunity to go on a Baltic cruise with my husband and parents. I shared some of my adventures on the blog then, but then life distracted me again. I still have several treasures from the trip to share here. 
One of our ports of call was Riga, Latvia. There were other discoveries that day but this one merits its own post. A sighting of the Bremen Town Musicians near St Peter's Church in the Old Town. I had a few sightings of this tale on the trip as I recall, but this was a favorite.
As always, you can click on these images to see them larger. 

At the time, I didn't understand that this statue was politically inspired. I just thought it was another instance of affection for the tale--which it is--but deeper meaning was also intended here. After all, Riga was once behind the Iron Curtain. Here's what I discovered when I sought more information about the statue:

From the Live Riga site:

The political monument "Bremen Town Musicians" was created by Bremen artist Krista Baumgaertel. The sculpture is based on a fairy tail by the Brothers Grimm, but created with a political subtext as it was inspired by Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika. The sculpture, a gift from Riga's sister city Bremen, was made in 1990. It's a humorous approach towards previous political stereotypes. The bronze figures are not staring through the window at the robbers' feast at a table full of drinks and food; they are peering through the Iron Curtain on a completely new world where they had thought to find a bone or a piece of meat. Come see the musicians - an ironic view at sudden independence.

Fairy Tales in Advertising: Health Insurance in Brazil

I'm still always fascinated by the many ways fairy tales are used to promote products all over the world.

Here are two commercials created by Draftz, Brazil for Unimed Araçatuba for health insurance. Rapunzel and Snow White get happy endings earlier than expected with the help of some insurance cards. There is a third in the series that uses Romeo and Juliet but I decided I wouldn't include it here since that's not a fairy tale.

New Book: Workers' Tales: Socialist Fairy Tales, Fables, and Allegories from Great Britain

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Workers' Tales: Socialist Fairy Tales, Fables, and Allegories from Great Britain (Oddly Modern Fairy Tales) by Michael Rosen was released in late 2018. I just received a review copy in the last week which is how it came to my attention.

I love books that explore an unusual but fascinating theme for fairy tale studies. Collections like this show the universality of fairy tales and their adaptability, once again demonstrating why fairy tales and folklore are fascinating in general. The Oddly Modern Fairy Tales series continues to be a fascinating theme from Princeton University Press.

Book description:

A collection of political tales―first published in British workers’ magazines―selected and introduced by acclaimed critic and author Michael Rosen

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, unique tales inspired by traditional literary forms appeared frequently in socialist-leaning British periodicals, such as the Clarion, Labour Leader, and Social Democrat. Based on familiar genres―the fairy tale, fable, allegory, parable, and moral tale―and penned by a range of lesser-known and celebrated authors, including Schalom Asch, Charles Allen Clarke, Frederick James Gould, and William Morris, these stories were meant to entertain readers of all ages―and some challenged the conventional values promoted in children’s literature for the middle class. In Workers’ Tales, acclaimed critic and author Michael Rosen brings together more than forty of the best and most enduring examples of these stories in one beautiful volume.

Throughout, the tales in this collection exemplify themes and ideas related to work and the class system, sometimes in wish-fulfilling ways. In “Tom Hickathrift,” a little, poor person gets the better of a gigantic, wealthy one. In “The Man Without a Heart,” a man learns about the value of basic labor after testing out more privileged lives. And in “The Political Economist and the Flowers,” two contrasting gardeners highlight the cold heart of Darwinian competition. Rosen’s informative introduction describes how such tales advocated for contemporary progressive causes and countered the dominant celebration of Britain’s imperial values. The book includes archival illustrations, biographical notes about the writers, and details about the periodicals where the tales first appeared.

Provocative and enlightening, Workers’ Tales presents voices of resistance that are more relevant than ever before.

New Book: Cendrillon illustrated by Anna Griot

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Cendrillon de Anna Griot (Illustrations) et Charles Perrault (Avec la contribution de) was released this month in France. It's not readily available in the United States. It is such a different take on the tale while still attributing it to Perrault that I wanted to be sure to share it here. It is set in New York and the heroine is decidedly not blonde. You can click on the images to see them a little larger. The fairy godmother particularly fascinates me, too.

Here are images from Anna Griot's website:

How Do You Use the SurLaLune Site?

My question for you is--especially if you are an educator that uses the SurLaLune Fairy Tales site--what pages are important to you? 

The SurLaLune Fairy Tales site turned 20 years old this past December. It has been lying fallow for about two years as I have been pulled in several directions both personal and business. SurLaLune is not how I support myself. I am lucky that I can pretty much call it self-sustaining, but that's it, and all of my work on it is pretty much in the status of "voluntary." So if I have to step away so I can pay bills, I do. I wish it sustained me, but as many authors know, that would put me firmly at poverty level of living. All the same, SurLaLune is my passion and I plan for it to live at least as long as I do.

Behind the scenes, during the past year, the site has been going through a redesign that if all goes well will launch in the next month or so. It was supposed to happen end of 2018 but I lost my primary developer and have been recovering ever since.

For a preview, the Annotated Cinderella page is going to look like this (click on the image to see it larger):

Instead of this:

The site will be mobile responsive. It will be modernized. It will have somewhat different navigation and features. Some will come with the new launch. Some will hopefully comes in the months to come.
This also means some areas will be going away. My question for you is--especially if you are an educator that uses the site--what pages are important to you? 
Please comment here, Tweet, email, whatever and let me know how the site is used in your classroom. And please don't expect direct replies from me, especially if the overall response is large enough. I am going to read every response and take it all into consideration but being only me, with lots on my plate, I am going to spend more of the time trying to figure out how to get the site launched and still the most viable for its visitors. With thousands of pages on the site, it is impossible to recode all of them. I plan to archive the current site online in some way but it will not be readily promoted. I hope the new site will fulfill most needs.
And on that note, the new feature will be a Folklore tales database--the site will launch with over 5,000 tales in a database that will have classifications by ATU Classification, Author, Country of Origin, Title, etc. More on that in future days since I am debating volunteer work to help grow the database into at least 10,000 tales. 
And yes, the 49 Annotated Tales are not going away. The Illustration Galleries are on the brink of the chopping block for more reasons than I can enumerate here today. But the rest of the Annotated sections will be intact. So will the Introductory section.

Thanks for the feedback ahead of time! 

New Book: Snow White Learns Witchcraft: Stories and Poems by Theodora Goss

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Snow White Learns Witchcraft: Stories and Poems by Theodora Goss was released this month. It is getting great reviews including at The New York Times.

Book description:

A young woman hunts for her wayward shadow at the school where she first learned magic--while another faces a test she never studied for as ice envelopes the world. The tasks assigned a bookish boy lead him to fateful encounters with lizards, owls, trolls and a feisty, sarcastic cat. A bear wedding is cause for celebration, the spinning wheel and the tower in the briar hedge get to tell their own stories, and a kitchenmaid finds out that a lost princess is more than she seems. The sea witch reveals what she hoped to gain when she took the mermaid's voice. A wiser Snow White sets out to craft herself a new tale.

In these eight stories and twenty-three poems, World Fantasy Award winner Theodora Goss retells and recasts fairy tales by Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Oscar Wilde. Sometimes harrowing, sometimes hilarious, always lyrical, the works gathered in Snow White Learns Witchcraft re-center and empower the women at the heart of these timeless narratives.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master Jane Yolen, in her introduction, proclaims that Goss "transposes, transforms, and transcends times, eras, and old tales with ease. But also there is a core of tough magic that runs through all her pieces like a river through Faerie . . . I am ready to reread some of my new favorites."

Newish Book: Inside the Villains by Clotilde Perrin

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Inside the Villains by Clotilde Perrin was published in September 2018 in the United States and the UK in English translation of the original French edition of À l'intérieur des méchants published in 2016. I got to peruse it in a small independent bookstore and was intrigued by it. There are not many pages, just three spreads devoted to the Wolf, Giant, and Witch. But this is an interactive book where you lift flaps, explore the text, and find surprises. It's not technically a pop-up book but it fits in the general category that way.

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The book has a very French sensibility and some elements may be deemed too disturbing for some kids by some parents while others will adore it. There are kids in my life I would show this to without qualms and others will be waiting a few years.

The grotesque is accepted just a little bit more for French kids in their published literature in my experience. After all, France still embraces Donkeyskin, too, yay for them. From what I can see from the online images of the French version, the English translation is pretty literal of the original. But even the French reader reviews have a few warnings of the book being not suitable for the youngest kids. So I'm not trying to stereotype too much here either. Let's just say I was not surprised to see that this was a book in translation after my experiences with international fairy tale publishing...

Book description:

An extraordinary lift-the-flaps book that reveals the secrets of the most famous fairy-tale villains--the giant, the wolf and the witch--with interactive flaps, a twist on well-known tales, and personality cards for each villain. Lift the flaps to see the diabolical thoughts inside the villains' heads, what hides beneath their disguises, or the victims of their last meals (now comfortably settled inside their stomachs!).

Read all about each villain on their personality card, which shows strengths and weaknesses, pastimes, physical characteristics, their best meal and--of course--their favorite books.

And if the wolf bites your fingers while you're reading, you can always pull his tail...

In France, there is also the companion book, A l'intérieur des gentils published in 2017. It has not been translated into English. See a few pages from it at Seuil Jeunesse.

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For online viewing, a video is a better way to comprehend the book. So I am sharing this video from Gecko Press which shows the French text and the book "in action":