Fairy Tale Queens: Representations of Early Modern Queenship

Queenship and Power

by Jo Eldridge Carney

Most of today's familiar fairy tales come from the stories of Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen, but this innovative study encourages us to explore the marvelous tales of authors from the early modern period Giovanni Straparola, Giambattista Basile, Madame Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy, and others whose works enrich and expand the canon. As author Jo Eldridge Carney shows, the queen is omnipresent in these stories, as much a hallmark of the genre as other familiar characteristics such as the number three, magical objects, and happy endings. That queens occupy such space in early modern tales is not surprising given the profound influence of so many powerful queens in the political landscapes of early modern England and Europe. Carney makes a powerful argument for the historical relevance of fairy tales and, by exploring the dynamic intersection between fictional and actual queens, shows how history and folk literature mutually enrich our understanding of the period.

Genres: Nonfiction

252 pages, Hardcover

First published September 14, 2012

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crossposted at Booklikes.


Fairy Tale Queen is the type of critical book that you enjoy, yet you want more of. The thesis of this mostly excellent book is that early modern queens are influence by cultural aspects that appear surrounding queens in fairy tales.

Now, the thing I found most annoying is that many of the observations can be applied to any type of literature that appears in the Renaissance. Additionally, I would have liked to see more of a connection between historical figures such as Elizabeth I and actually fairy tale literature.

That said, there is much to like. The section about pregnancy, in particular how pregnancy in fairy tales reflected the need for offspring with queens, was rather interesting. The idea that a queen in a fairy tale who gets pregnant while alone in a garden without her husband being present as tied into the sexual promiscuity, or believed promiscuity, of real queens such as Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard was thoughtful and rather enlightening.

The best bit was about the use of Elizabeth I’s nicknames and how they tied into literature.

[Brittany Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It started off strong. I especially enjoyed the chapter about monstorous children. However, it got weaker and added onto that was the enforcement of rape culture.