Women Writing And Fairy Tale

Around the turn of the 18th century, British women writers entered the history of literature which was previously dominated by male discourse. Soon in the Victoria Age, a new chapter of female writing was initiated by "a group of brilliant fictionists" .Fairy tales spread their roots in the folk and it is until the European Enlightenment Movement, conscious composition of fairy tales began to emerge. In the process of fairy tale becoming a special genre, female writers had their contribution.Compare Victoria women writings and fairy tales, some common features are found. Living at the edge of the society, women and children share the identity of the helpless, hence the former naturally becomes the speaker of the latter, and later the bearer and disseminator of fairy tales. The thesis thereby tries to interpret female writings through the pattern of fairy tales, in the effort it may come back to explain how women writers have influenced the genre of fairy tales."Literature and Folklore" as a basic perspective, the thesis explores the 19th century women writings in views of theme, motif, construction pattern and aesthetic style in order that the fairytale feature in women writings might be disclosed. By tracing the long history of female writings and fairy tales, and by comparing their respective narrative patterns and imagination mode, the thesis concludes that female writings and fairy tales share not only a surface comparability, but also a deep and profound homogeneity.The thesis is composed of eight chapters. Chapter One discusses female writings through their writing environment and living condition. Though at the edge of the society, women writers present us with rich and colorful portraits of daily life, and therefore gain their subjectivity in fictional discourse. Female criticism values the constructing process of female discourse, which is winning evermore attention in literary study. Aiming at a central position from the edge of the society, female writers have cumulated a lot of experience, from compelled "aphasias" to initiative construction, from written objects to writing subjects. And finally they express themselves as the narrative subjects all along the writing history.Chapter Two is about the origination, the evolvement and the development of the mode of fairy tales. At the beginning, fairy tales are not only created by the adults but also read by them. Fairy tales have their roots in the folk and the elements of the stories are embodied in fables, legends and myths. While, partly due to the misunderstanding of the fairy tale, partly due to the unintentional narrative strategies of the intellectuals, fairy tale gradually become a genre of its own, which symbolizes the influential discovery of "childhood" . Put briefly, the discoveries of "childhood" and "woman being human" happen simultaneously and establish the base for comparing women writings and fairy tales.Chapter Three points out that the rising of fairy tales witnesses the initial period that women get their social discourse and social identity. Using the origin logical theory of literature, this part analyzes the isomorphic characters shared by female writings and fairy tales. In the process of women writing becoming conscious, we find the budding and rising of fairy tales.Chapter Four focuses on the narrative pattern of women writing. By studying the regeneration setting, here the salon, it suggests that women writings and fairy tales possess a common place, where their authors can voice out their personal feelings by using the daily dialogue. It is in this sense that the multi-analysis method is encouraged in comparing these two genres.Chapter Five is a thematic study. "The fairy-tale-hearted female discourse" is discussed through different themes, i.e. the pursuit of the Cinderella, the wrestle between good and evil. In both women writings and fairy tales, dualism is a common feature and gothic atmosphere is most often seen and the motif of love is the everlasting theme.Chapter Six writes from the angle of textual structure in the effort to shape the fairytale morphology of female writings. In this chapter, the morphological method of Prop and the archetypal theory of Frye are adopted. Chapter Seven describes the aesthetic feature of women writings. In view of "truth, goodness and beauty" , we find these artistic features echo in the form of "reason, wisdom and emotion" in daily life. Hence an autobiographical poetic character can be traced in both women writings and fairy tales.Chapter Eight is titled "the fairy-tale-strategy in women writing" and points out that women writers of Victoria Age has escaped the spell of male discourse through their own practice of writing. By developing their sibling friendship, women writers cleverly yet gingerly adopt the substitute strategy of self-construction and consciously or unconsciously, they retell and reshape the fairy tales via symbolistic method of story telling.