| This dissertation compares collections of fairy tales by male and female writers and editors. The collections compared are by Mme. d'Aulnoy and Charles Perrault who wrote contes de fees in late seventeenth-century France and by Joseph Jacobs and Flora Annie Steel who edited fairy tales in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century England. This research is based on two premises: that writers inscribe in fairy tales exemplary models of behavior to socialize children and adults into desired normative expectations, and that gender roles influence these expectations.; Selected tales are sorted according to father/daughter interaction into two groups: Stay-at-Home and Out-of-Home Daughters. The study focuses on these two patterns in courtship. The courtships of Stay-at-Homes occur within their homes and under the supervision of their fathers, while Out-of-Homes leave home and achieve some self-reliance before marrying. The two groups of tales describe contending frameworks of father-daughter relations operating within the patriarchal social system spatialized by Lynda Boose as "The Father's House and the Daughter In It."; In both pairs of writers, comparison substantiates that gender roles affect plots and/or characters. However, other factors mediate the influence of gender, such as historical circumstances, source materials from differing cultures (i.e., Celtic), socio-economic classes of writers and selected audiences, the writers' individual purposes, and interplay between the texts of male and female writers.; The study reveals some gender-related commonalities. Both female writers give greater attention to Out-of-Home Daughters whose filial defiance overturns paternal authority. The selections of the two male writers diverge on the placement of fairy-tale daughters: Perrault substantiates the social structure of "the father's house" by contriving more Stay-at-Home Daughters; Jacobs does the opposite by including more Out-of-Homes. The depiction of conflicting sex/gender systems might be viewed as the construction of different rooms within "the father's house."... |
