Postmodern Fairy Tales: Gender and Narrative Strategies by Cristina Bacchilega (review)

Book Reviews61 CRISTINA BACCHILEGA. Postmodern Fairy Tales: Gender and Narrative Strategies. Philadelphia: University ofPennsylvania Press, 1997. 208p. Ocholars of children's literature who may think Cristina Bacchilega's new book, Postmodern Fairy Tales, is a critical work that belongs on their bookshelves will initially be disappointed. Although she briefly mentions children's versions and revisions offairy tales (mainly those associated with Disney), Bacchilega's study concentrates on "postmodern wonders for adults which feature women characters, reflect on their homosocial and heterosexual tasks in a patriarchal world, and resist and transform their naturalized images" (143). Bacchilega's examination of print and film versions of"contemporary transformations offairy tales" (3), by authors such as Angela Carter, Robert Coover, and Margaret Atwood, leads this reader to warn: these are not your children's fairy tales. Bacchilega's book is comprised of five main chapters and an epilogue. Chapter One, "Performing Wonders: Postmodern Revisions of Fairy Tales," introduces Bacchilega's topic in relation to other critical studies in folklore, and outlines her objective of marrying critical narratology and "féminine" deconstruction in order to "unmask naturalizing gender-constructions" ( 19) in postmodern tales ofwonder. In Chapter Two, "The Framing of Snow White: Narrative and Gender (Re)Production," as in each ofthe remaining chapters, Bacchilega begins by reintroducing the reader to several classical versions ofthe fairy tale before she moves on to the postmodern revisions. Bacchilega then examines Angela Carter's "The Snow Child" and Robert Coover's "The Dead Queen," as well as Donald Barthelme's 1967 novel Snow White, to show how these "postmodern fairy tales seek to expose [the fairy tale's] generic and gendered 'lie' or artifice" (35). Little Red Riding Hood is the subject ofChapter Three: "Not Re(a)d Once and ForAll: Little Red Riding Hood's Voices in Performance." In this chapter, Bacchilega examines how Angela Carter's three "women-in-the-company-ofwolves " stories try to expose "the fairy tale's complicity with 'exhausted' narrative and gendered ideologies" and using these multiple versions to show "what the institutionalization of such tales for children has forgotten or left unexploited" (50). Chapter Four, "In the Eye ofthe Beholder: Where is the Beast?," takes a look at gender in narrative strategies in contemporary revisions of"Beauty and the Beast." Among other revisions, Bacchilega focuses her attention on the 1980s television series Beauty and the Beast. Although this version fits well with her thesis, the problem with her particular reading is that it does not consider all the factors that contribute to the narrative of serials of this type. Producers, sponsors, and even audiences have almost as much say in story development as the writers do. More importantly, this may be one of the only mediums where the actors themselves determine narrative. For example, Bacchilega seems to be making the case that Catherine's ultimate 62Rocky Mountain Review purpose is to bring about Vincent's transformation from Beast to Beauty with the birth of his son, and once she accomplishes this she must die (84). Of course, Catherine did not die because the writers decided it was time to feminize the monster; she was killed offbecause Linda Hamilton decided it was time to leave the show. The 1993 movie The Piano, and Margaret Atwood's "Bluebird's Egg," are just two of the many revisions of the "Bluebeard" fairy tale that appear in Chapter Five: "Be Bold, Be Bold, But Not Too Bold: Double Agents and Bluebeard's Plot." Here Bacchilega addresses the question ofthe "Bluebeard" story's "initiation value . . . for women today, and what its simultaneous doubling and duality signify in terms of sexual politics" (113). My only problem with Postmodern Fairy Tales is the overabundance of notes (over 40 pages). For example, there are fifteen notes between pages 110 and 111—eight in one paragraph. (To make matters worse, there are two major errors in the note section pertaining to the pages notes occur on. The first is on page 160: "Notes to Pages 53-60," should read "Notes to Pages 58-60."The second occurs on page 186: "Notes to Pages 126-127," should read "Notes to Pages 126-129.") Admittedly, there are many things to be learned from...