Rescuing the Princess: Challenging Gender Ideologies Through Revisionary Parody
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Rescuing the Princess: Challenging Gender Ideologies Through Revisionary Parody by Ranika Singh, BA (Hons) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Arts and Education School of Communication and Creative Arts Deakin University January 2019 Acknowledgements Firstly, I’d like to thank Deakin University for providing me the opportunity to pursue my creative and academic passions. Secondly, a massive thank you to my wonderful supervisor, Maria Takolander, who has been like a fairy godmother, always ready with thoughtful advice, wisdom, and encouragement. And last but certainly not least, thanks to my loving husband and Prince Charming, Adric, for his continued support and patience. Abstract This thesis is comprised of a creative artefact and theoretical exegesis and is primarily concerned with parodic practices and the revision of dominant gender ideologies. The creative artefact is a YA fantasy novel that employs parodic strategies, with the intention of subverting traditional gender roles and representations. It draws on fairy tale traditions to foreground and revise representations of female agency. The corresponding exegetical component analyses parodic adaptations of fairy tales across various mediums including literature, film, and video games, with a focus on revisionary practices and gender politics. The research is interdisciplinary, bringing together scholarship on gender, parody, intertextuality, adaptation, and fairy tales. The first half of the exegesis broadly outlines the practices of parody and its ironic tendencies using textual examples such as Neil Gaiman’s “Chivalry” (1998) to examine the subversive potential of parody in challenging dominant gender ideologies. It aims to contextualise the broad historical and sociocultural conversation that parodic retellings are immersed in by nature of their intertextuality and cultural borrowing. The latter half of the exegesis moves on to a gender focused analysis of parodic fairy tales. It deconstructs both conservative and revisionary adaptations, from Disney’s Frozen (2013) to Garth Nix’s Frogkisser! (2017), and Tale of Tales’ parodic video game, The Path (2009) and analyses how they challenge gender stereotypes through parodic practices. It also considers the kinds of stories about female agency and development that different media adaptations of fairy tales enable, contemplating the strengths and limitations of different mediums. In analysing the relationship between form and content, as well as parodic strategies employed within different mediums, this exegesis illustrates how a study of multi-medial adaptations can reveal subversive techniques for challenging gender ideologies. i Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1—The Practices of Parody ................................................................ 6 Intertextuality and Parody ............................................................................... 9 Parody and Irony’s Edge ............................................................................... 15 Parody and Metafiction ................................................................................. 20 The Parodic Subject ...................................................................................... 24 Chapter 2—The Revisionary Practices of Parody: Rewriting Gender Roles in Fairy Tale Retellings ....................................................................................... 26 Giving New Life to Old Stories—From Homage to Revision ........................ 33 Breaking the Fairy Tale Spell—Feminist Revisions ....................................... 40 Transforming Frogs—A Case Study .............................................................. 44 Chapter 3—Video Games and Parody ........................................................... 49 Transmedial Transformation ......................................................................... 50 Fairy-tale parody and gender subversion in The Path .................................... 58 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 69 Works Cited .................................................................................................... 71 Creative Artefact A Fairy Tale of Her Own .................................................... 81 Beginnings .................................................................................................... 81 Once Upon a Time… .................................................................................... 88 Revelations ................................................................................................... 96 Into the Wild ............................................................................................... 101 Lessons ....................................................................................................... 105 Where the Dead Things Are ........................................................................ 112 His Voice in the Dark .................................................................................. 116 The Wolf That’s Not a Wolf ........................................................................ 126 Seeing is Believing ...................................................................................... 135 One of These Things is Not Like the Other.................................................. 140 Cursed ......................................................................................................... 147 Destiny........................................................................................................ 157 Sweet Dreams ............................................................................................. 161 Roots........................................................................................................... 165 Rest for the Weary ...................................................................................... 171 ii Surrender .................................................................................................... 174 A Place for Lost Things ............................................................................... 179 What Makes a Man ..................................................................................... 184 Hide and Seek ............................................................................................. 188 What Lies in the Shadows ........................................................................... 192 The Library ................................................................................................. 197 Consequences.............................................................................................. 202 Never Judge a Book by its Cover ................................................................ 207 Power .......................................................................................................... 215 Rescue ........................................................................................................ 218 Return ......................................................................................................... 223 Discovery .................................................................................................... 225 Lost and Found ........................................................................................... 227 Reunion....................................................................................................... 232 Two Khensu, One Hero, and a Promise ....................................................... 234 Faith ............................................................................................................ 239 Life Finds a Way ......................................................................................... 242 Growing Pains............................................................................................. 245 This is the End ............................................................................................ 246 Letting Go ................................................................................................... 251 And So, It Begins ........................................................................................ 254 iii Introduction In her comprehensive study of fairy tales, From the Beast to the Blonde, Marina Warner points to the cultural resilience of fairy tales, stating that “they are stories with staying power, as their antiquity shows, because the meanings they generate are themselves magical shape-shifters, dancing to the needs of their audience” (1995, pp. xxiii-xxiv). Acknowledging the adaptability of fairy tales, Warner readily embraces the “exchanges between voice and text” that “continually take place, adding, enriching, adapting, challenging, in ceaseless permutation of motifs and pattern” (1995, p. xxii). She observes that this process occurs across different media, with fairy tale retellings being perpetually transformative and offering an “arena of resistance” (1995, p. 410), ideologically speaking. This is the premise behind my research: that fairy tale appropriation, across a range of media, can be ideologically subversive, especially with regards to those retellings that engage in parodic practice for revisionary purposes. The creative artefact that forms part of this thesis, a young-adult