Sorting Out Donkey Skin

Sorting Out Donkey Skin Scholars of this tale type must decide how (ATU 510B): Toward an to interpret the tale’s elements, ranging from those that appear in real life—family Integrative Literal-Symbolic relationships, rings, and dresses—to those Analysis of Fairy Tales1 that are clearly fantastic, like the garments that shine as brightly as celestial bodies. Interpretations of this tale tend to focus Jeana Jorgensen either on its manifest or latent content; Indiana University- however, exclusive attention to surface Purdue University of Indianapolis details instead of deeper symbols, or vice versa, restricts the potential meanings of Abstract the tale and its possibilities to address a This article debates the merits of fairy tale wide range of experiences. The purpose interpretive frameworks that privilege the of this inquiry is to illuminate this full psychological and symbolic, versus those that range of meaning in ATU 510B and, in utilize a literal and feminist orientation. Using doing so, to outline a flexible interpretive ATU 510B as a test case, for its intriguing blend methodology that can better account for of real-world elements and the fantastic, the author these multiple interpretive levels. suggests that a synthesis of literal and symbolic theories allows for the fullest understanding of the Classificatory scholarship on ATU 510B polyvalent meanings of tale, which is particularly tends to focus on its divergences from the problematic due to its depictions of incest. Drawing related tale type ATU 510A, “Cinderella.” examples from canonical as well as contemporary Hans-Jörg Uther’s updated The Types versions of ATU 510B, various psychoanalytic and of International Folktales describes ATU feminist interpretations of the tale type are put to 510B’s plot generally: a king promises his the test, and ultimately combined to reach a more dying wife that he will marry someone productive framework. as beautiful as her (or who fulfills another condition), who turns out to TU 510B, “Peau d’Asne” (also be their daughter. The daughter delays “Donkey Skin” and previously the wedding by asking her father for “The Dress of Gold, of Silver, and magical garments, often three beautiful Aof Stars [Cap o’ Rushes]”), exists within a dresses and a coat or covering of rough rich, international oral tradition and has fur or wood. The daughter escapes to attracted literary rewriters, from Charles another kingdom, works in the castle, Perrault and the Grimm brothers, to and enchants the resident prince in her modern American novelists and short story dresses. She taunts him with her secret writers. The tale has been problematic for identity, retaliation for his rude treatment publishers as well as scholars, however, of her servant persona. Finally, she slips due to its overt references to incest. As Kay him a token or he uncovers her, and Stone observes, ATU 510B rarely appears they marry. The versions that Uther in collections “since the heroine is forced lists span the British Isles, Baltic states, to leave home to avoid her father’s threats Scandinavian countries, Germanic- of an incestuous marriage” (1975, 46). speaking countries, Romance-language

Cultural Analysis 11 (2012): 91-120 © 2012 by The University of California. All rights reserved 91 Jeana Jorgensen Sorting Out Donkey Skin

countries, Mediterranean countries, East sister incest tales, and other tales that are European states, Slavic states, Middle not as easily classified, reminding us that East, some parts of Asia, and European- the boundaries between tale types are colonized locations in North and South fluid. 2 America. In this paper, however, I primarily limit Christine Goldberg’s monograph on my analysis to examples of ATU 510B. ATU 510B gives an outline of the tale’s I utilize some of the well-known texts plot that positions the “Unnatural Father” found in Ashliman’s online tale collection, and the “Love Like Salt” episodes as “The Father Who Wanted to Marry His equivalent, for either one can provide the Daughter”: Charles Perrault’s (French) motivation for the daughter to flee and “Donkeyskin,” the Grimms’ (German) pose as a servant. Goldberg asserts that, “All-Kinds of Fur” (“Allerleirauh” in because “the Unnatural Father (motif German), Thomas Crane’s (Italian) T411) is a character in AT 706, The Maiden “Fair Maria Wood,” and “Broomthrow, without Hands,” the incestuous father’s Brushthrow, Combthrow” from Austria. presence cannot be used to distinguish Ethnographically-collected texts in my ATU 510B from other types (1997, 31). analysis include Laura Gonzenbach’s Instead, she argues, “The essence of Sicilian “Betta Pilusa” (in Zipes 2004, 52- the Donkey Skin tale—its identifying 58), E. T. Kristensen’s Danish “Pulleru” qualities—are the heroine’s disguise and (in Holbek 1998, 552-53), Alessandro her position as a servant” (1997, 31). Yet Falassi’s Italian “Donkey Skin” (1980, 42- the same could be said of ATU 510A, 45), James Taggart’s Spanish “Cinderella” or ATU 923 (“Love Like Salt”).3 Thus (1990, 106-109), and Ibrahim Muhawi the reason for the heroine’s flight must and Sharif Kanaana’s Palestinian inform any consideration of this tale type “Sackcloth” (1989, 125-30). Finally, I also as distinct from related tales. draw on recent literary rewrites of the As the threat of incest links many tale: Robin McKinley’s Deerskin (1993), variants found under these tale types Jane Yolen’s “Allerleirauh” (1995), and that chronicle the rise of an innocent Terri Windling’s “Donkeyskin” (1995). persecuted heroine in disguise, an Though the above-mentioned tales are analysis of one should be informed by the only texts I will directly reference, I the others.4 D. L. Ashliman’s analysis and also make use of Marian Rolfe Cox’s 1893 collection of Indo-European incest tales collection of Cinderella-type tales and relies on intertextuality to discuss the Anna Birgitta Rooth’s 1951 The Cinderella tales in light of one another. His summary Cycle. Here, I take the view that it is more of ATU 510B on his webpage “The Father useful to view literary and ethnographic Who Wanted to Marry His Daughter” texts on a spectrum than to separate them 6 is useful, as it does not rely solely on completely in analysis. motifs to define the tale, but instead breaks the tale down into plot elements Interpretive Frameworks 5 rather like Holbek’s moves. Ashliman’s How we interpret fairy tales depends a comprehensive analysis includes ATU great deal upon how we conceive of their 510B in addition to ATU 706, brother- relationship to reality, and the nature of this

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relationship remains contested. Although social conditions in the narrator’s real fairy tales’ content may not be precisely life” (1991, 192). Holbek goes further in mimetic, the scholarly treatments of his Interpretation of Fairy Tales to claim them have often employed the metaphor that fantasy may even be the primary of a mirror to describe a wide variety of instrument through which social relationships between these texts and conditions can be discussed, mediated, reality. For instance, Stephen Swann and escaped (1998). Social context is an Jones (2002) hypothesizes that fairy tales important part of folkloristic analysis, but are cultural and psychological mirrors, it is not always clear whether this context while Kate Bernheimer’s edited book should privilege internal (relating to the Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers psychology or emotions of characters and Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales (1998) narrators) or external reality (historical or is based on the premise that fairy tales actual events). This conundrum creates offer people, especially writers, valuable the divide between symbolic and literal sites of self-reflection. Bengt Holbek, by readings of fairy tales. contrast, observes that it does not appear Often the issue of performing possible to keep the interpreters out of the literal or symbolic reading has broken interpretation, and hence that “texts are down along the lines of those who see in fact mirrors in which we see our own characters as exhibiting human emotions faces rather than anything else” (1998, and reactions, and those who see them 402). Fairy tales do not always serve as as flat details or psychological devices simple mirrors, however. As Cristina in service of a larger narrative. The Bacchilega demonstrates in Postmodern question of whether characters in fairy Fairy Tales, the mimetic strategies of fairy tales represent real human beings and tales are ideologically motivated, making can be analyzed as such is subject to great it crucial to ask not only how the fairy variation. In the assorted versions of tale is framed, but also who is holding ATU 510B, for instance, we see behavior and manipulating that frame. Therefore, that ranges from earthy and human to it is necessary to ask about cultural abstract and archetypal.7 This range is context, and to determine when fantasy necessarily related to the tension between can be interpreted as mirroring reality or communal tradition and individual distorting it. innovation, which is at the heart of That fairy tales have some connection folklore performances. Naturally, diverse to reality is undeniable. Vladimir Propp, narrators and audiences will relate to for instance, notes: “Obviously, the tale is their characters differently, with several born out of life; however, the wondertale levels of projection and empathy. Given is a weak transcript of reality” (1984, this range, it is most productive to view 84). This remark implies that while tales the behavior and humanity of fairy-tale may not be mirror-images of reality, they characters on a spectrum, extending from are still informed by human experience. conceptual to concrete. Similarly, Lutz Röhrich argues that: Since the way in which we see fairy- “Reality underpins even fantasy; not tale characters—as symbols or humans— even fantasy is independent of the carries consequences for how they are

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interpreted, this dichotomy of views on though how they are interpreted often the nature of fairy tale characters has breaks down along Freudian or Jungian given rise to two distinct traditions of lines.11 interpretation: psychological approaches, Freudian or psychoanalytic ap- which interpret characters conceptually; proaches to ATU 510B privilege the Oe- and literal approaches, which interpret dipal drama, positing that the fairy tale characters as concrete. I shall give is told from a child’s point of view. Any an overview of both approaches in projection within the tale is thus on the the scholarship on ATU 510B before part of the child protagonist. A few ex- presenting a more subtle synthesis of amples from related tale types will illus- 8 interpretive methods. trate this tendency. Dundes, Holbek, and Bruno Bettelheim all focus on explaining Psychological Approaches to the Tale the incestuous father-daughter relation- Scholars interested in symbolism claim ship from the daughter’s perspective. that literal readings of fairy tales are simply Dundes begins his study of ATU 706, not adequate, since the fantastic elements “The Maiden without Hands,” with a of tales must be accounted for. Symbolic discussion of the Electra complex, relat- readings of folk narrative can take ing a comment by early psychoanalyst many forms, of which the psychological Riklin on tales where fathers want to approach is but one. However, given the marry their daughters: “the initial death comparative prevalence of psychological of the mother (queen) reflected wishful approaches in fairy tale studies, I have thinking on the part of adolescent girls chosen to foreground these theories in who, in terms of the Electral complex, my discussion of symbolic approaches.9 wanted to replace their mothers vis-à-vis According to Donald Haase, psychological their fathers” (1989, 138). From this view, approaches work on the assumption the cycle of father-daughter incest tales that “fairy-tale plots and motifs are not is not actually about real-life incest, but representations of socio-historical reality, rather the daughter’s desire for her fa- but symbols of human experience that ther, disguised and embedded within the provide insight into human behavior” tale’s plot. Other Freudians arrive at sim- (2000, 404). This approach is useful in ilar conclusions. Bettelheim states that explicating incredible aspects of tales not Cinderella’s “degradation—often with- found in real life. As Holbek notes: “If the out any stepmother and (step)sisters be- meaning…of the marvelous features in ing part of the story—is the consequence fairy tales cannot be disclosed by a study of oedipal entanglement of father and of their historical origins, some kind of daughter” (1975, 245). Ben Rubenstein synchronic approach to interpretations connects young Cinderella’s “phallic becomes a necessity” (1998, 259).10 strivings and penis envy” to “the sexual pursuit of the daughter by the father,” Psychological approaches to ATU whom the daughter desires (1982, 225). 510B, however, do not always focus on the fantastic elements of the tale. More often, In contrast, Jungian approaches to the interpersonal relationships within fairy tales eschew the infantile sexuality the tale are the focus of interpretation, hypothesis, focusing instead on

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universalized masculine and feminine and texts. So this must also be taken into values. Marie Louise von Franz’s account. Thus, the origins and uses of approach is typical in that she does not psychoanalysis in particular should be address incest or conditions of power questioned before their relevance to fairy and abuse in real life in her discussion tales is unconditionally accepted. of ATU 706, “The Maiden without For example, the Electra complex Hands.” All of the characters in this tale is instrumental to the psychoanalytic represent inner figures within a psyche, interpretation of ATU 510B and kindred with the father as the destructive animus tales, and is an especially contested and the future husband as “a collective idea. Kilmartin and Dervin point out dominating positive spirit” (1993, 95). that, because Freud did not see the Marion Woodman also views the father- developments of males and females as daughter tension as part of a soul’s analogous, “the Electra complex and journey. In Leaving My Father’s House: A the Oedipus complex should not be Journey Toward Conscious Femininity, she represented as parallel” (Kilmartin and uses the Grimms’ version of ATU 510B Dervin 1997, 269). In fact, they continue, as an organizing metaphor for every “the Electra complex is actually not much woman’s voyage from patriarchal trauma more than a footnote in psychoanalytic 12 to contact with the eternal feminine. history, rejected by the father of the field This analysis focuses on collective (Freud) and later ignored by the very experiences with individual testimonies person who coined the term (Jung)” woven in. The fairy tale is meaningful (Kilmartin and Dervin 1997, 269). Today, only insofar as it expresses the Jungian even Freudian scholars such as Alan paradigm of feminine development that Dundes have questioned whether the Woodman follows. Electra Complex’s underlying notion Holbek surveys Freudian, Jungian, of “penis envy,” Freud’s idea that a girl and other psychological approaches to would reject maternal identification fairy tales, claiming to reject each one and desire to be with/like the father, owing to his inability to “pronounce “isn’t simply a form of male projection” any one of them more ‘right’ than the (1982, 220). Casting the existence of other” (1998, 319). However, in his own penis envy into doubt thus threatens the analysis, Holbek resorts to what Vaz legitimacy of the Electra complex, which da Silva criticizes as “fairly standard would invalidate most psychoanalytic Freudian symbolism” which attempts interpretations of ATU 510B. “to reduce all symbolic expressions to In addition to problems with emotional impressions” (2000, 7). The the terminology associated with tendency for psychological approaches psychoanalysis, there are feminist to be reductionistic is one problem with concerns about the validity of applying them to fairy tales, which are psychoanalytic principles. Initially by nature polyvalent. Additionally, most articulating his “seduction hypothesis,” of the psychological theories applied to which concluded that his female patients folklore were created to be used in therapy actually were telling the truth when they and not the interpretation of cultures said they had been sexually molested,

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Freud later shifted his views, dismissing Francisco Vaz da Silva asserts that these claims as fantasies (Warner 1994, projection cannot be attributed to fairy 350). This shift has had repercussions tale characters at all. Instead, he declares, for the fields of psychology, therapy, and “there cannot of course be such a thing any discipline that employs Freudian as projection on the part of a fairy tale ideas. The authors of “The Emergence character” which means “projection is to of Child Sexual Abuse from the Shadow be ascribed to narrators identifying with” of Sexism” examine “the attitudes and characters (2000, 5). In Vaz da Silva’s prejudices that blamed the victim, view, then, projection can be seen as an minimized her experience, and held her artificial construct imposed by narrators accountable” in light of “Freud’s legacy… upon characters, or worse, as a theoretical which has pervaded our conception of frame forced by the interpreter. child sexual abuse for nearly 100 years, Another concern with projection is informing medical, legal, and psychiatric the difficulty of determiningwho is doing treatment” (Bayer and Connors 1988, 12). the projecting upon whom. Specifically, In the evolution of Freud’s ideas from the the premise that fairy tales are told from seduction hypothesis to the Oedipus and a child’s perspective raises issues of Electra complexes: “The real experience culpability and authority. Maria Tatar of sexual abuse, which was the basis notes that people are drawn to readings for the earlier theory, was turned into of fairy tales that blame children’s a fantasy of longing and seduction in sexuality for what befalls them “in which the child is transformed from part out of a desire to avoid facing the a victim of adult power to a willing ‘unpleasant truths’ that emerge once participant in the sexual fantasy” (Bayer we conceded that some of the events and Connors 1988, 13). It is an interesting staged in fairy-tale fictions can be as real twist on wish-fulfillment that Freudian as the fantasies they seem to represent” ideas like the Electra complex “reinforce (1992, xx-xxi). In tales like ATU 510B, feelings of self-blame on the assumption where the protagonist is threatened with that children’s feelings are responsible for incest that she supposedly desires from the alleged trauma” (Bayer and Connors a psychoanalytic view, the incest that is 1988, 14, italics in original). In the case present in the text is thereby dismissed of ATU 510B, the protagonist’s desire as a subconscious fantasy, not something for her father’s love can be seen as the that might be present in real life. If tales motivation for the tale’s plot, but only if of abuse are not, as psychoanalytic the entire tale is understood as fantasy, not interpreters assume, told from the mimesis. That is, any incestuous feelings children’s perspective, then they mean on the part of the girl toward her father something very different about power would seek an outlet through a fantasy relations. Jack Zipes claims that fairy that exculpates her from responsibility tales, along with other folk narrative for taboo desires. genres, express an adult perspective Projection and identification present on power and the family (1995, 220). further problems with the psychoanalytic That is, they rationalize the self-serving approach to fairy tales. For instance, actions of adults, while portraying

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the consequences for—not the desires many times, been quite impressed by the of—children. Interestingly, Otto Rank, obviousness of this wish” (1982, 226-27). a member of Freud’s circle in Vienna, This interpretation exemplifies many viewed father-daughter incest stories as of the problems with psychoanalytic fantasies from the father’s perspective approaches to fairy tales—its dogmatic (1992), hinting at a more culture-reflective lens that departs from the text, and its view of the tales’ content. reliance on the ideologically skewed Jungian interpreters have, at times, roots of psychoanalysis—in addition to completely ignored any reality of offering a disturbing glimpse of how a violence, instead viewing the fairy tale fairy tale can be read to justify one’s own as a journey of the soul, disconnected power by blaming the victim. from any reality of sexual abuse. Woodman, for example, acknowledges Literal Approaches to the Tale that physical incest occurs, but uses ATU By contrast, scholars such as Jack Zipes 510B to address psychic incest, which she reject psychological approaches to believes is more prevalent and requires fairy tales in favor of highlighting the women to re-evaluate how they relate to realities of “child abuse, neglect, and femininity and masculinity—rather than abandonment” in fairy tales (1995, 220). addressing the underlying social and Literal-minded scholars are also aware sexual problems of living in patriarchal that psychological interpretations can societies. At their worst, psychological detract from the sobriety of problems analyses of fairy tales not only ignore like sexual abuse by transforming them realities of abuse, but also rationalize from social crimes into harmless and them. For example, Bettelheim’s universal developmental issues. A literal Freudian explication of the protagonist’s interpretation of ATU 510B highlights punishment in ATU 510A, “Cinderella,” the incest motif as reality, not symbol. uses the problematic idea of masochism: Though in many versions of ATU 510B “deep down a child who knows that she the incestuous act is threatened rather does want her father to prefer her to her than carried out, I consider even the mother feels she deserves to be punished threat of sexual violence to be damaging for it—thus her flight or banishment, and and thus worthy of discussion.13 In this degradation to a Cinderella existence” light, the magical elements become (1989, 246). This mentality can be used metaphors for the heroine’s experience to justify violence against children, as in of abuse, as well as reflections of a Ben Rubenstein’s analysis of his young patriarchal society that condones such daughter’s behavior in the context of abuse by veiling or ignoring it. Often, the Cinderella story and psychoanalytic literally-oriented scholars draw attention theories of masochism. He writes that to the problems inherent in viewing his daughter’s “unconscious constructed the father in the tale as faultless, as a beating phantasy [sic] arising sharply psychoanalytic interpretations seem to out of her castrated feelings” (1982, 226). portray him. Indeed, all motivations—of Further: “It was obviously her wish that characters in tales, and of the interpreters I would come and beat (attack) her. I had, themselves—are questioned. As Alice

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Miller points out, psychoanalysis has found within oral tradition. Pilinovsky generally had a one-sided view of focuses on the tale’s potential to convey the parent-child relationship: “The the heroine’s positive responses to danger: way parents actually feel about their “Although the princess in each version children is brought out very clearly in of tale type 510B does face the possibility fairy tales…In psychoanalytic literature, of sexual abuse, she is portrayed as being on the other hand, parents’ feelings able to avoid it through a combination towards their children are hardly ever of unlikely luck…and unrealistically the subject of research” (1984, 237). achieved accomplishments” (2001). Projection and power remain key issues Pilinovsky does not take into account in literal interpretations of ATU 510B, psychoanalytic scholarship, dismissing though seen from a different angle than the possibility that the heroine desires her in psychological interpretations. father’s attention by stating that abuse Two approaches to literal is never the victim’s fault. She rejects interpretations of fairy tales are the psychoanalytic theory on the basis of its historical and feminist perspectives, which “number of problematic qualities,” only are complementary but with differing acknowledging “examples in the genre assumptions and goals. I characterize as of the fairy tale have been said to serve “feminist” those approaches that not only a therapeutic psychological function” focus on women’s perspectives, but also (2001). actively theorize the connections between Literal approaches tend to follow the gender, sexuality, society, and power.14 culture-reflector theory of folklore, which, Some of the historical approaches to in the case of ATU 510B, would state that incest tales border on myth-ritualism in the manifest details of the tale reveal their attempts to elucidate the inclusion something about the culture in which of incest in folklore; Dundes characterizes it is told. D. L. Ashliman, in his essay these approaches as attempting to “Incest in Indo-European Folktales,” explain away the “monstrous” incest refers to the cultural context which motif with rationalizations that reach far sustains the plot of ATU 510B: “Reflecting back into ancient times (1989, 136-37).15 the patriarchal values of the society In Holbek’s methodological remarks that used them, these folktales seldom on socio-historical approaches to fairy challenge a father’s authority to do with tales, he concludes that all the sources the members of his household whatever he surveyed “pointed to a connection he pleases” (1997). This is congruent between the contents of the tales and the with the context-sensitive approach that living conditions of the narrators” (1998, Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana 400).16 use in their study of Palestinian-Arab Helen Pilinovsky deals with the folktales, which include a variant of ATU literal possibility of incest in her essay 510B, “Sackcloth.” Muhawi and Kanaana “Donkeyskin, Deerskin, Allerleirauh: interpret the heroine’s plight thus: “the The Reality of the Fairy Tale,” in which sexual awareness begins even before the she traces recent literary transformations girl leaves home, producing feelings of of ATU 510B as well as the symbolism confusion, shame, and guilt, especially

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since she seems to arouse a most unnatural incest seek to exculpate the perpetrator, passion in her father. Hence her desire and not punish him as so many female to cover her body completely, so as to villains are cruelly punished in other appear to be not only of the opposite sex tales? but also a horrible freak whom no one would want to touch” (1989, 145). Synthesis Some literally-oriented scholars Claude Lévi-Strauss famously criticized incorporate psychological approaches, attempts to artificially splice together even while acknowledging skepticism psychological and literal explanations of toward the power structures contained folklore. In these attempts, Lévi-Strauss within. Ashliman states, “folktales points out, a piece of narrative data is dealing with father-daughter incest either made to fit a society directly— often reflect a psychological projection “mythology reflects the social structure of unresolved Oedipal issues” (1997). and social relations”—or if the data Further, “the description of the fleeing does not directly fit the society, made daughter’s ‘rescue’ gives further to fit indirectly: “should the data be credence to a psychological projection conflicting, it would be readily claimed interpretation of type 510B tales” because that the purpose of mythology is to “the man who discovers and ultimately provide an outlet for repressed feelings” marries the runaway princess closely (1965, 83). This dichotomy, which Lévi- resembles the girl’s own father. He too Strauss portrays as a way for scholars to is a king, exerting despotic, patriarchal map their theories to their data, may not authority over his household” (1997). actually be an irreconcilable opposition. Ashliman also examines the rhetorical Rather, it is possible to view psychological devices that transfer culpability from the and literal explanations as opposite yet father or obscure his role in the incest. complementary, just as there are many Examples include the promise extracted levels of meaning that coexist within by the king’s dying wife to remarry under fairy tale texts. certain conditions, or the daughter’s While certain studies have been initiative in trying on her mother’s ring critiqued for placing too much weight (or shoe in some versions). on either the manifest or the latent Literal interpretations convincingly content of incest fairy tale texts,17 some highlight power imbalances within folklorists have already begun to show patriarchal family structures, but they do how it is possible to integrate literal and not account for all of the tale’s features. symbolic approaches to father-daughter Forcing certain details that appear in incest tales. Below, I shall argue why any one version of the tale to conform to this strategy is essential. As Tatar notes, a case study of incest is difficult at best. “to see a daughter as wholly detached Isolated aspects make sense, but others from the drama of her father’s desire is are too marvelous or too unique to just as absurd as labeling her ‘guilty of fairy-tale structure to be interpreted in a the original incestuous thought’ when it realistic light. For instance, why would a is the father who makes the advances” tale depicting the trauma resulting from (1992, 126). In fact, Tatar and Ashliman

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both incorporate psychoanalytic feminism. However it may have theory to describe some reasons for the been used, psychoanalysis is not a appeal of these tales. Tatar explores the recommendation for a patriarchal characters of the seductive daughter and society, but an analysis of one. If we are interested in understanding and the collusive mother, who have emerged challenging the oppression of women, in folktales and literature, predating we cannot afford to neglect it (1974, xv, psychoanalytic theory (1992, 130). This italics in original). observation parallels Dundes’s argument that the “folk” have been using Freudian Thus, if the Electra complex is at all symbolism long before Freud put a name present in ATU 510B, it is helpful as a to it (2007, 319-320). Ashliman agrees that descriptive, not prescriptive, model. “projective inversion…has contributed to Other feminists have critically employed the broad dissemination of the folktales psychoanalytic concepts in order to dealing with father-daughter incest” explain the sexist phenomena they (1997). Though he agrees that these tales observe in society. Gayle Rubin modifies can “provide positive emotional responses Lévi-Strauss’s kinship theories to argue to diverse problems” and “could indeed that the essence of kinship systems lies bring psychological comfort to a young in an exchange of women among men. woman troubled by unresolved Oedipal Rubin’s theory, along with Judith Butler’s issues,” he does “not want such a reading writings about the performativity of to deflect attention from the principal gender, pairs psychoanalytic insights source (in [his] opinion) of the tales’ (like Freud’s work) with structuralism popularity and longevity: their depiction (like Lévi-Strauss) to reach a feminist of problems ensuing from the sexual scholarly synthesis18. abuse of a child” (1997). Marina Warner’s Psychological approaches to fairy common-sense observation seems to tales do in fact have a subtle contribution cover all the aspects of an interpretation to make to literal-minded scholars of the tale: “the ‘Donkeyskin’ type of story of fairy tales. Psychoanalysis, like yields a common insight into minds and analytic psychology, presents itself experiences of young women growing as revealing universal truths—about up, and into erotic fantasies on both subconscious drives in the former case, sides, the father’s and the daughter’s, and ties to archetypes and the collective conscious as well as unconscious” (1994, unconscious in the latter, each of which 350). is translated into symbols that ostensibly Context is key in determining how to populate fairy tales. Both systems suffer evaluate the usefulness of an approach from a lack of cultural context, but then, to interpreting a fairy tale. For instance, each of these systems reveals something although feminists are justifiably wary about the worldviews of its adherents. If of psychoanalysis, as mired as it is in psychoanalysis is a patriarchal and sexist sexism, Juliet Mitchell notes in Feminism system of thought, and if its content and Psychoanalysis: can illuminate fairy tales, then these connections will indicate something A rejection of psychoanalysis and Freud’s works is fatal for about patriarchal values in and around

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fairy-tale contexts. instrumentalization and conflation of In contrast, one of the downsides to tale roles, as well as the constellation literally interpreting fairy tales is that it of symbols involving the heroine’s skin ties them very closely to their particular covering. cultural contexts, making it difficult From a structural perspective, the to extract theoretical statements that father in ATU 510B serves as a catalyst can be generalized to other conditions. for the heroine’s flight, and also a hostile Viewing fairy tales within the context of donor figure to the heroine (Holbek transmission is useful to a point, and this 1998, 417). Vaz da Silva points out that is when the scholar must step in to try the father usually gives the gifts as a on different exoteric theories. Remaining result of the promise made to the mother, close to the text by prioritizing the manifest and sometimes the heroine takes items details of the tale, though, prevents the belonging to her deceased mother (2002, interpretation from straying too far into 217 n. 3). The mother’s role in motivating abstraction (or wrong-headedness). the incestuous intent that occurs after her It is crucial to integrate symbolic and death can be read in a number of ways. literal approaches to fairy tales in order Ashliman notes that the technique of to ensure that an interpretation is not shifting the blame from the incestuous one-sided. And perhaps surprisingly, father to the dying mother often appears psychological and literal interpretations in conjunction with an episode in which of ATU 510B do converge very neatly. the daughter tries on her deceased mother’s shoes, clothes, or ring, thus Converging Interpretations seeming to invite engagement from her father. Amelia Rutledge suggests in her Tatar persuasively suggests that not only reading of the novelization of ATU 510B, narrators, but also audiences and readers, Deerskin: “The promise to the wife can be of tales are drawn to privilege certain read as an attempt to mitigate paternal readings of tales over others, according culpability by suggesting his misguided to where they would like to assign blame fidelity; the promise also aligns both and agency (1992, xx). This matters parents against the daughter” (2001, because, among other things, fairy tales 175). offer models for how to interpret beliefs and actions in the real world. The history Though absent, the mother can mean of interpreting “Bluebeard” as a tale many things in tales of father-daughter chastising curious women—rather than incest, and she continues to exert a large chastising serial killer husbands!—set influence over not only the story’s plot, against a background of domestic assault but also the interpretations thereof. in the West is a prime example of the Alan Dundes interprets the absence of relevance of fairy tale logic in the real the mother in 510B-type tales as a case world (see Bacchilega 1997, 104-112). The of wish fulfillment for the girl who “folk” as well as interpreters of folklore theoretically wants to marry her father, utilize multiple strategies for identifying given that the mother is out of the and assigning blame and agency within picture at the story’s start (1982, 236). the tales. These strategies include the Yet a dead mother could also signify a

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girl’s conscious feelings of abandonment unwittingly places her daughter in the in an incest situation. As Judith Herman Oedipal situation. The widowed father and Lisa Hirschman note in Father- follows the wishes of the heroine’s Daughter Incest, female incest survivors mother and proposes marriage to his daughter because she is the only often feel abandoned by their mothers woman who looks like his dead wife in their roles as protective adults (1981, . . . On the other hand, the mother, 31). Many of these women also reported symbolically recast as the female feeling hostile toward their mothers. neighbor, helps Cinderella extract This corresponds to the villainization herself from her Oedipal entanglement of the mother in ATU 510B which, by giving her advice and the pelican according to Tatar, results from the dying suit, by which she escapes her father’s mother’s wishes being used to justify the incestuous proposal of marriage (1990, father’s attempted seduction (1992, 128- 110). 29). This interpretation works with both psychological and literal approaches: It is interesting that Taggart does not from the daughter’s perspective, scrutinize the father’s role in following psychoanalytically, the mother really is the death-bed premise, only portraying the villain in the Oedipal drama, or read him as a pawn of the mother. Among in light of real-world incest, the mother the tales I have selected to analyze, is the villain in abandoning her child the death-bed promise appears in the to the sexual predation of the father, or majority: Perrault’s “Donkey Skin,” further, providing him with the incentive “Fair Maria Wood,” the Grimms’ “All to sexually pursue his daughter. Kinds of Fur,” “Betta Pilusa,” Falassi’s Within the tales, however, the “Donkey Skin,” “Cinderella,” Deerskin, mother-daughter relationship is much Yolen’s “Allerleirauh,” and Windling’s more complex than villain-victim. “Donkeyskin.” The criteria given for Taggart analyzes the version of ATU the selection of a new bride include 510B he collected in Spain by using marrying someone who looks like the some psychoanalytic concepts (the mother in “Cinderella” (Taggart 1990, Oedipal triangle and the concept of split 106), someone as beautiful as the mother projections) but he does not simplify his in Deerskin (McKinley 1993, 20), someone data to make it fit the psychoanalytic as beautiful and with the same golden model. He states that the (female) hair in the Grimms’ “All Kinds of Fur” narrator’s telling (Ashliman 1998), someone whom the mother’s ring fits in “Fair Maria Wood” …illustrate[s] that the heroine’s (Ashliman 1998), and someone whom entanglement with her father and her a ring belonging to the mother fits in emergence from that entanglement Falassi’s “Donkey Skin” (1980, 42) as well come about as a result of her as in “Betta Pilusa” (Zipes 2004, 52). complicated relationship with her With regard to the beauty conditions, mother…On the one hand, the it is the father who decides that only his narcissistic and controlling mother instructs her husband to marry only daughter is as or more beautiful than another woman who looks like her and her mother, and thus proposes marriage

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to her. These tales give narrative agency but not until her father is referred to in the to the father, transforming the girl text as her husband. This version is unique into a victim, whereas in the tales that in hinting that actual incest has occurred, require fulfillment of a condition, the girl which supports the notion that ATU often acts in a way that seems to invite 510B deals with sexual abuse in addition her father’s attention, because she is to psychological development issues. emulating her mother. In “Donkey Skin,” Similarly, in Windling’s “Donkeyskin,” the girl tries on her mother’s wedding the father acts on a promise to his deceased ring and comments: “Look, father, how wife to marry only a “maid…better than nice it looks on me…mother’s ring” the Queen,” who turns out to be their (Falassi 1980, 42). Similarly, in “Betta daughter (1995, 298). By juxtaposing the Pilusa,” the girl tries on her mother’s fairy tale and a realistic account of an ring, but with an unexpected effect: “The abused girl, Windling concretizes the ring slid very easily onto her finger, but issue of incest. A related thing happens when she wanted to take it off, she could in Yolen’s “Allerleirauh,” wherein the not manage to do it” (Zipes 2004, 52). father succeeds in marrying his daughter, The girl becomes frightened, and wraps leading to a chilling conclusion: “But this a piece of cloth around her finger so her is not a fairy tale. This princess is married father will not see, but he becomes angry to her father and, always having wanted and rips the cloth away, then declares his his love, does not question the manner intention to marry her. In this tale, the of it” (1995, 39). The resolution of this ring’s magical staying power illuminates literary version addresses both the actual the flow of desire from two angles: it and the psychological realities of incest, exculpates a girl who may desire her already present in oral tellings of 510B, father and traps a girl who may fear implying that modern authors detect her father’s desire. Both dynamics can both levels of meaning and view them as coexist within an individual’s psyche, inextricable. just as both possibilities exist within the In “Broomthrow, Brushthrow, scope of the tale’s variations. Combthrow,” “Sackcloth,” and “Pulleru” In “Fair Maria Wood,” the father tries the father elects to remarry of his own the wedding ring on various women, initiative, without the mother setting and then puts the ring on his daughter’s conditions. Holbek only provides an finger against her will.19 Yet this version abbreviated version of “Pulleru,” but is anomalous, because she consents to in it, after the mother dies, the father marry him, and the wedding actually “wants to marry another woman like takes place prior to the donor sequence, her” and thus proposes to their daughter, whereas in most versions the heroine who resembles her (Holbek 1998, 552). In obtains gifts from her father and leaves “Sackcloth,” the father wishes to marry home before they can be wed. Here, the his daughter simply because: “No one father asks her what she wants on the seemed more beautiful in his eyes, so the day of the wedding, and then provides story goes, than his own daughter and he her with four silk dresses and a wooden had no wish to marry another” (Muhawi dress, with which the daughter escapes— and Kanaana 1989, 125). In this tale, the

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father goes so far as to ask his daughter fathers for their actions, and due to the to call him “cousin,” which Muhawi and frequency with which fairy tales espouse Kanaana explain is a culturally relevant patriarchal values, it makes sense that in detail because in Palestinian society, these tales, fathers would rarely, if ever, endogamy in the form of parallel first be punished. cousin marriage is “ideal” for a number When the heroine flees her father’s of reasons (1989, 16). In “Broomthrow, incestuous advances, she often has a Brushthrow, Combthrow,” the mother helper. In Perrault’s “Donkey Skin” as and daughter both have golden crosses well as Falassi’s “Donkey Skin,” she on their foreheads, and the father decides has a fairy godmother to help her; in to only marry a woman with a mark like “Pulleru” she gets advice at her dead that. This biological determinism can be mother’s grave; in Taggart’s “Cinderella” read in two ways: the inevitability of the she receives advice from a neighbor; and Electra complex in girls who have been in “Betta Pilusa” she receives advice socialized in a patriarchal society, or the from her father confessor. These various certainty of a father’s right to consider helper figures all signify different his daughter his property in a patriarchal aspects in the meaning(s) of the tale: society. the fairy godmother and neighbor can As Tatar observes, fathers in ATU 510B assimilate with the mother to represent and related tales are rarely portrayed a maternal figure, whose aim is to as evil or punished for their incestuous prevent incest from occurring (be it out desires (1992, 131). Considering that the of protectiveness or jealousy). The father mother in 510B texts has already been confessor can represent an authority punished by death, it is incongruent that higher than the father, which is a direct so few fathers are even reprimanded. challenge to the father’s rule of the This fits with Tatar’s observation that in family. This intervention is in the girl’s fairy tales more generally: “Even when interests, but still locates the tale within they violate basic codes of morality and a patriarchal frame. “Sackcloth” also decency, fathers remain noble figures, features a religious figure, an Islamic cadi, who rarely commit premeditated acts whom the father asks in metaphorical of evil” (1987, 151). For instance, in terms whether marriage to his daughter “Fair Maria Wood,” the father—on the is acceptable. The cadi’s support of day of his marriage to his daughter—is the father’s bid to marry his daughter named a gentleman for gratifying his demonstrates the potential complicity daughter’s wishes for silk dresses. This of patriarchal authority figures with the positive view of fathers resonates with familial authority of the father. The girl Herman and Hirschman’s data collected is her own helper in the following tales: from incestuous families: “most of our “All Kinds of Fur,” “Fair Maria Wood,” informants had some fond memories “Broomthrow, Brushthrow, Combthrow,” of their fathers. Although they feared and “Sackcloth.” These tales may their fathers, they also admired their represent an optimistic view that the girl competence and power” (1981, 82). Since is able to move past her Electral desires, incest survivors as well as Electral-phase or the abuse she either feared or endured, girls can be reluctant to blame their and essentially save herself.

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Another point of convergence between Details from these versions of ATU 510B psychological and literal interpretations, support a literal interpretation parallel and one that is manifestly present in to the psychoanalytic interpretation. many versions of the tale, is the eerie Because the heroine marries her husband resemblance between the heroine’s father regardless of his abusive tendencies, and future husband. In the Grimms’ Tatar pessimistically questions “whether version of the tale, there is practically no this is really a story that charts a course differentiation of the two men (Ashliman from incest averted to the legitimate 1998; Tatar 1992, 134; Vaz da Silva 2002, fulfillment of desire” (1992, 135). 299). On a symbolic level, Vaz da Silva Ashliman laments the cruel exploitation argues that themes in Iberian versions the heroine often encounters in her new “reveal continuity between the old man home, commenting: “Perhaps the most and the young one who replaces the disturbing aspect of ‘All-Kinds-of-Fur’ former in marrying the juvenile avatar and other tales of this type is the apparent of the deceased wife” (2002, 103). From passivity with which the heroines accept a Freudian point of view, this makes the verbal abuse, the physical blows, perfect sense. In breaking free of her and the sexual harassment dealt to them Electral attachments, the heroine seeks by their future husbands” (1997). The a substitute that closely resembles her transition from an abusive parent to an father. This also tallies with a feminist abusive spouse, repeatedly found in ATU view of things, as in Gayle Rubin’s 510B, is reminiscent of a real-life pattern description of how women are traded observed by therapists and caseworkers. among men, in an effort to maintain Herman and Hirschman state based on homosocial alliances without lapsing clinical evidence, that “incestuous abuse into homosexuality (1975). has also been frequently associated with a In “Pulleru,” the prince hits the heroine tendency toward repeated victimization with a boot and later a towel, and she in adult life” (1981, 29). Framing every then teases him with these details at the version of ATU 510B as a portrayal of dance. The heroine of “Allerleirauh” has repeated victimization is not necessarily to endure daily beatings over the head true, however. with the king’s boots, which she must In “Betta Pilusa,” the heroine suffers no pull off for him each night before bed. The abuse at the hands of her master—in fact, abuse is even more severe in “Fair Maria he is kind: “The king went to her every Wood.” At first the master of the house day, brought her delicious bits of food, merely abuses the heroine verbally, but and conversed with her,” and he is the one when she asks for permission to attend to invite her to his wedding ball (Zipes the second dance: “He grew angry then, 2004, 55). In Taggart’s “Cinderella,” the and took a stick and began to beat the heroine does not even come into contact poor servant” (Ashliman 1998). As might with the king’s son until she attends the be guessed from the title of “Broomthrow, ball. The initial encounter in Perrault’s Brushthrow, Combthrow,” the prince “Donkey Skin” is one-sided, privileging angrily hurls each of these objects at the the male gaze: the prince glimpses the heroine one day after another, and she heroine in her lovely dresses by spying teases him by hinting at those objects at the balls.

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on her humble lodgings. Likewise, in her hide falls off. The gist of this Falassi’s “Donkey Skin” and Muhawi theme is, then, that the hidden maiden and Kanaana’s “Sackcloth,” the king appears as two separate persons, the does not abuse the heroine, but rather final identification of which leads to marriage (2002, 213). is curious about her upon hearing reports of her beauty. It is tempting to speculate, that since women narrated The husband’s ability to identify these most of these non-abusive versions “two separate persons” is an inversion (barring Perrault’s), these narrators of the father’s inability to recognize his were projecting into the tales their ideal daughter as an unsuitable spouse. While concepts of marriage partners—men the father tries (and fails) to conflate wife who are not abusive. These versions with daughter, the husband succeeds in make sense in light of Marina Warner’s meshing two personas that are a good statement that “in the ‘Donkeyskin’ match for him: a servant-provider and cycle, [the heroine’s] rebellion means a woman who conspicuously presents she chooses between father and lover, herself as sexually available. What Vaz and they do not conspire” (1994, 325). da Silva’s analysis omits, though, are the If taken to mean that father and future sexual politics of the heroine’s oppression husband do not conspire to abuse and and the fact that rather than “her hide” oppress the heroine, this is an optimistic simply falling off, in varying versions model for feminine development, for of the tale she is often stripped of her its implies that a girl can mature to the protective covering by force. point of moving beyond her (Electral) The heroine’s skin covering is an attachment to her father and thus seek a important part of ATU 510B. One way to suitable replacement. approach its meaning(s) is to use Arnold Thus, abuse in the heroine’s new home Van Gennep’s work on rituals, as a frame is not a requisite definition for ATU 510B. for understanding the heroine’s donning The spectrum of possibilities in both oral of the skin as a separation from her world and written versions makes it clear that, (i.e., a journey to the spirit world) before for some of the “folk” abuse is an issue being reincorporated into a nuclear that needs to be addressed in some form, family structure (1999). As noted earlier, while for others, it is not the primary issue the heroine transitions from living with in the tale. Regardless, the connection her father to marrying a man somewhat between the father and the husband like him. While she is between the two parallels an oscillating identification of states of attachment, she exists in a liminal the heroine’s two personas in the tale. As place, which her disguise makes material. Vaz da Silva notes: Her disguises vary oicotypically, but they have central characteristics in common. The heroine under her hide is, quite Margaret Yocom discusses the disguise literally, an enigma to be unraveled… in a broad international selection of ATU as she hints, at the balls, that she is 510B tales, demonstrating how with the same lowly wretch the prince “the multiple skins of her ambiguous loathes and mistreats at home…no body, she sometimes disgusts but always one can unveil the riddle in her until intrigues those who meet her” (2012, 97).

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W. F. Nicolaisen describes instances of would be traumatized by the possibility naming as linguistic cloaking in versions if not the occurrence of incest. Warner of ATU 510B: illuminates the underlying similarities between the psychological and literal The female protagonist, while interpretations: “Although [the heroines] nameless as a princess, bears the name have suffered wrong in all innocence in of the rough and unbecoming coat the fairy tales, they accept the taint and she has to wear as a fugitive from enact it on their own persons. Shame and persecution; she consequently has to live out her new coat-given identity guilt do not prompt different reactions, by being relegated to do the most and in this the victims behave exactly menial tasks. One cannot be a princess like penitents” (1994, 358). Whether the or beautiful or both when one bears heroine’s actions express shame or guilt, humble or even ugly names such as ATU 510B is a tale about surviving certain “Katie Woodencloak,” “Donkey Skin,” aspects of childhood and adolescence “All-kinds-of-fur,” “Cap o’ Rushes,” and maturing, with the mediation of a “Ruuchklaas,” or “Catskin” (1984, protective skin covering. If one is inclined 261). to recognize an Electral attachment binding father and daughter, the heroine’s Of the tales in my sample, the following are flight is necessary once she realizes that named for the heroine’s disguise: all three her father is not a suitable husband for contemporary literary transformations her. Recognizing that it would be an (“Allerleirauh,” “Donkeyskin,” and unhealthy arrangement for her to actually Deerskin), “Betta Pilusa” which translates marry her father, the heroine initiates the to “Hairy Bertha” (Zipes 2004, 55); plot of the tale by withdrawing from her “Sackcloth,” both Perrault’s and Falassi’s nearly fulfilled wish in order to seek a “Donkey Skin” versions; the Grimms’ wholesome alternative. As such, this tale “All Kinds of Fur,” “Fair Maria Wood,” can be interpreted as the necessary stage and “Pulleru,” which Holbek describes in in childhood development when the girl his summary of the tale thus: “They called surmounts her Electral attachment to her her Pulleru because she looks pulleret father, in order to attach her love to a (tousled, messed up)” (1998, 552). These viable mate. Falassi’s reading of “Donkey names are inflicted upon the heroine Skin” supports this interpretation: he along with her servant status. They align links a real-life refusal of incest with the her with nature, since many are animal refusal of incest that occurs within the skins or other natural substances, such as tale, leading to a real-life latency phase, wood or barely-processed materials like and in the tale to an “intermediate phase” 20 rough cloth. featuring “indeterminate ugliness” That the function of such a disguise (1980, 46). This evaluation lends the tale might conceal the heroine’s sexual an inner logic. It describes maturation shame works equally well in both using symbols that resonate on multiple symbolic and literal interpretations. In a levels. Freudian reading, the girl cannot stand Symbolically, the heroine’s skin to recognize her unconscious desires, camouflage takes on polyvalent meanings just as in a literal reading the heroine

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when interpreted with attention to the a little stall beneath the steps” (Ashliman heroine’s flight. Pilinovsky discusses 1998); in Falassi’s “Donkey Skin” where the implications of the garment, citing she tends the king’s geese; in Taggart’s the Law of Contagion in connection “Cinderella” where she wears a pelican with the nature of the coat made of suit and tends turkeys; in “Betta Pilusa” “skins, either from a creature magical where she lives in a chicken coop; and in in itself, or procured through magical Deerskin, where she cares for the prince’s means” (2001). Yet where Pilinovsky hounds. Thus, not only the heroine’s sees the heroine’s disguise as a resource, disguise, but also how she is treated, Ashliman views it as a “grotesque cloak” reflects her forced association with that reflects the “intense feelings of nature.21 shame” the heroine experiences (1997). In order to re-enter civilized society, the Heroines in ATU 510B sometimes try to heroine must demonstrate her capacity conceal all vestiges of their femininity, as to conform to patriarchal standards of in “Sackcloth” wherein the heroine dons feminine competence. Sandra Gilbert “a tight-fitting sackcloth that will cover questions whether the heroine chooses to [her] whole body, except [her] nostrils, re-enter society, or whether she “cannot mouth, and eyes” (Muhawi and Kanaana altogether abandon the imperatives her 1989, 126). Here, the girl becomes a culture has impressed upon her” (1985, “strange-looking man” and “some kind 377). In many versions of ATU 510B, the of freak,” thus losing both her femininity heroine prepares food for the lovesick and her humanity (1989, 128, 129). Even prince, which serves not only to heal when the heroine does not cross-dress, him but also to identify her as his chosen her humanity may be questionable. Tatar lover. For example, she cooks porridge states that the “flight into the woods, for the king’s son upon his orders in with its concomitant degradation of Falassi’s “Donkey Skin;” she prepares the heroine into a creature of nature, bread containing recognition tokens in remains the lasting mark of the father’s “Betta Pilusa;” a cake containing a ring attempted incestuous violation” (1992, in Perrault’s “Donkey Skin;” a custard 133). In contrast, Yocom views the furry containing a ring in “Cinderella;” and disguise as a resource: “She strategically soup containing a ring in “Pulleru,” uses asexuality to camouflage her sexual “Broomthrow, Brushthrow, Combthrow,” body” (2012, 105). In some cases—like in “Allerleirauh,” and “Fair Maria Wood;” the Grimms’ “All Kinds of Fur” where and she serves the king’s son his dinner in the king finds her in a tree; in “Sackcloth” “Sackcloth,” although she drops the tray where she is discovered eating leftover more than once in order to avoid him in household scraps; and in “Betta Pilusa” this version. When the heroine cooks or where the king sees her in her gray fur bakes for the prince, this is a functional and wants to shoot her—heroines are first display of her domestic abilities, as well discovered in an animal situation. Often, as a demonstration of her replacement of the heroine is forced to live in animal- his mother as the main nurturer in his life like conditions, or with animals, as in (which is an interesting transformation of “All Kinds of Fur” where she sleeps “in her father’s attempt to force her to replace

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her mother, his wife). In some versions, list of symptoms found in female incest the heroine engages in other clearly survivors: “guilt, shame, feelings of “feminine” activities, such as spinning. inferiority and low self-esteem, anxiety, Thus, she is not only reincorporated imitative ritualized sexual behavior, into a cultural sphere where she is no hostile or aggressive behavior, and school longer identified as or with animals, problems” (1981, 30). The heroine’s but also valued for her human skills. inferior social status while she is a This valuation may not be immediately servant, and her compulsorily repeated apparent, however, due to the manner trips to the dances, could well fit this of the heroine’s uncloaking—sometimes description. voluntary, sometimes not. When her future husband finally Heroines of ATU 510B are forced from figures out his beloved’s identity, often their homes and compelled to rely on it is he who must bring her out into the dubious charity of a future husband. the open. Holbek notes that persecuted The circumstances under which their heroines in tales must “suffer in patience” trials end vary. Goldberg hypothesizes to be “discovered by their princes, in some that, over time the heroines in ATU cases quite literally dis-covered…Pulleru 510B have developed more self-reliance is stripped of her rags” (1998, 584, italics and independence (1997, 41). However, in original). The same thing occurs in these conditions continue to fluctuate. the Grimms’ 1812 version of “All Kinds The heroine in “Sackcloth” displays the of Fur,” when the disguised heroine is initiative to attend a wedding dance, summoned by the king: “she tried to but this version does not contain the make an excuse and then run away, but recognition token motif, and instead as she ran by, the king noticed a white the heroine must be ordered to serve finger on her hand, and he held her fast. the king’s son food. However, even He found the ring that had slipped into in versions where the heroine attends her finger, and then he ripped off her parties and ventures as far as teasing fur coat” (Ashliman 1998). The heroine the prince with hints of her identity, resists having her identity revealed, the extent of her initiative is difficult to and the act occurs in an almost violent determine. Ashliman makes a convincing struggle, which she loses. In Falassi’s case for the traumatized behavior of the “Donkey Skin,” the king’s son threatens heroine, demonstrating that she is not the heroine if she does not comply with yet capable of recognizing and securing his wishes, and removes her donkey a suitable partner for herself (1997). skin so “whether she wanted to or not,” He sees the heroine’s teasing of the she agrees and takes it off (1980, 44). prince as “psychotic behavior,” which Similarly, in “Betta Pilusa,” the king is “perfectly believable for one who has she serves threatens to cut off her head just been sexually threatened by the unless she reveals her identity to him— man who should have been her closest yet she then actively throws off the cat and most powerful protector, her own skin she wears (Zipes 2004, 58). These father” (1997). This “psychotic behavior” stratagems are not empowering for the corresponds to Herman and Hirschman’s heroine; she is stripped of the comforting

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anonymity of her disguise, and forced confrontations with the father, are few, to confront her fears of human contact as can be seen in Cox’s plot summaries that her overzealous father instilled of 510B tales (1893, 53-79). The fact that in her. The inherent variability of oral so few daughters confront their fathers tradition, however, also supplies the with their crimes is an indication of the occasional empowering alternative: in power structures within these societies, Taggart’s “Cinderella,” the heroine asks as well as the effects of victimization. for a few minutes to comb her hair and As Herman and Hirschman point out: get dressed, and is granted these small “Most incest victims both long and fear kindnesses. In “Sackcloth,” Muhawi and to reveal their secret” (1981, 129). Just as Kanaana explain the heroine’s dancing likely is the possibility that such Electral in public as “a declaration of her new wishes on the daughter’s part have been awareness, her readiness to accept a repressed, then overcome, hence there is mate” now that she is more secure in no need (and certainly no desire) to bring her identity (1989, 145). However, the them up again. heroine is finally revealed to the king’s son only once the prince pulls out a knife Conclusion in order to disrobe her (1989, 130). This I share Michèle Simonsen’s skepticism example—empowerment coexisting with about whether it is possible to interpret coercion—demonstrates the difficulty of fairy tales, in the sense of decoding extricating these themes from each other some secret meaning, or rather to simply in the tale as a whole. understand them in a given context The tale’s outcome offers a final view (1985). Because fairy tales contain both of converging interpretations of ATU literal and fantastic elements, we must 510B. The heroine’s dark past does not employ more than one interpretive get much in the way of resolution; like frame in order to access both surface the dirty animal skin she discards after and symbolic meanings. ATU 510B, in being discovered, the incest is rarely particular, is a problematic case due to the mentioned again at the denouement. portrait of incest and power structures it Only in two versions—“Broomthrow, depicts, a picture all too easy to ignore Brushthrow, Combthrow” and Falassi’s by switching one’s focus to the “hidden” “Donkey Skin”—is it said that the heroine meaning of the tale. There is only so is able to reveal her father’s incestuous much “hidden” in this tale, however. advances. In the former, when the prince As Elizabeth Marshall explains: “The recognizes her, “she now [has] to tell him daughter rather than the father bears her life story,” which does not sound the cultural punishment that highlights entirely voluntary (Ashliman 1998). In the danger inherent in forbidden sexual the latter, the heroine serves her father contacts” (2004, 409). In other words, it is salt-less food at her wedding, and when significant that tale contains the message he complains, she publicly announces: “It that the daughter is the one punished for has no taste, just as the man who wants the sexual transgression. Marshall points to marry his daughter has no taste” out that the tale’s message is more than (1980, 45). These declarations, and related the sum of its parts; there are messages

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not only about incest and family The physical and sexual abuse (often relations, but also about how society incestuous) of children continues today, codes, condones, and communicates as do retellings of ATU 510B, though about these topics. Read in this light, the these are not usually aimed at children in tale “suggests that the danger inherent in Western society. The fact that retellings of father-daughter incest is not the act itself, 510B are not as popular as those of 510A but in potentially knowing and telling leads some scholars to the misconception about it” (2004, 410). that incest is simply no longer a relevant Contemplating the layers of meaning topic: “During the evolution of the in this tale is a bit like peeling back the story, the motif of the ‘unnatural father’ layers of the heroine’s skin to uncover gradually vanishes, and the relation with who she is and what she means. The the cruel stepmother and stepsisters is heroine’s father decides to marry her, foregrounded” (Mei 1995, 5). Tatar, on the often because of a characteristic close to other hand, recognizes that while incest her biological skin: a golden star or cross may have vanished from the manifest on her forehead, golden hair, the way a layer of many retellings of tales in the dress or ring or shoe molds itself to her 510 cycle, the latent contents remain both body. The heroine’s skin, therefore, is comprehensible and necessary: part of her sexual and social identity, In depicting erotic persecution of a inevitably desired by her father, which daughter by her father . . . mothers and causes her to hide herself under layers stepdaughters tend to vanish from the that obscure this new, maturing identity. central arena of action. Yet the father’s In Yocom’s analysis, “the beautiful desire for his daughter in the second gowns of the heroine are just as much a tale type furnishes a powerful motive for a stepmother’s jealous rages and disguise as her ashy rags or her rough- unnatural deeds in the first tale type. fur pelt” (2012, 93). The multiple skins The two plots thereby conveniently she wears reinforce the idea that “gender dovetail to produce an intrigue that is an ‘act’” (Butler 1999 [1990], 187), that corresponds almost perfectly to the she dons femininity and animality as the Oedipal fantasies of female children. In situation demands.22 Whether she enters this way fairy tales are able to stage the a period of latent sexuality or traumatized Oedipal drama even as they disguise it anxiety, the heroine’s triple skins—her by eliminating one of its two essential own skin, the dresses, and the disguise— components (1987, 150). become a chain of symbols through Yet Tatar’s methodology is also valuable which taletellers, collectors, editors, in that it does not immediately reject and writers can express their views on psychological concepts, but rather feminine development in patriarchal integrates them into an analysis that is societies. Just as the heroine’s beautiful keenly aware of power structures. apparel conceals her possibly bruised As this survey of material establishes, and scarred skin, so the interpretations of it is both impossible and unwise to wholly ATU 510B that exonerate the father, veil a accept or reject either the psychological potentially ugly reality. or literal methods of interpretation. The most comprehensive and rewarding

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approach is to compromise and to often documented independently since the attempt to integrate these perspectives, 12th century” (2004, 295). Other scholars, using them to illuminate one another and, such as Christine Goldberg, downplay most importantly, the tale in question. As the incest motif in favor of other defining I believe I have shown, interpretations characteristics. of tales can and should converge. This method ensures that no single approach 3 Goldberg’s historical analysis of multiple is allowed to dominate the tale’s versions of ATU 510B leads her to some interpretation, and that fairy tales act less interesting conclusions about women’s as mirrors for the interpreter’s biases than agency, claiming that the motifs of hiding as texts that can be understood within boxes and spying scenes in earlier versions various contexts. Meaning, like all cultural of ATU 510B gave way to plot mechanisms in performance, is always embedded, and which “the heroine achieves a considerable should be studied in ways that allow for degree of self-determination” (1997, 41). the most nuanced expressions of human experiences, whether they be actual, 4 The fact that incest is mentioned in more symbolic, or something in between. than one tale type does not invalidate its presence as a key motif in the definition Notes of ATU 510B. One reason that the father- 1 I would like to thank the editors and daughter incest does not blur the lines reviewers at Cultural Analysis for their between ATU 510B and ATU 706 is that the insightful commentary and guidance in maiden without hands leaves home under clarifying my arguments. This article also different circumstances—not only after owes much to Pravina Shukla, Sandra Dolby, suffering mutilation, but without the magical and Henry Glassie for their support while garb, disguise, and/or transportation that I transformed my research into a suitable the incestuous father, tricked into serving as master’s thesis project at Indiana University. a donor figure, usually provides. Similarly, I am grateful to my colleagues, friends, and in ATU 923, the donor sequence is missing, family members who have listened to me and the heroine must win the prince under a talk (perhaps too much) about my ideas on different set of circumstances from the dances this topic. Finally, I owe a lasting debt to Alan and visits typical of ATU 510B. Thus, motifs Dundes, who first inspired me to research the must be examined within the contexts they possible convergence between psychological appear. and feminist approaches to ATU 510B, when 5 Moves are discussed in Holbek 1998. I came to his office hours to argue about his Ashliman’s plot formula for ATU 510B is: 1. A dying woman extracts from her lecture on incest in fairy tales and he said, husband the promise that he will “Well, write a paper on it!” remarry only if he can find a woman 2 It is interesting that Uther notes: “This form that fits a certain description. of the incest motif (the king wants to marry 2. After a period of mourning, the widower discovers that only his his daughter after the death of his wife) is daughter meets the requirements for

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remarriage set by his deceased wife, 7 The argument for abstract/archetypal and he asks her to marry him. characterization in fairy tales fits Max 3. The daughter, in order to buy time, Lüthi’s description of fairy tale characters and in hope of dissuading her father, asks for a number of gifts, but he as depthless. Lüthi claims: “The whole finds these with little difficulty. realm of sentiment is absent from folktale 4. Seeing no other solution to her characters…Individual narrators, of course, dilemma, the girl dresses herself in may interject a word about the hero’s an unusual garb and runs away. 5. She finds both refuge and abuse in sorrow or joy. But we clearly sense that this another man’s household, where she is incidental embellishment and does not serves as a maid. pertain essentially to the folktale as a form” 6. She temporarily escapes from the (1982, 13). Supporting Lüthi’s argument, the kitchen where she works and makes a series of appearances at a dress characters in the Grimms’ version of ATU ball. 510B are barely described at all. Yet at the 7. A prince falls in love with the other end of the spectrum, tale characters heroine in her beautiful attire. He can and do exhibit real human emotions. discovers that the beautiful woman is none other than his maid, and he The heroine in “Betta Pilusa” weeps when marries her. (1998). she goes to a priest to confess her father’s 6 It is important to note that distinguishing crimes, and her father becomes “very sullen” between author and collector is a tricky issue. when his immediate desire for his daughter As many Grimms’ scholars have documented, is thwarted. the Grimms made substantial changes to 8 In dividing the approaches I address into their tales while claiming that they were psychological and literal, I am not neglecting representing stories straight from the mouths structuralism, but rather using it apart from of the “folk” (discussed in Dundes 1999, 1-5). these, because it is not an interpretive method Rather than draw a firm line between author so much as a descriptive one—less about and collector, I prefer to follow Francisco Vaz meaning than form. da Silva’s lead in asking, “[W]hy then would 9 One notable exception is Alan Dundes’s different criteria apply to oral folk-tellers use of allomotifs to access an underlying folk and to the Grimms, if not for the notion that symbolic code, which can be done without the former are the sole bearers of ‘pure oral resorting to any particular theoretical tradition’–and that therefore the latter cannot model. However, Dundes’s application of but produce ‘fakelore’” (2002, 116)? Like Vaz allomotific analysis to ATU 570, “The Rabbit da Silva, I see many authorial inventions as Herd” (1987) is unmistakably psychoanalytic “thematic transformations within an age-old in tone, as is Holbek’s application to ATU tradition” (2002, 119), and thus I tend to view 433, “King Wivern” (discussed in Vaz da oral and literary versions of a tale type as Silva 2002, 22-24). Further, as Claude Lévi- existing on a spectrum. Strauss notes in a discussion of symbolism, Freud “tries to decipher myths by means of

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a single and exclusive code, while a myth 12 An example of Woodman’s style of will always put several codes into play” interpretation is: “In rejecting an incestuous (1988, 186). Freud’s code of choice was, marriage, Allerleirauh leaves behind the of course, psychosexual, and while Lévi- collective crutches that supported her as the Strauss also prioritizes sexual codes in The golden-haired daughter of her golden-haired Jealous Potter, he makes a compelling case mother” and “chose to give nature a chance for interpreting myth according to multiple by living in the forest” (1992, 205). codes, and allowing for symbolism and 13 I especially agree with Yocom’s metaphor to work multi-directionally rather interpretation of the tale’s theme of survival: than uni-directionally (1988, 193-195). I focus “Some see in ‘Allerleirauh,’ as I do, an on psychological approaches in this essay undercurrent that carries the experiences of because they have been the most prevalent incest survivors who move back and forth application of symbolic reading in fairy tale among different perceptions of themselves research. and their bodies as they journey toward 10 Alan Dundes concurs with this point: renewed life” (2012, 93). “The literal-historical approach has its good 14 Also notable is the recent queer approach points, but it cannot possibly plumb the to fairy tales, as seen in Trangressive Tales: depths of the fantastic” (1989, 144). Queering the Grimms, edited by Kay Turner 11 Alternate psychological approaches—to and Pauline Greenhill. Detroit: Wayne State ATU 510B and to fairy tales in general—remain University Press, 2012. rare. Amelia Rutledge analyzes McKinley’s 15 In my view, trying to explain the incest novelization of ATU 510B, Deerskin, using motif by means of a historical approach, such Lacan’s theories of identity to map the as claiming that ritual incest used to occur protagonist’s transition to subjectivity. and remains in the “folk” memory, is not Rutledge describes the protagonist’s only unverifiable, but also tells us nothing relationships with others, primarily her of why the tale remains relevant enough mother and her future husband, in terms to continue in oral and literary circulation. of Lacan’s mirror stage, wherein a child Holbek criticizes historically-oriented progresses towards self/other distinctions in interpretations as grossly underestimating the social (symbolic) world. Rutledge’s use of the role of the individual narrator, but not a psychological approach does not prevent to be entirely dismissed because, “There are her from referring to different versions of traces of ancient beliefs and rituals in many ATU 510B that intertextually inform Deerskin, fairy tale motifs” (1998, 258). nor from treating the incest within the text as 16 However, Holbek also claims that real. Thus, Rutledge’s analysis finds a balance incestuous desires “are manifestly present between the tales she works with and the in tales like AT 510B and other tales of theories she employs. the feminine pattern” which would lend credence to a literal interpretation of the tale type (1998, 320, italics in original).

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17 Examples of placing too much emphasis 20 Moreover, as Marina Warner points out, on only one aspect of interpretation exist in in certain renditions of the tale, the tellers both psychological and literal studies. Tatar and audiences would have been aware of critiques Dundes’s reading of ATU 706 for additional meanings in the heroine’s disguise: ignoring the heroine’s crippling vulnerability “As an outcast, spurning the sexual demand and making her the story’s villain. This made upon her, her disguises—donkey, cat, or instance of victim-blaming leads Tatar to claim bear—reproduce the traditional iconography that Dundes’s interpretation “is a perfect of the very passion she is fleeing,” and these illustration of the hazards of giving too much particular animal forms also anticipate sexual weight to ‘hidden meanings’ while neglecting pollution (1994, 355). the significance of a tale’s manifest content” 21 For the association between women and (1992, 125). Yet Dundes is not ignoring the nature in the West, in contrast to how men manifest content of the tale—namely, incest— tend to be aligned with culture, see Ortner but rather shifting the emphasis from a sexual 1974. crime to a psychological desire. Conversely, 22 This morphological variability connects Holbek utilizes similar reasoning—“one to Butler’s notion of agency: “Indeed, the should pay attention to what the characters source of personal and political agency do rather than to what they say”—to explain comes not from within the individual, but in how in ATU 510B, “we see no reason why and through the complex cultural exchanges the father’s desire should not be taken at face among bodies in which identity itself is value” (1998, 554, italics in original). This is ever-shifting, indeed, where identity itself is one inconsistency of Holbek’s approach, as constructed, disintegrated, and recirculated he reads incest into “King Wivern” (ATU only within the context of a dynamic field 433B) when it is not there manifestly in the of cultural relations” (1999 [1990], 161-162). text, and ignores latent desires in ATU 510B. From this perspective, the heroine in 510B 18 Indeed, applying Judith Butler’s model of approaches a Butlerian notion of agency by gender performativity to ATU 510B yields an being so flexible in terms of her shifting skins intriguing starting point for a future study. and identities. The polyvalence of the heroine’s identity and the importance of surfaces (skin disguises; sooty skin) point to a complexly embodied and contested gender identity. 19 Dundes has demonstrated the “explicit . . . symbolism of finger-rings” to refer to sexual intercourse, which would be a fitting explanation of the father’s attempt to force his daughter to wear a ring in her mother’s place (1989, 14). It might also be a metaphor for the father’s rape of the daughter.

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Works Cited _____. 1987. “The Symbolic Equivalence Ashliman, D. L. 1987.“Incest in Indo- of Allomotifs in the Rabbit-Herd European Folktales.” Folklore (AT 570).” In Parsing Through Cus- and Mythology Electronic Texts. toms: Essays by a Freudian Folklor- http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/in- ist, edited by Alan Dundes, 167- cest.html 177. Madison: The University of _____ 1998. “The Father Who Wanted Wisconsin Press. to Marry His Daughter: Folk- _____. 1989. “The Psychoanalytic Study tales of Aarne-Thompson Type of the Grimms’ Tales: ‘The Maid- 510B.” Folklore and Mythology en Without Hands’ (AT 706).” In Electronic Texts. http://www.pitt. Folklore Matters, edited by Alan edu/~dash/type0510b.html Dundes, 112-150. Knoxville: The Bacchilega, Cristina. 1997. Postmodern University of Tennessee Press. Fairy Tales: Gender and Narrative _____, ed. 1982. Cinderella: A Casebook. Strategies. Philadelphia: Univer- Madison: The University of Wis- sity of Pennsylvania Press. consin Press. Bayer, Trudy, and Robin Connors. 1988. _____, ed. 1999. International Folkloristics: “The Emergence of Child Sexual Classic Contributions by the Found- Abuse from the Shadow of Sex- ers of Folklore. Lanham, MD: Row- ism.” Responses to Victimization man & Littlefield. of Women and Children: Journal of _____. 2007. “The Symbolic Equivalence the Center for Women Policy Studies of Allomotifs: Towards a Method no. 11(4): 12-15. of Analyzing Folktales.” In The Bernheimer, Kate, ed. 2002. Mirror, Mir- Meaning of Folklore: The Analytical ror on the Wall: Women Writers Essays of Alan Dundes, edited by Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales. Simon Bronner, 319-324. Logan, New York: Anchor Books. UT: Utah State University Press. Bettelheim, Bruno. 1989. The Uses of En- Gilbert, Sandra M. 1985. “Life’s Empty chantment: The Meaning and Im- Pack: Notes Toward a Literary portance of Fairy Tales. New York: Daughterectomy.” Critical Inquiry Random House. no. 11: 355-384. Butler, Judith. 1999 [1990]. Gender Trou- Goldberg, Christine. 1997. “The Donkey ble: Feminism and the Subversion of Skin Folktale Cycle (AT 510B).” Identity. New York: Routledge. Journal of American Folklore 110, Cox, Marian Rolfe. 1893. Cinderella. Lon- no. 435: 28-46. don: Publications of the Folk-Lore Haase, Donald. 2000. “Psychology and Society XXXI. Fairy Tales.” In The Oxford Com- Dundes, Alan. 1982. ‘To Love My Father panion to Fairy Tales, edited by All’: A Psychoanalytic Study of Jack Zipes, 404-408. Oxford: Ox- the Folktale Source of King Lear.” ford University Press. In Cinderella: A Casebook, 1982, Herman, Judith Lewis, and Lisa edited by Alan Dundes, 229-224. Hirschman. 1981. Father-Daughter Madison: The University of Wis- Incest. London: Harvard Univer- consin Press. sity Press.

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Holbek, Bengt. 1998. Interpretation of Fairy Ortner, Sherry. 1974. “Is Female to Male Tales. Helsinki: Academia Scien- as Nature is to Culture?” In Wom- tiarum Fennica. an, Culture, and Society, edited by Jones, Steven Swann. 2002. The Fairy Tale: M. Z. Rosaldo and L. Lamphere, The Magic Mirror of the Imagina- 68-87. Stanford, CA: Stanford tion. New York: Routledge. University Press. Kilmartin, Christopher T., and Daniel Pilinovsky, Helen. 2001. Donkeyskin, Dervin. 1997. “Inaccurate Repre- Deerskin, Allerleirauh: The Reali- sentation of the Electra Complex ty of the Fairy Tale. http://www. in Psychology Textbooks.” Teach- endicott-studio.com/rdrm/ ing of Psychology 24, no. 4: 269-70. fordnky.html Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1965. “The Struc- Propp, Vladimir. 1984. Theory and His- tural Study of Myth” In Myth: tory of Folklore. Edited by Anatoly A Symposium, edited by T. A. Liberman. Translated by A. Y. Sebeok. Bloomington: Indiana Martin et al. Minneapolis: Uni- University Press. versity of Minnesota Press. Lüthi, Max. 1982. The European Folktale: Rank, Otto. 1992. The Incest Theme in Lit- Form and Nature. Indianapolis: erature and Legend: Fundamentals Indiana University Press. of a Psychology of Literary Creation. Marshall, Elizabeth. 2004. “The Daugh- Baltimore: The John Hopkins ter’s Disenchantment: Incest as University Press. Pedagogy in FairyTales and Kath- Röhrich, Lutz. 1991. Folktales and Reality. ryn Harrison’s ‘The Kiss.’” College Indianapolis: Indiana University English 66, no. 4: 403-426. Press. McKinley, Robin. 1993. Deerskin. New Rooth, Anna Birgitta. 1951. The Cinderella York: Ace Books. Cycle. Lund: C.W.K Gleerup. Mei, Huang. 1990. Transforming the Cin- Rubenstein, Ben. 1982. “The Meaning of derella Dream: From Frances Burney the Cinderella Story.” In Cinder- to Charlotte Brontë. New Bruns- ella: A Casebook, edited by Alan wick: Rutgers University Press. Dundes, 219-228. Madison: The Miller, Alice. 1984. Thou Shalt Not Be University of Wisconsin Press. Aware: Society’s Betrayal of the Rubin, Gayle. 1975. “The Traffic in Child. Translated by H. Hannum. Women: Notes on the ‘Political New York: Farrar, Straus and Gi- Economy’ of Sex.” In Toward an roux. Anthropology of Women, edited by Mitchell, Juliet. 1974. Feminism and Psy- R. R. Reiter, 187-210. New York: choanalysis. New York: Pantheon Monthly Review Press. Books. Rutledge, Amelia A. 2001. “Robin McKin- Muhawi, Ibrahim, and Sharif Kanaana. ley’s Deerskin: Challenging Nar- 1989. Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Pal- cissisms.” Marvels & Tales no. 15: estinian Arab Folktales. Berkeley: 168-82. University of California Press. Simonsen, Michéle. 1985. “Do Fairy Tales Nicolaisen, W. F. H. 1984. “Names and Make Sense?” Journal of Folklore Narratives.” Journal of American Research no. 22: 29-36. Folklore 97 : 259-272.

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Stone, Kay. 1975. “Things Walt Disney Woodman, Marion. 1992. Leaving My Fa- Never Told Us.” In Women and ther’s House: A Journey to Conscious Folklore: Images and Genres, edited Femininity. London: Shambhala. by C. R. Farrer, 42-50. Prospect Yocom, Margaret. 2012. ‘‘‘But Who Are Heights, IL: Waveland Press. You Really?’: Ambiguous Bod- Taggart, James M. 1990. Enchanted Maid- ies and Ambiguous Pronouns in ens: Gender Relations in Spanish ‘Allerleirauh.’” In Transgressive Folktales of Courtship and Marriage. Tales: Queering the Grimms, ed- Princeton: Princeton University ited by Kay Turner and Pauline Press. Greenhill, 91-118. Detroit: Wayne Tatar, Maria. 1987. The Hard Facts of the State University Press. Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Princeton: Yolen, Jane. 1995. Allerleirauh. In The Princeton University Press. Armless Maiden, edited by T. Win- _____. 1992. Off with Their Heads! Fairy dling, 36-39. New York: Tom Do- Tales and the Culture of Childhood. herty Associates. Princeton: Princeton University Zipes, Jack. 1995. Creative Storytelling: Press. Building Community, Changing Uther, Hans-Jörg. 2004. The Types of Inter- Lives. New York: Routledge. national Folktales: A Classification ———. 2004. Beautiful Angiola: The Great and Bibliography. Helsinki: Aca- Treasury of Sicilian Folk and Fairy demia Scientiarum Fennica. Tales Collected by Laura Gonzen- Van Gennep, Arnold. 1999. “The Rites bach. New York: Routledge. of Passage.” In Internation- al Folkloristics,edited by Alan Dundes, 99-108. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Vaz da Silva, Francisco. 2000. “Bengt Hol- bek and the Study of Meaning in Fairy Tales.” Cultural Analysis no. 1: 3-14. ———. 2002. Metamorphosis: The Dynam- ics of Symbolism in European Fairy Tales. New York: Peter Lang. von Franz, Marie-Louise. 1993. The Femi- nine in Fairy Tales[revised ed.]. London: Shambhala. Warner, Marina. 1994. From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Windling, Terri. 1995. “Donkeyskin.” In The Armless Maiden, edited by T. Windling, 295-299. New York: Tom Doherty Associates.

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the girl’s longing for her father as the Aimee Bender reason for the story’s plot. But! It also University of Southern California strikes me that a tale is one of the only types of storytelling where this kind of psychological wondering can be even teach a course on fairy tales at USC, considered. Because we do not know and we dip into Bettelheim and von what she is thinking, we have a lot of Franz alongside reading a few of these room to guess, and to make flat and “Donkeyskin”-type-tales,I so this article symbolic and archetypal what might was especially interesting to me. First: I otherwise be offensive, if used upon a found it very helpful that Jorgensen broke three-dimensional character. If/when down the methods of analysis so clearly. taken literally, all the complications of Symbolic, literal. I also appreciated that actual real incest and abuse flood in, as she seemed to favor both, while taking Tatar and Zipes and others here address, into account possible issues with each. importantly. These concerns are valid and Although the psychoanalytic approach crucial, and cannot be skipped. But they can be dogmatic and reductive, I also often are the frontline of inquiry, which think fairy tales are uniquely suited is why I find the symbolic interpretations toward this kind of analysis. almost illicit in their assertions. Which As a fiction writer, I am particularly area of interpretation is an underdog attracted to fairy tales as a counter to here, when it comes to fairy tales? I’m not the more character-driven fiction that is sure. the American norm; there, we usually What Jorgensen does very have some internal engagement with effectively is move us through a range the characters’ thoughts and emotions to of interpretations—from the more help a reader piece together motivation. plodding and reductive Freudian “What a character wants” or why they interpretations to the more historical act is often the driving question in and realistic interpretations and finally book group discussions and writing to psychological ones that feel more workshops. This allows for a certain nuanced, such as those from Woodman kind of psychological interpretation, but and Falassi. one usually based on direct passages that Jorgensen also admits to the give access to internal information. But limitations of analyzing these tales in her with fairy tales, the internal is generally conclusion. shut-off, unavailable. No one is thinking or feeling overtly; motivation is usually I agree; I was thinking of Donald fairly opaque. The actions, however, Barthelme’s concept of good art in his are plain and stark, and a reader is left great essay Not Knowing. He’s talking with story as the main source of analytic about his experience of Rauschenberg’s material. sculpture of a goat and tire that both intrigues and confounds him. There are many issues that come up with a story like ATU 510B, and What’s magical about the object with the patriachal problem Jorgensen is that it both invites and resists acknowledges-- the problem of ascribing

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interpretation... its artistic worth is measurable by the degree to which it remains, after interpretation, vital-- no interpretation or cardiopulmonary push-pull can exhaust or empty it (20).

I do believe fairy tales model this as well as anything: whatever lens we use to view the tale and its meaning does not stick permanently to the tale. The tale, told and retold and retold, seems to be one of the most pleasurable items to analyze, and deserves deep and complex study, but will always, always, ultimately resist the analysis and return to its fairly blank state, to its story-self, open again to interpretation.

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