German Fairy-Tale Figures in American Pop Culture
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CRAVING SUPERNATURAL CREATURES Series in Fairy- Tale Studies General Editor Donald Haase, Wayne State University Advisory Editors Cristina Bacchilega, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa Stephen Benson, University of East Anglia Nancy L. Canepa, Dartmouth College Anne E. Duggan, Wayne State University Pauline Greenhill, University of Winnipeg Christine A. Jones, University of Utah Janet Langlois, Wayne State University Ulrich Marzolph, University of Göttingen Carolina Fernández Rodríguez, University of Oviedo Maria Tatar, Harvard University Jack Zipes, University of Minnesota A complete listing of the books in this series can be found online at wsupress.wayne.edu CRAVING SUPERNATURAL CREATURES German Fairy- Tale Figures in American Pop Culture CLAUDIA SCHWABE Wayne State University Press Detroit © 2019 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without formal permission. Manufactured in the United States of America. ISBN 978- 0- 8143- 4196- 4 (paperback) ISBN 978- 0- 8143- 4601- 3 (hardcover) ISBN 978- 0- 8143- 4197- 1 (e- book) Library of Congress Control Number: 2018966275 Published with the assistance of a fund established by Thelma Gray James of Wayne State University for the publication of folklore and English studies. Wayne State University Press Leonard N. Simons Building 4809 Woodward Avenue Detroit, Michigan 48201-1309 Visit us online at wsupress .wayne .edu Dedicated to my parents, Dr. Roman and Cornelia Schwabe s CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 s 1. Reimagining Uncanny Fairy- Tale s Creatures: Automatons, Golems, and Doppelgangers 13 2. Evil Queens and Witches: Mischievous Villains or Misunderstood Victims? 87 3. Taming the Monstrous Other: Representations of the Rehabilitated Big Bad Beast in American Media 155 4. Dwarfs, Diversity, and Deformation: From Fairy- Tale Imps to Rumpelstiltskin Reloaded 225 Conclusion 285 Notes 295 Works Cited 307 Index 327 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS irst and foremost, I would like to thank my amazing mother, Cor- nelia Schwabe, for the many hours and afternoons she spent with Fme discussing the contents of this book over a latte macchiato. Our conversations were extremely stimulating and her input and encouragement to write Craving Supernatural Creatures was invaluable. I want to thank my father, Dr. Roman Schwabe, for always believing in me and loving me as much as any father could. I am also extremely grateful to my wonderful hus- band, Christopher Gibson, for lending me a patient ear whenever I needed it, for his consistent and unwavering support in everything I do, and for his infinite love. During my work on this book I was greatly assisted by Anne Duggan, Lisa Gabbert, and Barbara Mennel. All of them have been superb mentors and made significant contributions at different stages of this volume. Fur- thermore, I owe a special thanks to Jeannie Thomas who inspired me to write about supernatural creatures in the first place. The anonymous Wayne State University Press reviewers were both kind and helpful in their recom- mendations. I thank them for their generous readings of my manuscript and for their candid comments and individual suggestions. I also thank Jack Zipes, Don Haase, Christine Jones, Cristina Bacchilega, Jill Terry Rudy, and my dear friend and USU colleague Christa Jones for their ongoing warm x Acknowledgments encouragement along the way. Exchanges with these scholars and with my fellow “sisters” from the Coven des Fées, including Christy Williams, Jeana Jorgensen, Sara Cleto, Brittany Warman, and Veronica Schanoes, have greatly enriched the perspectives behind this book. Finally, I want to express my sincere gratitude for the entire editorial, production, and marketing team at Wayne State University Press, which was crucial for the successful editing, design, and advertising of the book. It has been a tremendous joy to work with them, especially Annie Mar- tin, Marie Sweetman, Emily Nowak, Kristina Stonehill, Jamie Jones, Rachel Ross, Sandy Judd, Carrie Teefey, Ceylan Akturk, and Rachel Lyon. All of these publishing professionals, along with other talented members of the team at Wayne State University Press, were unflaggingly dedicated to shep- herding this volume through its various stages, copyediting the manuscript, designing the text, preparing the index, and designing the striking cover. Producing a volume such as this is a team effort, and I thank all members involved for their meticulous work. INTRODUCTION he inspiration for this study came to me in 2013 as I was browsing the toy section in one of America’s most popular retailers. When TI entered the aisle for girls’ toys, my eyes fell onto Frankie Stein, Clawdeen Wolf, Cleo de Nile, Draculaura, Ghoulia Yelps, and Lagoona Blue, fashion dolls from the American franchise Monster High launched by Mattel in 2010. These ghoulish dolls are bone- thin “goth barbies” equipped with monstrous attributes, such as fangs, stitches, wolf ears, fins, bandages, and snakes. Appearing more diverse than their “normal” Barbie sisters, the Monster High dolls display various skin tones ranging from blue, green, and brown to orange and pink. These freaky doll creations by Garrett Sander were unlike any dolls I had ever seen before. Although the dolls are promoted as the daughters of such popular monsters as Frankenstein, the Werewolf, the Mummy, Count Dracula, Medusa, and so forth, they have little in common with them other than their outlandish looks. Draculaura, for instance, cannot stand the thought of blood because she is a vegetarian and turned off by meat. The teenage dolls, which look like the underfed love children of Tim Burton and Lady Gaga, attend a school for creepy creatures called Monster High. The idea behind the brand is that we all are somehow “monstrous” because of our idiosyncrasies, perhaps quirky characteristics, and individual flaws. As Lori Pantel, Mattel’s vice president for marketing 2 Introduction global girls brands, emphasized, “The Monster High brand uses the mon- ster metaphor to show girls that it is ok to be different and that our unique differences should be celebrated” (Business Wire). The school Monster High represents a highly heterogeneous space where everyday learning coalesces with lessons in mutual tolerance, overcoming stereotypes, and diversity. Although the dolls’ doe-eyed, Twiggy- style appearances may raise concerns about body image, just as their classic Barbie predecessors did, the brand highlights the positive character traits of its creations, including compas- sion, determination, and intelligence. The logo of the franchise, a skull with eyelashes and a pink bow tie, feminizes death on the one hand and beautifies or trivializes the monstrous on the other. The logo, together with the slogans of the franchise, “(Where) Freaky Just Got Fabulous!” (2010–11) and “Be yourself, be unique, be a monster!” (2011–16), suggests that monstrosity and the freak or the Other represent marketable concepts in contemporary North American society. The marketability of such monstrous, supernatural creatures goes hand in hand with their promotion as desirable and “cool” dolls. Today, the fran- chise includes different consumer products, from various toys, stationery, bags, key chains, and play sets to video games, TV specials, a web series, and direct- to- DVD movies. A spin- off line of dolls that Mattel introduced in 2013 is Ever After High. In this line, the characters are based on fairy tales and fantasy stories instead of monsters, featuring the offspring of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood, the Evil Queen, Pinocchio, the Little Mermaid, the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and many more. Among the faculty are popular fairy-tale- inspired characters, including Rumpelstiltskin, Mr. Badwolf, Baba Yaga, and the brothers Mil- ton and Giles Grimm (a direct allusion to the infamous Brothers Grimm). Remarkably, Ever After High unsettles the simplistic dichotomy of good and evil fairy- tale characters and subverts the idea that malignity is hereditary and a predestined path for the offspring of traditionally villainous fairy- tale characters. The show features the character Raven queen, for instance, Introduction 3 as the daughter of the evil queen from “Snow White,” who is not vicious or so much as mean but kind and considerate. In the adventures of Ever After High, she actively rebels against prejudice and her unjust reputation by taking actions toward self- determination and autonomy. The line has spawned a web series (2013– present), several feature- length presentations (2013– present), and two book series (2013– present). Mattel’s franchises Monster High and Ever After High are prominent examples of how the US consumer goods industry caters to the demand of primarily teen and tween girls for fantastic creatures. The target audiences of other companies— for instance, Hasbro and Walt Disney– owned Marvel Entertainment— consist of children and adults alike who are “hungry” for superheroes and mutants of the Marvels Universe. Of course, humans every- where have always brought mythical creatures, legendary beasts, fairy-tale characters, and supernatural beings to life in stories, songs, and works of art, so it may not come as a surprise that these creatures continue to thrill, terrify, entertain, and inspire us today.1 Since the early twenty-first century, however, the craving for fantastic creatures in popular culture appears to have reached new dimensions. This craving for the fantastic is reflected, for instance,