A Postmodern Critique of the Little Red Riding Hood Tale

University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1999 A postmodern critique of the Little Red Riding Hood tale. Barbara Smith Reddish University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Reddish, Barbara Smith, "A postmodern critique of the Little Red Riding Hood tale." (1999). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 5371. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/5371 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A POSTMODERN CRITIQUE OF THE LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD TALE A Dissertation Presented by BARBARA SMITH REDDISH Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION September 1999 Education Language, Literacy and Culture Program © Copyright by Barbara Smith Reddish 1999 All Rights Reserved A POSTMODERN CRITIQUE OF THE LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD TALE A Dissertation Presented by BARBARA SMITH REDDISH Approved as to style and content by: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to acknowledge her dissertation committee for their guidance and support throughout this writing process. It is their informed and insightful feedback that has served to refine and polish this study. She extends special gratitude to Masha Rudman with whom she feels privileged to have worked. The author further acknowledges her son Robert Reddish who is the impetus for her work, her sister Carol Wallace whose unconditional assistance freed her to conduct the necessary reading, reflection, and research for the inscription of this paper, her friend Valerie Haugen who always made her feel competent, and her parents, Barbara and Richard Smith, who not only instilled in her an unparalleled work ethic, but generously contributed a new PC to the project. IV ABSTRACT A POSTMODERN CRITIQUE OF THE LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD TALE SEPTEMBER 1999 BARBARA SMITH REDDISH B A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST M.Ed., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Ed.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Masha K. Rudman One resource to which children might look for role models is in the available literature. Stereotypically sexist depictions of girls and women in literature may serve not only to reinforce sexist attitudes in society, but also to impact the psychological development of females. Little Red Riding Hood is a classic example of a stereotypically sexist depiction of the protagonist, whose traditional portrayal ranges from polite and naive, to carnal and seductive. This study is a qualitative critical analysis of the Little Red Riding Hood tale, from its oral beginnings to the latest contemporary retellings of the 1990’s, examining the protagonist’s depiction through both text and illustration. The retellings span six decades and are separated into three distinct categories to correspond with particular intellectual movements to which they conform; Traditional, Modem, and Postmodern. Books which fall into the Traditional v by updating the story, but the changes are usually superficial ones. The books in the Postmodern category are retellings that make more meaningful changes to the tale by addressing the political implications of the story, taking a critical look at the protagonist’s portrayal. This study examines how Little Red Riding Hood’s image has changed over time, rather than asking if she has changed. Change is inevitable and not always a forward progression. Change can be a step backward and serve to reaffirm, rather than to dispel sexist stereotypes. When superficial changes to the story are made, depicting the protagonist in contemporary clothing for example, with no regard to her thoughts and actions, the reader receives a mixed message. The protagonist may look like a twentieth century young girl but may still behave according to 17th Century social standards as set forth by Charles Perrault who purportedly first penned the tale. While Little Red Riding Hood’s outward appearance changes (clothing, landscape) sometimes dramatically, throughout her written history, her inner personality characteristics with which we are so familiar; the naivete, unwavering politeness, and pleasant demeanor, often remain constant and serve to define her as the quintessential victim. vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Illustration Page 1. Little Red Riding Hood as Seductive. 131 2. Little Red Riding Hood as Dimwitted. 132 3. Little Red Riding Hood as Naive. 133 4. Little Red Riding Hood as Inquisitive. 134 5. Little Red Riding Hood’s Traditional Depiction. 148 6. Little Red Riding Hood’s Modem Depiction. 155 7. Little Red Riding Hood’s Postmodern Depiction. 163 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . iv ABSTRACT. v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. vii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION. 1 Statement of Problem. 7 Framework for Purpose of Study. 8 Purpose and Rationale of Study. 8 Primary Questions. 9 Significance of the Study. 10 Review of the Literature. 12 Assumptions. 13 Definition of Terms. 13 Delimitations. 16 Methodology. 17 Summary of Chapters. 18 2. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE. 20 Introduction. 20 Feminist and Psychological Theory. 24 Children's Literature: Criteria for Critique. 40 Female Child and Adolescent Development. 48 Images of Girls and Women in Fairy Tales. 51 The Relationship of Female Protagonist to Other Characters. 59 Older Women. 62 Folklore Origins: Myth and Folk Tales. 63 Conclusion. 68 3. METHODOLOGY. 70 General Research Model. 70 Variables to be Considered. 84 Approach. 86 Data Collection. 86 Analysis. 90 Definitions and Criteria. 91 4. DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS. 95 Introduction. 95 Part I: Historical Overview. 95 The Traditional Tale: Oral to Written . 96 Images of Women. 109 Part H: Critical Analyses. 112 Critiques of Modem Day Little Red Riding Hood Tales. 114 Little Red Riding Hood. 114 Little Red Riding Hood. 118 Ruby. 120 Little Red Running Shorts. 123 Little Red Cowboy Hat. 124 Little Red Riding Hood Illustrated. 126 Part III: Categorizations. 138 The Traditional Retellings. 139 The Modem Retellings. 149 The Postmodern Retellings. 156 5. CONCLUSIONS. 170 Recommendations for Further Research. 180 APPENDICES. 184 A. TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 184 B. ORGANIZATIONAL CHART. 186 C. ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY. 188 D. DATA COLLECTION TOOL. 198 BIBLIOGRAPHY 199 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The focus of this study is 1) to examine gender relationships in the traditional European fairy tale. Little Red Riding Hood, through the analysis of text, illustrations, and discourse, and 2) to determine which of the literary motifs, related to gender, from the Kinder und Hausmarchen version of Little Red Riding Hood, have integrated themselves into contemporary children's literature, thereby tracing contemporary gender depictions to the fairy tales read by contemporary readers. The books examined in this study are classified into three categories; Traditional, Modem and Postmodern. The criteria used for placement of particular books into their respective categories are date of publication and political tone of the retelling. Initially the books were sorted by date of publication from which emerged common threads that ran through books published in the same era, or decade(s). The common threads are the political undertones of the books that correspond with intellectual movements, hence the Traditional, Modem, and Postmodern categories. As a text, Grimms’ Tales can be viewed from numerous perspectives, depending on the reader's predisposition and interests. Four perspectives have dominated Marchen [European folk and fairy tales] research in the recent past: 1 Freudian, Jungian, Marxist and Feminist. The Freudian perspective relates the tale to the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud, suggesting that Little Red Riding Hood is the ego, mediating between the superego, or authority, of mother and grandmother, and the uninhibited, pleasure seeking id of the wolf The Jungian perspective is characteristic of the psychological doctrines of Carl Jung which consider folk tales and myths as a venue to the discovery of the unconscious. To Jung, individual characters of the folk tale are seen as components of the personality. The protagonist's intimate relationship with the wolf, for example, may symbolize a vital confrontation between the conscious and the unconscious; the external and the internal worlds. Marxist interpreters see the wolf as a victim of a consumerist society who must struggle to attain those things, like food and shelter, that should naturally be available to him, while a feminist perspective is one that is focused on issues of gender; male/female relationships and the portrayal of females through illustration and text. From a feminist perspective, Little Red Riding Hood is viewed as the vulnerable victim of the wolf and she is consumed/raped by his carnivorous and voracious appetite. Because these four perspectives impose unique limitations on the researcher, this study takes a Postmodern perspective of the Little Red Riding Hood tale; a perspective that acknowledges a multiplicity of issues and is not restricted to a 2 singular viewpoint. Of the many interpretations I have seen of the term Postmodern, the definition that I have found to be most definitive

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