Masterarbeit / Master's Thesis
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MASTERARBEIT / MASTER’S THESIS Titel der Masterarbeit / Title of the Master’s Thesis „Snow White – The Fairest Warrior of All? Gender Representation in Fairy Tale Film“ verfasst von / submitted by Poravee Wornoayporn, Bakk. phil. angestrebter akademischer Grad / in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (MA) Wien, 2016 / Vienna 2016 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt / A 066 656 degree programme code as it appears on the student record sheet: Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt / Masterstudium DDP CREOLE-Cultural Differences and degree programme as it appears on Transnational Processes the student record sheet: Betreut von / Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Doz. Dr. Elke Mader ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my gratitude to everyone who helped and supported me; for their appreciated editing, counsel, useful comments, and moral support. My heartfelt thanks go to my family and friends for their support and patience. They stood by me throughout this entire process. I would also like to thank my supervisor Univ.-Prof. Dr. Elke Mader for her valuable guidance. Table of Contents 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 7 2 Theory: Fairy Tale (Film) and Gender ............................................................................. 11 2.1 Fairy Tale: The Intricacy of a Genre ......................................................................... 14 2.1.1 Towards a Fairy Tale Genre .............................................................................. 16 2.1.2 Fairy Tale in Film – Film as Fairy Tale ............................................................. 17 2.2 Social Constructed Value: Gender ............................................................................ 19 2.2.1 Towards a Concept of Femininities and Masculinities ...................................... 20 2.2.2 Doing Gender/Performance ............................................................................... 21 2.2.3 Representation and Codes .................................................................................. 23 2.2.4 Gender Representation ....................................................................................... 24 2.2.4.1 Female and Male Representation ............................................................... 25 2.2.4.2 Sexuality: Sex and Relationships ............................................................... 28 2.2.4.3 Appearances and Beauty ............................................................................ 29 2.2.4.4 Home and Work.......................................................................................... 31 2.2.5 Gender Representation in Fairy Tales................................................................ 33 2.2.6 The Gaze ............................................................................................................ 36 3 Methods ............................................................................................................................ 38 3.1 Literary Source – Why Grimm? ................................................................................ 38 3.2 Sampling of Films ..................................................................................................... 39 3.3 After the Sampling – Coding Procedure ................................................................... 43 3.4 Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 44 4 Snow White‟s Story .......................................................................................................... 47 5 Snow White on Screen ..................................................................................................... 54 5.1 Fairy Tale Retelling ................................................................................................... 57 5.2 Gender Image Influences .......................................................................................... 61 5.2.1 The Good in Beauty ........................................................................................... 63 5.2.2 Mirror – Who Is Looking (Back)? ..................................................................... 71 5.2.3 Home and Work ................................................................................................. 77 5.2.4 Waiting vs. Adventure ....................................................................................... 81 5.2.5 Of Rescues ......................................................................................................... 86 5.2.6 True/First Love .................................................................................................. 93 5.2.7 (Happy) Endings ................................................................................................ 98 5.3 Evolution of Figures ................................................................................................ 103 5.3.1 Snow White ...................................................................................................... 103 5.3.2 The “Prince”..................................................................................................... 105 5.3.3 Snow White and the Prince .............................................................................. 107 5.3.4 The Huntsman/Servant..................................................................................... 110 5.3.5 The Queen ........................................................................................................ 112 6 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 114 7 References ...................................................................................................................... 121 7.1 Bibliography ............................................................................................................ 121 7.2 Filmography ............................................................................................................ 132 7.3 Internet Sources ....................................................................................................... 134 7.4 Audio References .................................................................................................... 134 8 Appendices ..................................................................................................................... 135 8.1 Appendix A ............................................................................................................. 135 8.2 Appendix B ............................................................................................................. 138 1 Introduction “Mirror, Mirror on the wall, Who is fairest of us all?”1 The above phrase will be easily recognised by many people despite possible alterations in wording. These are the words the Evil Queen utters to her Magic Mirror in the fairy tale “Snow White”. Some will know it from fairy tale books, from fairy tale films, or both, while others might only know this fragment, out of context from the tale. For example from advertisements which would be takeoffs of this particular scene, such as in the Diet Coke commercial with Diane Venora as the Queen asking the Mirror who is the fairest, while a young girl with a Diet Coke in her hand is shown to be allegedly fairer than she. Regardless of the way in which this phrase is familiar to different people, it opens a portal to the world of fairy tales. In one form or another fairy tales have always been in my life; since my childhood I have been familiar with tales from the Brothers Grimm anthology such as “Snow White”, “Hansel and Gretel”, “Sleeping Beauty”, and other tales such as “The Little Mermaid”, “The Snow Queen”, and “The Little Match Girl” by Hans Christian Andersen or “Little Long- nose”, or “Little Mook” by Wilhelm Hauff, amongst others. Growing up I not only had them read to me but also started reading them myself later on, listened to audiocassettes, and watched a lot of animated films along with live-action films of fairy tales. I had my favourite characters and stories; and after two decades I find myself still watching and enjoying many of those films. As I watched the adaptations of the stories, I became aware of the distinctions from earlier stories and felt that the characters were different to the ones which I had known previously, although I could not say how. But no matter which version of the fairy tale I saw, or how (much) the story has changed; it was still easy to recognise the well-known story I knew from my childhood. This is because changes and shifts in the details of the story‟s content are incorporated into the essence of fairy tales, hence are part of the genre. Therefore, due to the adaptability of fairy tales, the aim of this study is to explore not whether fairy tales/stories/myths have changed over time, but how. What struck me most amongst the changes in diverse fairy tale adaptations, however, is the manner in which the role of the female protagonist had changed. I remember watching Snow White and the Huntsman when it 1 Cited from “Snowdrop” in the book Tales from Times Past edited by Bryan Holme. 7 came out in 2012 and how I noticed that the Snow White character seemed to resemble a warrior instead of the quiet princess figure I was used to from older versions I knew from my childhood. But still she gave the impression