Defining and Subverting the Female Beauty Ideal in Fairy Tale Narratives and Films Through Grotesque Aesthetics
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Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 9-10-2015 12:00 AM Who's the Fairest of Them All? Defining and Subverting the Female Beauty Ideal in Fairy Tale Narratives and Films through Grotesque Aesthetics Leah Persaud The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Angela Borchert The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Comparative Literature A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Master of Arts © Leah Persaud 2015 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Comparative Literature Commons Recommended Citation Persaud, Leah, "Who's the Fairest of Them All? Defining and Subverting the Female Beauty Ideal in Fairy Tale Narratives and Films through Grotesque Aesthetics" (2015). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 3244. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/3244 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WHO’S THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL? DEFINING AND SUBVERTING THE FEMALE BEAUTY IDEAL IN FAIRY TALE NARRATIVES AND FILMS THROUGH GROTESQUE AESTHETICS (Thesis format: Monograph) by Leah Persaud Graduate Program in Comparative Literature A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Leah Persaud 2015 Abstract This thesis seeks to explore the ways in which women and beauty are depicted in the fairy tales of Giambattista Basile, the Grimm Brothers, and 21st century fairy tale films. A dominant beauty ideal in the genre has established a splitting of female characters into strict dichotomies that reinforce beauty and good moral behaviour while also propagating antagonistic female relationships. The use of spectacle to highlight the physical rewards of beauty and the violent punishments of ugly women have created a stable pattern in the genre that is maintained regardless of time period or context. It is the aim of this thesis to pursue an aesthetic approach to the tales that focuses on the beauty ideal, anxiety, spectacle, and the grotesque, to explore the ways in which this seemingly static genre has been able to challenge the impossible ideals of beauty it overtly emphasizes. Keywords Fairy tale, beauty ideal, grotesque, spectacle, anxiety, Giambattista Basile, Wilhelm Grimm, Jacob Grimm, Lo cunto de li cunti, Kinder- und Hausmärchen, fairy tale film ii Acknowledgments First, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Angela Borchert for her constant and unwavering support, insight and encouragement throughout this thesis. It has been far from easy but you have never given up on me and this project and I could not have finished it without you. A special thanks to Dr. Cristina Caracchini. Working as your TA was one of the highlights of my grad school experience, and what I learned from you I will carry for the rest of my life. To my friends and family, thank you for everything you have done to help and support me through this journey. To Alana, for your willingness to read through half-finished chapters, for the late night discussions of fairy tales and occasional Disney marathons, even for the constant barrage of pictures of our ‘brother.’ Thank you for the tough love, the quiet wisdom, and the ability to make me laugh when I had forgotten how to smile. To Sarah for always being, literally and figuratively, right next door when I needed you. Your friendship is the reason I could still produce a Patronus, even on the darkest nights. To Jordan, for believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself, for being a sounding board for my ideas, for making tea when I pulled late nights and doing dishes when I felt like things were falling apart. The little things you’ve done for me are really the big things that kept me going. Finally, to my parents, for encouraging me to pursue my dreams, and always being there to help me back up when I stumbled. This project is dedicated to you. iii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. viii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 ........................................................................................................................................ 20 1 How History, Typology and Psychoanalytic Scholarship Have Maintained the Beauty Ideal as a Dominant Presence in Female Relationships in Fairy Tales ...... 20 1.1 The Medieval Basis for the Dominant Presence of the Beauty Ideal for Women in Literary Fairy Tales ......................................................................................................................... 22 1.1.1 How the Written Tales Were Influenced by a Medieval Association between Beauty and Good Morality ................................................................................................................................................ 22 1.1.2 The Historic Reality of Death in Childbirth and its Influence in Creating the Cruel, Envious Stepmother ............................................................................................................................................ 25 1.1.3 How the Medieval Approach to Marriage and Beauty Establishes a Power Hierarchy for Women in Fairy Tales ............................................................................................................ 26 1.1.4 How a Combination of the Medieval Beauty Ideal, Physical Reward and Punishment, and Marriage Enforce Violent Female Relationships in Versions of “Cinderella” ............................................................................................................................................................. 27 1.1.5 The Lack of Correlation in Male Characters between Appearance, Violence and Morality ..................................................................................................................................................................... 30 1.2 How the Archetype of the Mother and the Typology of a Tale Encourage Envy and Conflict Centered around the Beauty Ideal .......................................................................... 32 1.2.1 Exploring the Mother Archetype and its Influence on the Moral and Aesthetic Splitting of Female Characters into Two Extremes ............................................................................... 33 1.2.2 How Envy and Violence Based on the “Snow White” Typology Reinforce Beauty as the Source of Power and Center of Conflict in Female Relationships ............................................ 35 1.3 How the Perceived Audience of the Tales and Psychoanalytic Scholarship Have Legitimized the Use of Violence and Punishment of Female Envy over Beauty ............... 42 iv 1.3.1 How Psychoanalytic Scholarship Explains the Moral Splitting of the Mother/Stepmother and the Presence of Envy in Female Relationships .................................... 42 1.3.2 The Danger with Focusing on a Psychoanalytic Approach to Women and Female Relationships through the Lens of the Child Reader ............................................................................. 44 1.3.3 Shifting the Focus by Looking at the Problematic Idealization of the Mother ........... 45 1.3.4 How Versions of “Sleeping Beauty” Maintain Female Rivalry and Diminish the Importance of Female Relationships ........................................................................................................... 47 1.3.5 Are the Same Patterns of Envy, Conflict and Punishment in Female Relationships Also Present in Male Relationships? ............................................................................................................ 50 1.4 How Historical, Archetypal and Typological Reasons for the Beauty Ideal in Fairy Tales Morphs into Anxiety and Spectacle of the Female Body ................................... 53 Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................................................ 56 2 The Potential of the Fairy Tale Genre to Challenge the Beauty Ideal through Anxiety over Appearances and the Spectacle of Violence in Female Relationships 56 2.1 Approaching Anxiety through an Aesthetic Lens ......................................................... 57 2.1.1 The Artificial Nature of the Fairy Tale and the Importance of an Aesthetic Approach to Women and Violence ..................................................................................................................................... 57 2.1.2 The Subversive Potential of the Grotesque Two-Bodied Image and the Positioning of Ugly Women as Evil .......................................................................................................................................