Cultural Diary : Revisiting fairy tales

Descatoire Fanny

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CULTURAL DIARY

Revisiting fairy tales

cultural theme : IMAGINARY Creative and visionary imagination

summary

- intro + guiding question

- 1) Red Riding Hood and the Wolf by Roahl Dahl

- 2) Grimm

- 3) The Fallen Princesses : Cinderella

- 4) A Tale Dark and Grimm

- Inspiring documents

- 5) Your carriage awaits

- Conclusion

A fairy tale is a short story about magical and imaginary beings and lands, usually for children. The commun features of fairy tales are prince and princess, wolfe, witch, magic wand and many others. Artists like the German Brothers, Charles Perraud and Christian Anderson are some of the main inventors of the traditional fairy tales. In the original stories, the princess is, most of the time, depicted as beautiful but useless and submissive unlike the prince who is portrayed as plucky and the one who saves the princess and can triomphe over every danger. But nowadays these stories are being revisited by contemporary artists that are rewritting the tales and adapting them with a modern and more realistic point of vue according to our modern society.

What new message contemporary artists intend to convey when they reinterpret a fairy tale?

Little Red Riding Hood And The Wolf

Little red riding hood is a poem in iambic pentameter taken from the collection written by Roahl Dahl named Revolving Rhymes. It was illustrated by Quentin Blake and published in 1982. -In this rewriting of little red riding hood, the autor changed the ending of the tale by replacing the commun "happily ever after" with an unexpected twist. Indeed, contrary to the original tale in which the wolf eats the little girl who is then rescued by a hunstman, in this reinterpretation, red riding hood defeats the wolf by killing him. We can see that Roahl Dahl changed the description of the protagonist who is shown as brave and independant and not weak or passive anymore. -This document introduced me to the poetry vocabulary. I discovered the stress, rythm and the differents rhymes in the english poetry such as iambic pentameter which was used a lot by Shakespeare.

Grimm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rVy3RBJmNo

This document is a trailer of the series Grimm. This 6 saisons serie was created by Stephen Carpenter, Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt and released in octobre 2011 . It is a reinterpretation of the tales of the grimm's brothers in which we can see multiple grimm's tales characters through the serie. - In this story, the detective is able to see creatures that other people don't, he is the last "grimm" still alive. - This modern version, shows us that people can be two-faced, there is a blurred line beetween good and bad as the werewolf and the detective become partner when we expect the werewolf to be evil. But it also points out that appearances can be deceiving, so we "shouldn't judge a book by it's cover". -With this document i learnt new vocabulary such as "grim" "two-faced" or "deceptive".

-What I liked about this document is that their isn't only one tale revisited like most reinterpretations, but multiples tales that are put together to create one and only story.

genre : Occult detective fiction - Police procedural - Horror -Supernatural drama

Cinderella

This document is an illustration from the collection of photos named Fallen Princesses created by Dina Goldstein in 2009. -In this illustration we can reconize the disney looking princess Cinderella drinking alcohol alone at a bar while all the men around are staring at her. In this photo the depression and alcohol addiction is portrayed. -We never see the princesses pass the fairytales when they get old, have children and deal with life ands challenges. So in these series of photos Dina Goldstein wanted to show challenges of life such as addiction, loneliness or illness and what women have to confront in our modern society. She wants to throw light on the fact that life is not a fairy tale and the commun "happily ever after" doesn't exist in real life.

With this document, I learnt how to describe illustrations and connect it to the theme we are studying. I also leanrt new vocabulary such as "scourges" or "alienation".

A Tale Dark And Grimm

the book cover

This document is an extract from the book named a tale dark and grimm, written by Adam Gidwitz and published in octobre 2010. It is a reinterpretation of Hansel and Gretel. -This is a very gory reinterpretation, including what we can think is a vampire (a stock character in gothic works). In this modern version, there is an implied author who adresses directly to the reader. These interventions ,in which the author warns us about what's gonna happen next, are unexpected and create a pause in the story which brings suspens and a little humour. This story can theach us to not trust people we barely know like Gretel who fell in love with a boy that she clearly doesn't know too well as he probably is planning on kill her. -With this document i learnt what an implied author was and how it is used to create an effect of surprise and suspens. I also leart new vocabulary such as "ominous", "blood bath" and "stock character".

genre : fiction

documents i found inspiring

- I really liked the new version of little red riding hood and the wolf by Roahl Dahl because it had an unexpected twist at the end with a reversal of roles. This story has a feminism side and shows female empowerment, in it the girl is depicted as plucky and independant, she can triumphe over every dangers without the help of any man. I think that it is important for the children reading the story because it shows them another point of vue that they don't see in original fairy tales.

- Another document i really enjoyed studying is this photo from the fallen princesses by Dina Goldstein. I like these pictures because they reveal the reality of life and the issues women go throught. I think that we can easily understand the new message shes tries to convey because these are very different from the original tales which always portrays a perfect life with beautiful and happy princes and princesses. That's why she wants to denounce the unrealistic expectations that voices the tales to children.

Your carriage awaits

-The title of this anonymous image is "Your carriage awaits", it is from a collection of illustrations that shows what classic fairy tales would look like in the modern world, in 2018. In this illustration, we can see the disney looking princess Cinderella getting a text from her uber on its way to take her to the ball instead of using a pumkin carriage like in the originale fairy tale. -I think it is a good addition because it fits the theme as it is a modern reinterpretation of the original tale cinderella. I choose it because it creates a parrallele beetween the fairy tale and our modern life as the princess is in her traditionnal environnement but she also is brought into our society because of the phone and the uber which are modern inventions.

I found this image on the insider website: https://www.insider.com/modern-version-fairytales-illustrations-2018-3

conclusion

In this chapter we saw: the commun features in fairy tales, litteral genres, iambic pentameter, the differents types of narrator. I learnt a lot of new vocabulary about tales and litterature and worked on phonetics. I also discovered usefull words to describe documents and new methods for commentaries and essays. In conclusion, comtemporary artists reinterpret fairy tales to convey a modern message. The society from the originale tales and the modern rewritings has changed a lot, they try to convey messages according to our actual society such as feminisme to show female empowerment. Indeed, in most reinterpretation, women are now depicted as plucky and strong-willed. This made me understand the importance of the modern reinterpretation of the tales for children to realize that they can triumph over every dangers. Through the new versions of fairy tales, the artists denounce important issues in the modern society. They use what was at first children stories to tackle important and serious subject. That is also why i really enjoyed working on the reinterpretation of tales, because behind every reinterpreations their always is a message to find.