Feminist scholarship concerning fairy tales is too limited. While relationships between male and female characters have been explored extensively, this thesis focuses on masculinity as it is performed in interactions between male characters. It aims to bring more justices to traditional fairy tale gender binaries. Using Tony Coles’ Theory of Multiple Dominant Masculinities, this project examines four 17th-19th century animal/monster groom tales, studying male characters in order to understand how masculinity is constructed in selected tales and operates as a dynamic relationship between male characters. While the quest for dominance is often linked to violence, by employing the marvelous as an agent of change, these tales offer utopian perspectives in which shifts in male power occur without violence. The system of masculinity can be unfavorable and restrictive, presenting male characters with limited role options, but in fairy tales this system is also flexible, offering the possibility of change.

Fairy tales as a form of social acculturation can subvert and/or perpetuate potentially harmful social norms. In this essay, Chris Anne Wolfe’s lesbian romance novel Bitter Thorns (1994) and the film Shrek (2001) are analysed as adaptations of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, with a focus on the extent to which they challenge and/or reinforce three fairy tale norms: women as tradeable objects, heteronormativity and idealised beauty. Both these texts can be seen as subversive, Bitter Thorns in how it challenges heteronormativity and Shrek in how it challenges the norm of idealised beauty. This subversion, however, is limited, as both texts do more to perpetuate fairy tale norms than to challenge them. They both reinforce the idea of women as objects for trade, Bitter Thorns perpetuates the norm of idealised beauty, and Shrek advocates heteronormative relationships and the dominance of heterosexual masculinity.

This essay examines Angela Carter’s feminist rewritings of classical fairy tales. By examining the original fairy tales and comparing them to what Angela Carter published I aim to highlight a feminism that is subtle and non-binary. In the analysis I draw on ideas presented by Hélène Cixous as well as Simone de Beauvoir. Furthermore, a pedagogical reflection is included to show ways in which these stories could be incorporated in the upper- secondary school.

Mild psychological effects, such as sleep-deprivation, on an oppressed and tortured human being can be characterized as “normal”. However, Shame by Salman Rushdie uses magical realist style to describe the psychological effects of shame in a patriarchal society which is based on capitalistic class values. This essay will focus on the Marxist feminist reading of the novel with a psychoanalytical perspective which is going to help analyse the effects of the oppressed female characters, Bilquis Hyder, Sufiya Zinobia and Rani Harappa.  The essay focuses on different incidents in the lives of these characters with the help of critics such as Aijaz Ahmad and Timothy Brennan. Both have written critically about Rushdie. This essay will discuss the different aspects of Marxism, feminism as well as psychoanalysis and connecting them to the novel, which would give the answers as to what shame can do to a person’s psyche. The Beauty and the Beast fairy-tale gets a different perception in this story, as Sufiya Zinobia is both the characters in one.

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Fairy tales are adapted to fit the needs of each generation, reflecting the unique challenges of that society. In the 1980s and 1990s of the United States, issues of what constituted a family circulated as divorce increased and fatherhood was debated. At this time, Disney released two animated films featuring a father and daughter: The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. Both films are adaptations of fairy tales, and they incorporate changes that specifically reflect concerns of the United States in the late-twentieth century. In the original narrative of "The Little Mermaid" the heroine is primarily raised by her grandmother and wants an immortal soul more than the love of the prince. The tale ends with her death and expectation that after 300 years of service, she can obtain an immortal soul. Disney changes the story, however, by removing the grandmother and placing Triton at the head of the family. His overbearing nature pushes Ariel away as she struggles to gain her independence and win Eric's love. Before the story concludes, Triton, Ariel, and Eric work together to defeat the sea witch and achieve the film's happy ending--the creation of a traditional family. The fairy tale of "Beauty and the Beast" begins with a father who is educated, respected, and wealthy before hardship strikes. Beauty's request for a rose is what starts the adventure as she must learn to love the Beast to save him from an enchanted curse. Disney's alterations to the narrative make Maurice an ineffectual father whose inadequacies bring Belle to the Beast's castle, and the modified curse on the Beast makes both him and Belle need to fall in love, founding their relationship on equality. The tale concludes with the jubilant hope that the couple will form a family together. Both animated features proved popular with the public, suggesting that the films' resolutions are considered desirable endings. The films can then be interpreted as expressing the hope that from the single-parent homes of the late-twentieth century, a new generation of stronger nuclear families can arise if these homes base their relationships on unified efforts and equal partnerships.

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