Fairy Tales and Adaptation

52^nd annual convention of the NeMLA

March 11-14, 2021

Philadelphia / Online

PRESENTATION

The panel proposes a discussion of the transformations fairy tales undergo when being adapted into new media (for example, Hansel and Gretel as an opera), new cultures (Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid as Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo) and new historical or theoretical contexts (Catherine Breillat’s Sleeping Beauty).

We are equally interested in analyses of particular fairy tales and reflections on the adaptation of the genre, and welcome work on the metamorphoses of specific characters or character types, plots, or motifs. Through the links they establish between original and adapted media, narratives, and cultures, what new questions of interpretation do the adaptations open? Reading across adaptations, do new fairy tale standards emerge?

A further area of investigation is that of fairy tales that are used as intertexts of narratives in other media, as for example Charles Perrault’s Bluebeard in Alex Garland’s Ex Machina. What does the layering of fairy tales, rather than the use of other literary allusions, add to these works? In this format, what shape does the distilled essence of the fairy tale take?

SUBMISSIONS

Please submit 300-word abstracts using the NeMLA portal: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/18717 and do not hesitate to contact me with any questions (aio@udel.edu).

The deadline is Sept. 30^th, 2020.