through the looking glass: adaptation as mirror in contemporary fairy tales
TRANSCRIPT
Through the
Looking Glass
Adaptation as Mirror in Contemporary Fairy Tales
Karen Graham, University of Aberdeen
Through the
Looking Glass
The Golden Age of Retelling?
In a fast paced, digital world, why do these stories survive? Why do they appeal to us as children and why do they follow us in to
adulthood?
Mirror mirror on the wall…No longer was the fairy tale to be like the mirror, mirror on the wall reflecting the cosmetic bourgeois standards of beauty and virtue that appeared to be unadulterated and pure. The fairy tale and the mirror cracked into sharp-edged, radical parts by the end of the nineteenth century.
— Jack Zipes, Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion
Mirror mirror on the wall…Like a magic mirror, the fairy tale reflects and conforms to the way things “truly” are, the way our lives are “truly” lived. As with all mirrors, though, refraction and the shaping presence of a frame mediate the fairy tale's reflection. As it images our potential for transformation, the fairy tale refracts what we wish or fear to become.
— Cristina Bacchilega, Postmodern Fairy Tales
Classic Tale – New Twist
I am not myself…“Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle!” ... “Who are you?” said the Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I--I hardly know, sir, just at present-- at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”“What do you mean by that?” said the Caterpillar sternly. “Explain yourself!”I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, sir” said Alice, “because I'm not myself, you see.”
Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
The Wrong Alice
Gendy Alimurung, 'Alice In Wonderland Fashion Battle: Tim Burton's New School Vs. Cartoon Disney Old School' LA Weekly 30 June 2009
Maleficent
Wonderlands