Beyond Genre: Fairy Tales Transformation in the Contemporary German-Language Literature (Exemplified By the Works of and Rafik Schami, Walter Moers, Elfriede Jelinek)
Ewelina TKACZ
ewelina.tkacz4@gmail.comUniwersytet Jagielloński (Kraków) (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2571-3157
Abstract
Multiple studies attempt to explain the unflagging interest of literature in fairy tales. Regardless of whatever they define as a reason of the mentioned phenomenon, it is undeniable that the contemporary literary works based on fairy tales still hold the entertainment potential of the original. Therefore, the aim of this article is to explore the reception of classic fairy tales in the contemporary literature, to highlight which text elements are being transformed and to reflect on possible motives of selected travesties. For this purpose, the article follows two important tropes of contemporary studies of fairy tales. Firstly, fairy tales are admittedly being used by their adaptors as a tool for commenting the reality, what makes them a sensors of social changes and cultural developments. That being said, the literary analysis of contemporary fairy tales must include cultural and social studies, as well as the historical aspect. Secondly, defining a specific type of narration as the essence of fairy tales, the article admits that the genre is well suited to exceed any formal limits. The works of three authors were used as a case study. The book Fairy Tales from Malula, written by the intercultural writer Rafik Schami refers to the classic fairy tales both with form and contents and is interpreted in the context of intercultural transfer and interference of fairy tales. Walter Moers, the author of Ensel und Krete, modernizes the form and the contents of classic fairy tales and adapts them to the modern pop-culture, mainly by using the strategy of parody and transmediality. Elfiede Jelinek and her drama Snow White, while not formally a fairy tale, takes up many elements of fairy tales and comments on them. The article interprets this metatextual work as a “reception of reception” and places it in the cultural fairy tale discourse. The author concludes that the very nature of fairy tales predisposes them to transcend borders, both genological and interpretive.
Keywords:
fairy tales, intercultural literature, retelling, parody, transmediality, metatextuality, Rafik Schami, Fairy Tales from Malula, Elfriede Jelinek, Snow White, Walter Moers, Ensel und KreteReferences
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Authors
Ewelina TKACZewelina.tkacz4@gmail.com
Uniwersytet Jagielloński (Kraków) Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2571-3157
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