Abstract
In the second half of the twentieth century the nature and function of the traditional fairy-tale rescuer have shifted dramatically. This paper analyzes the changes the rescuer has undergone in recent times by focusing on the story of “The Sleeping Beauty” and comparing its most famous versions—that is those of Basile, Perrault, and the Brothers Grimm—to some of the feminist revisions that have been written in the last decades, both in English and in Spanish. The former group of texts are responsible for the inscription of the male-rescuer archetype, that is, for conveying the idea that the redeemer is naturally a man. In contrtast, feminist revisions attempt, on the one hand, to demythologize the traditional hero, and, on the other, to offer different alternatives to it.
Recommended Citation
Fernandez Rodriguez, Carolina. "The Deconstruction of the Male-Rescuer Archetype in Contemporary Feminist Revisions of “The Sleeping Beauty”." Marvels & Tales 16.1 (2002). Web. <https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/marvels/vol16/iss1/4>.
