Volume 29, Issue 2 (2015)

From the Editors

Issue 29.2 of Marvels & Tales marks Jennifer Orme’s last run as review editor. First working as the assistant review editor in 2007, Jennifer took over the review section in 2013 and oversaw the review section in four issues. She has been an important part of the Marvels & Tales team, and although we will miss her regular participation in the journal, we hope to continue collaborating with her in other ways. Thank you, Jennifer, for all your creative and thoughtful work as review editor!

This issue brings together articles on the medieval, the early modern, and the postmodern, opening with an essay on the contemporary fairy-tale work of Cathrynne Valente to later examine the Victorian subversions of Mary de Morgan and those of the 1690s fairy-tale writer Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy. Tensions and intersections between East and West are explored in pieces concerning the medieval Japanese Tale of Amewakahiko, Orientalism in the DEFA film The Story of Little Mook, and fear in the works for children by Salman Rushdie. Often the case in fairy tales, small objects, seeds, and fruit can prove to be central, as several essays demonstrate here, underlining the ways in which elements that may appear to be ordinary, small, or insignificant indeed are connected to significant matters such as sexuality, gender, and regional identity. This issue provides new insights into the author of The Count of Monte Cristo and includes a translation of a piece by Paul Arène in which the tales of Charles Perrault feed into a child’s reimagining of the Nativity.

Cristina Bacchilega and Anne E. Duggan

It is with sadness that,Marvels & Tales acknowledges the passing of Terry Staples, author of All Pals Together: The Story of Children's Cinema (1997). A former programmer at the National Film Theatre, London, and a teacher of cinema, drama, and literature, Terry passed away peacefully in the company of his family on March 8, 2015, after the drugs that had kept his cancer at bay for a year finally stopped working. Terry’s death is a loss to the field and a sorrow to all who were touched by Terry’s friendship. I will especially miss our email exchanges, in which Terry would serve as my British TV guide and give me updates of the English Premier League (specifically his beloved Arsenal FC), and most important, his wonderful sense of humor.

Helen J. Callow, Editorial Assistant