Abstract
Feminist scholars have criticized the misogyny of folk/fairy tales that recount how “willful” princesses who refuse to marry are reformed or punished. As a result, contemporary authors of fairy-tale picturebooks tend to alter or not incorporate the forced marriage theme when engaging with these tales. Yet, the trope of the “willful” princess whose will is “straightened” is still operative in recent fairy tales. Through a multimodal analysis of La bella Griselda (Beautiful Griselda, 2010) and De gouden kooi (The Golden Cage,2014), I show how these fairy-tale picturebooks reiterate the harmful dynamic of reforming or penalizing a “willfully” agentic princess.
Recommended Citation
Borst, Rosalyn. "Straightening Agentic Women: The “Willful” Princess in Contemporary Fairy-Tale Picturebooks." Marvels & Tales 36.2 (2023). Web. <https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/marvels/vol36/iss2/5>.
