Starting with snow white

Part I: Four episodes 
1. Origin 
2. Jealousy 
3. Expulsion 
4. Adoption 
Part II: Five episodes 
1. Renewed Jealousy (after news of survival) 
2. Death 
3. Exhibition 
4. Resuscitation 
5. Resolution (
New Comparative 
22-24) 
Aarne and Thompson’s model, with its focus on a tale’s “characteristics” proved 
insufficient, according to Jones, to address all versions of the tale (
New Comparative 
21).
Therefore, Jones’ model relies more heavily on “
episodes
” or “the essential dramatic 
events common to different versions of this narrative that are illustrated by various 
allomotifs”—“motifs that fulfill the same dramatic purpose in the same point in a 
narrative in different versions of that narrative” (
New Comparative 
21, 22). The latter 
(Jones’) structure seems more inclusive, allowing for the changeability of motifs that lead 
an audience through a certain narrative pattern of action. However, Jones broadens this 
understanding of “what counts” a bit too far in his continued theoretical framing, 
allowing that “Individual versions will sometimes skip one or another of the introductory 
episodes of each part” (
New Comparative 
24). This proves problematic not only for 
others employing his model, but further elicits a contradiction with his earlier premise 

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that each of the above episodes are “
essential 
dramatic events” (
New Comparative 
21; 
emphasis added). If a variant permissibly misses episodes or “consistently repeated 
significant events,” how does one distinguish what counts as a 
Snow White
variant? Does 
such flexibility ultimately broaden or prohibit classification?
For a response to this question, one need look no further than Kawan’s “A Brief 
Literary History of Snow White.” Here, Jones’ structural codification of 
Snow White 
is 
doubly challenged in a historical analysis embedded with the same. In line with Jones, 
Kawan appears to have treated a broader array of early precursors, only further delving 
into the literary schema to “outline the history of 
Snow White 
as a book tale and […] 
relate the written sources to oral ones” (325). This relation of the literary to the oral, 
necessarily draws in the folkloric retelling which produced the literary form of the tale.
However, as she moves from potential medieval oral variants involving “innocent 
persecuted heroines,” to an English tale upon which Shakespeare’s 
Cymbeline 
(1608/09)
 
might have been based, to Basile’s 
La schiavottella 
(“The Young Slave”)
 
(about 1620-
1630), Kawan employs Jones’ episodic structure to negate one potential variant after 
another (327). Each is cast aside for its failure to adhere to Jones’ model for classifying 
Snow White 
variants according to “dramatic action.” While Musäus’ 
Richilde
is initially 
recognized as the “first full version,” this variant too is disputed based upon its form, “a 
novelette,” along with a minor divergence from the regular structural patterning (Kawan 
331). At this point, Kawan’s criteria for securing an “early literary retelling” is troubled 
by the methodology of deconstructing as opposed to reconstructing a history of the oral 
and literary origins of 
Snow White
(327). As much as this appears a shortcoming of the 

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study itself, it likewise reflects the insufficiency of Jones’ structural method as a singular 
rubric for classification, even when placed in an historical framework. As a result, the 
question remains, what is required of a viable precursor, and what are effective means for 
the identification of one?
Jones’ more flexible folkloric model, when followed strictly, does not enfold the 
breadth of tales it aims to (although he does not hesitate to include Basile’s or Musäus’ 
texts in his analysis). Kawan’s historical study, in addition to poking holes in Jones 
method of classification,
14
likewise displays how difficult it is to chart the progression of 
a tale which lies between variant folk retellings and their literary counterparts. If the 
methods driving these “broader” studies apparently negate two of the most significant 
precursors to the 
Snow White 
tradition, it suggests that additional measures for inspecting 
a tale’s value are necessary. 
In the following section, I will address Basile’s, Musäus’, and the Grimms’ 
Snow 
White 
tales, each, in turn, in effort to advance an alternate approach employing additional 
measures that not only gesture toward the significance of Basile’s and Musäus’ versions, 
but further narrow toward the Grimms’ “classic.” While I do find that utilization of 
Jones’ model provides a baseline for classification in its understanding of folklore, by 
indicating its methodological gaps, I open a discussion of how these additional attributes 
lead toward the identification
 
of a 
Snow White 
“classic.” These other attributes include:
style, and cultural consciousness, and adaptive ability of the creator. I find that this 
14
See Kawan, “A Brief Literary History of 
Snow White
” for specific episodic discontinuities. 

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combination serves to unravel something of the mystery of those thought of as the most 
significant early versions of 
Snow White
.
Alternatively Interpreting Three 
Snow White 
Precursors Using a Multi-Layered Approach 
1.
 
Giambattista Basile’s “La schiavottella” (“The Young Slave”) 
A quick study of the formal episodic narrative patterning of Basile’s version of 
the 
Snow White
tale, “The Young Slave,” displays the troubled structure that I find Jones 
endeavoring to sidestep. The story begins when Cilla, the central figure at the start, 
enters a contest amongst other maidens to jump over a rose. Instead of accepting her 
failure (as the others had), she quickly eats the leaf that fell to the ground. As fate would 
have it, she becomes pregnant. After hiding the pregnancy for as long as possible, she 
sends the “beauteous woman child,” Lisa, to the fairies to raise her (Basile 206). While 
the 
origin 
of Lisa (or Snow White) is detailed in this opening, the most significant 
narrative element in the 
Snow White
tale,