234
desire figure in—not only Willingham’s, but potentially Coover’s or Barthelme’s, as
well. In this way, the redeployment of a successful “fracturing” of the tale creates the
space for multiple
Snow White
tales to emerge, reawakening what
Bacchilega refers to as
a “fairy tale web” of magic
68
.
In highlighting this new form of
Snow White
patterning, however, I do not mean
to suggest that all of Disney’s and/or other contemporary versions function in this way.
Several young adult novels produced in recent years are baseless, taking
Snow White
or
Fairest
only in name to coerce a market readily consuming fairy tales.
From an alternate
angle, animation and marketing geared toward Disney’s younger audiences continues to
groom new child-audiences with the “classic” Disney structures and figureheads.
Although the animated cartoon series
Sofia the First
(2012)
might be understood
to have progressively employed the “fractured fairy tale” form, as well, its manipulation
of this contemporary tool soon becomes evident as characters from Disney’s own
“classic” library frequently come into play. Briefly,
Sofia the First
centers
on a series of
adventures undertaken by the titular character. However, when Sofia (the young princess
from humble origins) encounters challenges that are insurmountable, the magical amulet
that she wears around her neck enables an earlier Disney princess to appear, offering
advice and counseling the younger princess into action. The (elder) Disney Princess
(whether Snow White, Cinderella, or another), now positioned as something between a
68
Cristina Bacchilega contends that “it may be helpful to think of the fairy tale genre today as
a web whose
hypertextual links do not refer back to one authority or central tradition. This early-twenty-first century
‘fairy tale web’ has woven into it—inside and outside of the academy—multiple, competing historical
traditions and performances of the genre as well as varied contemporary revisions in multiple media”
(Bacchilega and Rieder 25).
235
mother figure or fairy tale helper, instructs Sofia, gently guiding her into the mold of the
princess that she “should” become. In this way, Disney’s traditional “civilizing process”
and “classic” version are once again activated under the pretense of contemporary
modeling for young girls (
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