Disenchanting Patriarchal Fairy Tales through Parody in Angela Carter’s the Bloody Chamber and Other Stories and Emma Donoghue’s Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins

Abstract

It has been believed that the beginning of the fairy tales is as old as mankind. Due to the fact that they previously belonged to oral literature and later became part of the literary tradition, the formal and thematic qualities have gone through various changes in time. With their development and transformation, fairy tales are accepted as the integral part of the literary history of the world. Especially, classical European fairy tales are one of the major genres which reflect the cultural, social and gender characteristics of the nations. At the turn of the transition from oral to literary tradition, oral fairy tales, which are associated with women and their works, were transcribed by male writers and compilers. Therefore, since they were transcribed by the male scribes, the tales were under the influence of patriarchal ideology and discourse.