Myths and Fairy Tales in Contemporary Women's Fiction

Myths and Fairy Tales in Contemporary Women's Fiction explores contemporary feminist, postmodernist, and postcolonial women writers' use and revisions of fairy tales and myths. With close readings of works ranging from Margaret Atwood to Doris Lessing to Toni Morrison, Wilson examines meanings of myths and fairy tales as well as their varying techniques, images, intertexts, and genres. Although the writers represent several different nationalities and racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, they employ a type of postcolonial literature that urges readers and societies beyond colonization. Wilson argues that the use of myths and fairy tales generally convey characters' transformation from alienation and symbolic amputation to greater consciousness, community, and wholeness, and it is in and through story that characters construct a hybrid way of establishing themselves in the larger world.

"Bringing together this dissimilar group of authors is a major achievement. The complexity of Wilson's theoretical perspective is matched by the complexity of the relationships she intuits among these writers. The clarity of some of the insights in the book is breathtaking." - Carol L. Beran, Professor of English, Saint Mary's College of California

Wilson has produced an admirable, eminently useful study that functions on two levels. First, it provides insightful textual analysis of works by Atwood, Doris Lessing, Toni Morrison, Louise Erdrich, Rosario Ferre, Iris Murdoch, Jean Rhys, and Keri Hulme. This is a diverse group of writers, yet Wilson draws convincing parallels and links among the works as feminist, postcolonial, and postmodern texts. Second, the book demonstrates these writers' varying uses of intertextuality, particularly fairy tales such as 'Fitcher's Bird,' 'Bluebeard,' 'Sleeping Beauty,' and 'The Robber Bridegroom' along with myths from a variety of cultures . . . Wilson succeeds in overturning some common biases and misconceptions about contemporary women's literature . . . Highly recommended." - Choice

SHARON R. WILSON is Professor of English and Women's Studies, University of Northern Colorado, USA.