Negotiating spaces for women in society by retelling fairy tales

Abstract

This thesis explores the ways in which fairy tales affect our socio-political realities, and how by manipulating these tales we are able to manipulate the roles we actually play in the society. This paper believes that fairy tales are a tool of patriarchal acculturation, and we retell these stories to fit a feminist narrative, we challenge this acculturation, and we are able to negotiate spaces for women in society. It looks at the idea of space and the archetypes of the princess and the witch. While in traditional telling they are binary opposites, retold versions show how princesses need not be passive paragons of patriarchal virtue, and a witch is only human.