Marvellous geometry : narrative and metafiction in modern fairy tale
Doctoral Thesis
2003
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University of Cape Town
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Abstract
Despite the age of the fairy-tale tradition, and its focus on fairly primitive aspects of human experience, fairy tale is able to adapt itself to a range of cultures and contexts, including numerous examples in the twentieth century. Various authors and film-makers are reasserting the power and value of the fairy tale as a response even to the uncertain and ironic experience of contemporary culture. The suitability of fairy tale to modern texts rests partially in its qualities of inherentmetafictionality, the extent to which it self-consciously denies mimesis. This gives it particular relevance to postmodernism, as does the structuredness which facilitates self-aware play with genre. At the same time, the status of oral fairy tale as a folk form connects interestingly with postmodernism's blurring of the boundaries between high and low culture. This has particular implications for the presence of fairy tale within texts traditionally considered as popular culture, herethe fantasy/science fiction ghetto, and the Hollywood film. This thesis chooses to focus on texts which attempt to write actual fairy tale, rather than those which use fairy-tale motifs thematically. In making this distinction, attention is paid to particular aspects of recognisable fairy-tale texture, that is, overall effect, which relies on elements of pattern, structure, simplification, symbolism, ahistorisicim, the construction of a removed and marvellous world, and a tone of certainty which necessitates a response of accepting wonder in the reader.
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Bibliography: leaves 190-201.
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Tiffin, J. 2003. Marvellous geometry : narrative and metafiction in modern fairy tale. University of Cape Town.