English Honors Papers

Document Type

Restricted

Advisor

Lina Wilder

Publication Date

2025

Comments

Access to this paper is restricted to the Connecticut College campus.

Abstract

In this thesis, I argue that fairy tale retellings play a crucial role in children’s literature and have the ability to impact childhood in a meaningful way. Childhood is a malleable part of our lives when identity is shaped, and children’s literature has the weighty task of supporting this delicate era of the human experience. Fairy tale retellings fall into this category because they are an empowering source of literature for children that addresses their subconscious worries and teaches age-appropriate lessons. Fairy tale retellings address the needs of a child through literature, specifically through the morals that fairy tales broach and how they are linked to the morals that children are learning in their own lives. Fairy tales and their retellings help define the genre of children’s literature by exhibiting what a child desires from literature. This is seen by how reliability and escapism work in fairy tale retellings to satisfy a child’s reading experience. As we typically read fairy tales during our childhood, fairy tale retellings are a chance for authors to rewrite problematic themes of old fairy tales, continue their lessons at a new angle or with a different perspective, and present these departures or changes to a young, impressionable audience. In addition, fairy tale retellings breathe new life into old stories and allow them to be retold to new generations, keeping the original story alive through centuries. Highlighting Beauty and the Beast, The Goose Girl, The Little Mermaid, and Cinderella as examples, I argue that fairy tales play a significant role in children’s literature because they allow children to come to terms with the self.

Download

Share

COinS
 

The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.