Women’s portrayal in fairy tales: A new reading based on the body-identity-emotion model

Hila Haelyon, Moshe Levy

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Feminist researchers have delved into the causes underlying the
rupture between women’s bodies, and their identities and
emotional experiences. They have found evidence that language
and discourse shaped a way of thinking in which the female body
was depicted as defective, guilty and violated. Early philosophical
discourses, for example, described the womb as a ‘prison’;
medical discourses drew linkages between the uterus and psychic
disorders; cultural narratives ascribed birth marks to a deficiency
in the mother’s performance. In the present paper, we shall claim
that the Cartesian doctrine of separation also emerges from the
portrayal of female characters in fairy tales. Describing the bodies
of fairy tale heroines as injured and mutilated, portraying them in
passive postures, reducing their identities and silencing their
emotional expressions – all these are evidences of the
‘disembodied body’ perspective characteristic of Cartesian
doctrine.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)52-66
Number of pages15
JournalThe Journal of Children's Literature Studies
Volume7
Issue number3
StatePublished - 2011

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