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Not So Grim: Liz Lochhead’s Subversion of Patriarchy in The Grimm Sisters

Year 2018, Issue: 39, 139 - 156, 22.06.2018
https://doi.org/10.21497/sefad.443419

Abstract

Although originally folk and fairy tales belonged to female story-tellers who had composed these tales, their hold on the stories was gradually lost due to the rising interest of writers like Perrault and the Grimms in these tales. While putting these narratives down, male authors never simply wrote these tales down as they heard them but adapted them in a certain way to promote their patriarchal ideologies through these texts. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, however, postmodern writers, relying on intertextuality and the fantastic challenged the ancient lore, subsequently re-writing and questioning the reliability of these so-called “original” tales. Particularly female authors writing in the postmodern tradition challenged the central by replacing it with the peripheral, through their employment of such techniques as irony, satire, parody and pastiche. Among these writers, Scottish poetess Liz Lochhead stands out with her attempt to recover the “absent” voices in fairy tales. Re-writing the fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers from a female perspective in The Grimm Sisters (1981), Lochhead via her poems subverts the role of the traditionally silent part attributed to women, while voicing the concerns of women as story-tellers, mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, step-mothers, hags and the “other” women. In this regard, the aim of this article is to discuss the role of postmodern techniques and the fantastic in enabling Lochhead to subvert the conventional roles ascribed to women in her The Grimm Sisters and re-write the contemporary feminine experience as it is perceived and experienced by women per se.

References

  • Bacchilega, Cristina (1997). Postmodern Fairy Tales: Gender and Narrative Strategies. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
  • Balinisteanu, Tudor (2009). “Tangled Up in Blue: Liz Lochhead’s Grimm Sisters Tales”. Marvels & Tales 23 (2): 325-352.
  • Bell, Eleanor (2007). “Old Country, New Dreams: Scottish Poetry since the 1970s”. The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature: Volume Three: Modern Transformations: New Identities (from 1918). ed. Ian Brown. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP. 185-197.
  • Benson, Stephen (2008). “Introduction: Fiction and the Contemporaneity of the Fairy Tale”. Contemporary Fiction and the Fairy Tale. ed. Stephen Benson. Detroit: Wayne State UP. 1-19.
  • Braun-Hansen, Anne-Kathrin (2006). “Resignifying HiStories: The Subversive Potential of Revision in Liz Lochhead’s Poetry”. Ethically Speaking: Voice and Values in Modern Scottish Writing. eds. James McGnigal-Kirsten Stirling. Amsterdam: Rodopi. 69-86.
  • Connor, Steven (1997). Postmodernist Culture: An Introduction to Theories of the Contemporary. Oxford: Blackwells.
  • Dutheil De La Rochere, Martine Hennard-Heidmann, Ute (2009). “‘New Wine in Old Bottles’: Angela Carter’s Translation of Charles Perrault’s ‘La Barbe bleue’”. Marvels & Tales 23 (1): 40-58.
  • Foster, Hal (1985). “Introduction”. Postmodern Culture. ed. Hal Foster. London: Pluto. vii-xiv.
  • Harries, Elizabeth Wanning (2003). Twice Upon a Time: Women Writers and the History of the Fairy Tale. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton UP.
  • Jackson, Rosemary (1981). Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion. London: Routledge.
  • Joyce, Christa Mastrangelo (2009). “Contemporary Women Poets and the Fairy Tale”. Fairy Tales Reimagined: Essays on New Retellings. ed. Susan Redington Bobby. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. 31-43.
  • Lochhead, Liz (1984). Dreaming Frankenstein & Collected Poems. Edinburgh: Polygon Books.
  • Macdonald, Ruth (1982). “The Tale Retold: Feminist Fairy Tales”. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 7 (2 Summer): 18-20.
  • Makinen, Merja (2008). “Theorizing Fairy-Tale Fiction, Reading Jeanette Winterson”. Contemporary Fiction and the Fairy Tale. ed. Stephen Benson. Detroit: Wayne State UP. 144-77.
  • Mcgnigal, James-Stirling, Kirsten (2006). “Introduction”. Ethically Speaking: Voice and Values in Modern Scottish Writing. eds. James McGnigal-Kirsten Stirling. Amsterdam: Rodopi. 9-16.
  • Mchale, Brian (1987). Postmodernist Fiction. London: Methuen.
  • Skoblow, Jeffrey (2003). “Scottish Poetry”. A Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry. ed. Neil Roberts. Malden, MA, USA: Blackwell Publishing. 318-328.
  • Stringer, Jenny (2004). Ed. The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English. Oxford: Oxford UP. 397-398.
  • Tamlane (1959). Anthology of Children’s Literature. eds. Edna Johnson, Evelyn R. Sickels, Frances Clarke Sayers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 200-201.
  • Tannert-Smith, Barbara (2008). Lochhead, Liz (1947–). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folk Tales and Fairy Tales. ed. Donald Haase. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. 588.
  • Thacker, Deborah (2002). “Playful subversion”. Introducing Children’s Literature: From Romanticism to Postmodernism. eds. Deborah Cogan Thacker-Jean Webb.London: Routledge. 139-150.
  • Walker, Nancy (1995). The Disobedient Writer: Women and Narrative Tradition. Austin: University of Texas Press.
  • Warner, Marina (1999). The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: Norton & Company Inc.
  • Warner, Marina (2014). Once upon a Time: A short history of fairy tale. Oxford: Oxford UP.
  • Wilson, Sharon (2008). “Introduction: Fiction and the Contemporaneity of the Fairy Tale”. Contemporary Fiction and the Fairy Tale. ed. Stephen Benson. Detroit: Wayne State UP. 98-119.
  • Zipes, Jack (2006). Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion: The Classical Genre for Children and the Process of Civilization. New York: Routledge.

O Kadar Da Amansız Değil: The Grimm Sisters Adlı Eserinde Liz Lochhead’in Ataerkil Düzeni Altüst Edişi

Year 2018, Issue: 39, 139 - 156, 22.06.2018
https://doi.org/10.21497/sefad.443419

Abstract

Aslen halk hikâyeleri ve peri masalları bu eserleri yaratmış kadın hikâye anlatıcılarına ait olmasına rağmen kadınların hikâyeler üzerindeki tekeli Perrault ve Grimm kardeşler gibi isimlerin hikâyelere gösterdikleri ilgiyle giderek yok olmuştur. Hikâyeleri yazarken, erkek yazarlar asla bu hikâyeleri duydukları gibi kâğıda dökmez ve bu eserleri kendi ataerkil ideolojilerini destekleyecek şekilde uyarlar. Yirminci yüzyılın son çeyreğinde postmodern yazarlar, metinler-arasılık ve fantastik aracılığıyla eski öğretilerine meydan okumuş ve bunun sonucunda sözüm ona “orijinal” olan bu hikâyelerin güvenilirliklerini sorgularken adı geçen hikâyeleri yeniden yazmıştır. Özellikle postmodern kadın yazarlar, ironi, hiciv, parodi ve pastiş gibi teknikler yardımıyla merkeziyi dışlanmışla değiştiririp geleneği sorgular. Bu yazarlar arasında, İskoç şair Lic Lochhead fantastiği kullanımı ve peri masallarında “namevcut” olan sesleri geri kazanıp yeniden yazması açısından önemli bir yer tutar. The Grimm Sisters (1981) adlı eserinde, Grimm kardeşlerin masallarını kadın bakış açısından yeniden yazan Lochhead, geleneksel olarak kadınlarla özdeşleştirilmiş olan sessiz rolü ters düz ederken kadınların hikâye anlatıcıları, anneler, eşler, kız çocukları, kız kardeşler, üvey anneler, kocakarılar ve “diğer” kadın olarak endişelerini dile getirir. Bu bağlamda, bu makalenin amacı postmodern teknikler ve fantastiğin Lochhead’in The Grimm Sisters adlı eserinde kadınlara ithaf edilmiş geleneksel rolleri alt üst ettiğini ve kadınların güncel deneyimlerinin kadınlar tarafından anlaşıldığı ve deneyimlendiği üzere yeniden yazımını sağladığını savunur.

References

  • Bacchilega, Cristina (1997). Postmodern Fairy Tales: Gender and Narrative Strategies. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
  • Balinisteanu, Tudor (2009). “Tangled Up in Blue: Liz Lochhead’s Grimm Sisters Tales”. Marvels & Tales 23 (2): 325-352.
  • Bell, Eleanor (2007). “Old Country, New Dreams: Scottish Poetry since the 1970s”. The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature: Volume Three: Modern Transformations: New Identities (from 1918). ed. Ian Brown. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP. 185-197.
  • Benson, Stephen (2008). “Introduction: Fiction and the Contemporaneity of the Fairy Tale”. Contemporary Fiction and the Fairy Tale. ed. Stephen Benson. Detroit: Wayne State UP. 1-19.
  • Braun-Hansen, Anne-Kathrin (2006). “Resignifying HiStories: The Subversive Potential of Revision in Liz Lochhead’s Poetry”. Ethically Speaking: Voice and Values in Modern Scottish Writing. eds. James McGnigal-Kirsten Stirling. Amsterdam: Rodopi. 69-86.
  • Connor, Steven (1997). Postmodernist Culture: An Introduction to Theories of the Contemporary. Oxford: Blackwells.
  • Dutheil De La Rochere, Martine Hennard-Heidmann, Ute (2009). “‘New Wine in Old Bottles’: Angela Carter’s Translation of Charles Perrault’s ‘La Barbe bleue’”. Marvels & Tales 23 (1): 40-58.
  • Foster, Hal (1985). “Introduction”. Postmodern Culture. ed. Hal Foster. London: Pluto. vii-xiv.
  • Harries, Elizabeth Wanning (2003). Twice Upon a Time: Women Writers and the History of the Fairy Tale. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton UP.
  • Jackson, Rosemary (1981). Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion. London: Routledge.
  • Joyce, Christa Mastrangelo (2009). “Contemporary Women Poets and the Fairy Tale”. Fairy Tales Reimagined: Essays on New Retellings. ed. Susan Redington Bobby. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. 31-43.
  • Lochhead, Liz (1984). Dreaming Frankenstein & Collected Poems. Edinburgh: Polygon Books.
  • Macdonald, Ruth (1982). “The Tale Retold: Feminist Fairy Tales”. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 7 (2 Summer): 18-20.
  • Makinen, Merja (2008). “Theorizing Fairy-Tale Fiction, Reading Jeanette Winterson”. Contemporary Fiction and the Fairy Tale. ed. Stephen Benson. Detroit: Wayne State UP. 144-77.
  • Mcgnigal, James-Stirling, Kirsten (2006). “Introduction”. Ethically Speaking: Voice and Values in Modern Scottish Writing. eds. James McGnigal-Kirsten Stirling. Amsterdam: Rodopi. 9-16.
  • Mchale, Brian (1987). Postmodernist Fiction. London: Methuen.
  • Skoblow, Jeffrey (2003). “Scottish Poetry”. A Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry. ed. Neil Roberts. Malden, MA, USA: Blackwell Publishing. 318-328.
  • Stringer, Jenny (2004). Ed. The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English. Oxford: Oxford UP. 397-398.
  • Tamlane (1959). Anthology of Children’s Literature. eds. Edna Johnson, Evelyn R. Sickels, Frances Clarke Sayers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 200-201.
  • Tannert-Smith, Barbara (2008). Lochhead, Liz (1947–). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folk Tales and Fairy Tales. ed. Donald Haase. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. 588.
  • Thacker, Deborah (2002). “Playful subversion”. Introducing Children’s Literature: From Romanticism to Postmodernism. eds. Deborah Cogan Thacker-Jean Webb.London: Routledge. 139-150.
  • Walker, Nancy (1995). The Disobedient Writer: Women and Narrative Tradition. Austin: University of Texas Press.
  • Warner, Marina (1999). The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: Norton & Company Inc.
  • Warner, Marina (2014). Once upon a Time: A short history of fairy tale. Oxford: Oxford UP.
  • Wilson, Sharon (2008). “Introduction: Fiction and the Contemporaneity of the Fairy Tale”. Contemporary Fiction and the Fairy Tale. ed. Stephen Benson. Detroit: Wayne State UP. 98-119.
  • Zipes, Jack (2006). Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion: The Classical Genre for Children and the Process of Civilization. New York: Routledge.
There are 26 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Merve Sarı

Publication Date June 22, 2018
Submission Date February 9, 2018
Published in Issue Year 2018 Issue: 39

Cite

APA Sarı, M. (2018). Not So Grim: Liz Lochhead’s Subversion of Patriarchy in The Grimm Sisters. Selçuk Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi(39), 139-156. https://doi.org/10.21497/sefad.443419

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