Fairy Tales Revisited In Contemporary American Movies: A Postmodernist Study

Abstract

In this study the interpretation of fairy tale themes have been analyzed in several contemporary American movies; Cinderella (2015), Maleficent (2014), Frozen (2013), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), and Mirror, Mirror (2012). The focus of the research has been on the transformation of roles, symbols, themes, and stories of fairytales as depicted in selected contemporary American movies. The stories of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White are almost universally known; playing on this universal knowledge, movie directors of postmodern era have reinterpreted these traditional stories in ways that fit contemporary norms and circumstances. Movie directors have represented the old texts of fairy tales but have changed the title, plot, and roles of characters. The researcher has examined the movies to find out the changes made in the original stories with a postmodernist approach. Intertextuality is the main focus of study as it explores the relativity and plurality of meaning in the typical tradition of Postmodernism, which also tends to explore the duplicity of meaning in literature. Intertextuality implies the presence of dialogue between texts and explores the reference to other texts, thereby challenging and undermining the hegemonic discourses and confronting them with uncommon substitutes. The study is qualitative in approach. The researcher has adopted Kevin Paul Smith’s method of analyzing intertextual elements which he has mentioned in his book The Postmodern Fairytale, Folkloric Intertexts in Contemporary Fiction. Smith has used eight elements for intertextual analysis of any work. The study affirms the notion that postmodern writers have deviated from the totalitarian regimes and brought forward different views as depicted in the aforementioned movies. The study is organized in five chapters. The first chapter comprises of the background of the study, research objectives, research questions, the significance of the study, delimitation, definitions VII of keywords and structure of the dissertation. The second chapter is based on literature review. The third chapter is based on the theoretical framework and the methodology used in the dissertation. The fourth chapter is based on the analysis of data by dealing separately with each movie. The fifth chapter highlights the results obtained through analysis and suggests some recommendations for future work.