A1 Journal article (refereed)
Wooing Werewolves : Girls’ Genius, Feminine, and Initiation in Angela Carter’s and Märta Tikkanen’s Versions of “Little Red Riding Hood” (2024)

Wide, C. M. (2024). Wooing Werewolves : Girls’ Genius, Feminine, and Initiation in Angela Carter’s and Märta Tikkanen’s Versions of “Little Red Riding Hood”. Folklore, 92(1), 99-120. https://doi.org/10.7592/FEJF2024.92.wide

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Wide, Carola Maria

Journal or series: Folklore

ISSN: 1406-0957

eISSN: 1406-0949

Publication year: 2024

Volume: 92

Issue number: 1

Pages range: 99-120

Publisher: Estonian Literary Museum Scholarly Press

Publication country: Estonia

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7592/FEJF2024.92.wide

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/94907

Abstract

Girls’ initiation contributes to cultural representations in Western folk fairy tales. This study examines girls’ initiation in three contemporary versions of “Little Red Riding Hood”, Angela Carter’s “The Company of Wolves” and “Wolf-Alice” (1979), and Märta Tikkanen’s Rödluvan (Little Red Riding Hood, 1986), in relation to “The Story of Grandmother”, popularized by Paul Delarue (1956). Combining fairy-tale research with Kristevan theories on subjectivity, the feminine, and the genius, it examines how initiation assigns to the girl in Delarue’s tale a social identity and role as a woman and how the contemporary tales negotiate this through the heroines’ wooing of werewolves. The findings, presented in both written and visual forms, show the reach of the heroines’ feminine psychosexual maturity, here called the girl genius, in Carter’s and Tikkanen’s versions, representing an alternative to traditional assumptions of girls’ psychosexuality within normative heterosexuality.

Keywords: fairy tales; folk tales; thesis novels; girls; menstruation

Free keywords: abjection; Angela Carter; the Kristevan feminine; the girl genius; girls’ initiation; menstruation; Märta Tikkanen; the Kristevan subject; Little Red Riding Hood

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Preliminary JUFO rating: 2