Friday, November 9, 2012

New Book: Fairy Tale Queens: Representations of Early Modern Queenship by Jo Eldridge Carney



Fairy Tale Queens: Representations of Early Modern Queenship by Jo Eldridge Carney is a new release. I haven't seen it to review it--the SurLaLune budget won't stretch for this one, alas. But it is intriguing and is on my list. For now, the usual info is shared here. Fascinating...

Book description:

Most of our fairy tale capital today comes from the popular tales of Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen, but this study encourages readers to explore the marvelous tales of authors from the early modern period—Giovanni Straparola, Giambattista Basile, Madame Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy, and others—whose works enrich and expand our notion of the canon. The queen is omnipresent in these tales, as much a hallmark of the genre as its other familiar characteristics: the number three, magical objects, quests, happy endings. That queens occupy such space in these early modern tales is not surprising given the profound influence of so many powerful queens in the political landscapes of early modern England and Europe. This book argues for the historical relevance of fairy tales and explores the dynamic intersection between fictional and actual queens.

About the Author

Jo Eldridge Carney is an associate professor of English at The College of New Jersey. She is the author of essays on sixteenth-century literature, Shakespeare, and fairy tales and has edited essay collections o the early modern period.

Table of Contents:

List of Illustrations xi

Acknowledgments xiii

1 Early Modern Queens and the Intersection of Fairy Tales and Fact 1

2 The Queen's (In)Fertile Body and the Body Politic 11

3 Maternal Monstrosities: Queens and the Reproduction of Heirs and Errors 39

4 Men, Women, and Beasts: Elizabeth I and Beastly Bridegrooms 65

5 The Fairest of Them All: Queenship and Beauty 87

6 The Queen's Wardrobe: Dressing the Part 117

7 The Queen's Body: Promiscuity at Court 147

Notes 177

Works Cited 211

Index 229

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