Bluebeard and its multiple layers of meaning

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5433/1519-5392.2014v14n2p47

Keywords:

Bluebeard, Fairy tales, Meanings

Abstract

This article challenges the position taken by some experts in the field of fairy tales that critics have misinterpreted fairy tales (ZIPES, 2007). I argue that one cannot be sure of the narrator’s intention and that the meanings conveyed by a fairy tale can be constructed in different ways (NODELMAN; REIMER, 2003). Supports for this argument come from the analysis of Bluebeard (PERRAULT, 2002) from different perspectives: historical (ZIPES, 2006), feminist, and Jungian, (e.g., ESTÉS, 1995), Freudianian (e.g., BETTELHEIM, 1977) and Lacanian (HERMANSSON, 2009). Discussions of the various layers of meaning that these approaches might convey are explored. I conclude by showing that Bluebeard, a complex work of art, is remarkable for its contemporaneity.

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Author Biography

Denise Maria Osborne, University of Arizona (USA)

PhD student in the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT) program at the University of Arizona (USA).

References

BETTELHEIM, Bruno. The uses of enchantment. New York: Vintage Books, 1977.

BLACK, Elizabeth. Pragmatic stylistics. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.

ESTÉS, Clarissa Pinkola. Women who run with the wolves. New York: Ballantine Books, 1995.

MÁRQUEZ, Gabriel García. One hundred years of solitude. New York: Avon Books, 1971.

HERMANSSON, Casie. Bluebeard. A reader’s guide to the English tradition. University of Mississippi: Association of American University Presses, 2009.

NODELMAN, Perry; REIMER, Mavis. The pleasures of children’s literature. 3. ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2003.

PERRAULT, Charles. Blue Beard. In: TATAR, Maria (Ed.). The annotated classic fairy tales. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002. p. 145-157.

TATAR, Maria (Ed.). The annotated classic fairy tales. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002.

TATAR, Maria. Secrets beyond the door. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2004.

ZIPES, Jack. Why fairy tales stick. New York: Routledge, 2006.

ZIPES, Jack. When dreams came true. 2. ed. New York: Routledge, 2007.

Published

2015-04-27

How to Cite

OSBORNE, D. M. Bluebeard and its multiple layers of meaning. Entretextos, Londrina, v. 14, n. 2, p. 47–62, 2015. DOI: 10.5433/1519-5392.2014v14n2p47. Disponível em: https://ojs.uel.br/revistas/uel/index.php/entretextos/article/view/15567. Acesso em: 19 may. 2024.

Issue

Section

Artigos