When Dr Rebecca-Anne Do Rozario isn’t delivering lectures about the visceral possibilities of the Red Riding Hood story at fairy tale symposiums, writing fiction, blogging or publishing articles about the more-complex-than-expected Disney princess, she researches and teaches fairy tale, children’s and fantasy literature at Monash University. I hassled her until she gave in to an interview. That’s not strictly true. There was little to no hassling and she responded to my request quickly and with all the generous enthusiasm I remembered from the classes I took (on fantasy and children’s literature) at uni.
Please join me in welcoming Dr Rozario…
Would it be roughly right to say your work is involved with the relationship of mythic and folk tales to contemporary cultural production? How did you start going in this direction?
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that. I think the telling moment was during my Master of Letters. I was a part time student and before work, I’d grab a coffee and do some reading for assignments. I was reading Marina Warner’s From the Beast to the Blonde for an essay about Pride and Prejudice and became very excited as I realised the influence of the Beauty and the Beast tale on Austen’s novel. That was the moment I thought: “This is for me.” Plus, Warner’s scholarship was incredibly inspiring. Without ever realising it, I kept focussing on contemporary works that brought out fairy tale themes. It took going to a fairy tale conference to make me realise that’s what I was doing! However, I’m becoming more and more interested in the literary history of the fairy tale. I love reading Basile and D’Aulnoy these days. In fact, the earlier fairy tale authors share much with authors writing today.
Did you have any favorite stories when you were younger? I remember being fascinated by the Russian and Slavic tales and especially by the way they shifted between retellings, which I know is a central structural motif of this kind of story- the flexibility. It’s always fascinating to engage with contemporary reiterations of older stories, Catherine Breillat’s Bluebeard, or our own Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty for example… (and have you seen Sleeping Beauty? What did you think?)
Actually, Sleeping Beauty was one of my favourites growing up. I have seen the trailer for Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty, but I’d have to reserve an opinion until I saw the film itself. It’s always been a problematic tale, though I saw Renee Geyer in a musical Sleeping Beauty at the Malthouse a few years ago and I was delighted that they picked up on the princess having wonderful dreams while she’s sleeping. In fact, growing up, my favourite tales were from Shakespeare and Georgette Heyer. I had an eye for anything adventurous, preferably involving swords. Looking back, I can see the fairy tale elements there that appealed to me.
Your work with children’s and young adult literature must see you engaging with these same motifs over and over again. Can you identify movements within literature around how these stories are used?
Oddly, the more I look at it, the more I see how related all the tales are, no matter the time or place. There was a movement in the last few decades to reclaim the darkness in fairy tale, which was in part inspired by a myth (or fairy tale, if you like) that Disney had sugar coated all the tales. Having grown up with very little Disney influence, I didn’t quite understand that, which played into my eagerness to do a PhD on Disney! Also, the older tales were dark, but they were also incredibly funny and often quite ‘snarky’. I’m always a little worried when someone starts talking about making fairy tales ‘darker.’ I love the work of Joss Whedon and Steven Moffat with fairy tale. They use the darkness, but they remember to be clever, funny and often illogical, too. Good fairy tales are never quite logical.
And do you see new themes or stories springing up- new ‘urban’ stories or incidents shifting across into literature? I guess when I say ‘new’ I’m thinking of things like the way atomic war has been encoded as a new theme in tale-telling? (in, for example, Raymond Briggs’ When the Wind Blows, or in Z for Zachariah or even Wyndham’s The Chrysalids). Am I right off the mark? I know that there are only supposed to be seven stories in the world, but it seems like the industrial revolution’s kind of given us some fresh grist for the mill!
No, you’re absolutely on the mark! The tales of Straparola and Basile, for instance, often took place in urban settings. Again, we’ve had a myth going about fairy tales only taking place in the dark woods. Many do. Many other tales take place in crowded cities or small villages. Tales didn’t always originate with the ‘folk,’ either. That’s another myth. There’s no reason why we can’t have new tales and why fairy tales can’t absorb the tropes of steampunk, science fiction, urban fantasy etc or comment upon contemporary issues. Fairy tales have always been influenced by the surrounding culture. Women writing tales during the reign of Louis XIV would make quite cutting comments about the current institution of marriage and the moral and physical strength of the king.
I keep finding the most amazing fairy tales in the most unlikely places, only because we’ve got such a narrow classification of what a fairy tale is. Just in the last month, I saw a fantastic episode of Supernatural, “Clap Your Hands If You Believe,” that explains UFO abduction as fairy abduction, and I was reading Michael Swanwick’s short story, “The Dog Said Bow-Wow,” which is a pretty amazing Puss-in-Boots variant.
Do you write fiction? I’ve been reading some of Marina Warner’s books and have been curious about her short stories. I can’t help but think it would be difficult to wrestle an academic depth of engagement into something as (deceptively) simple as fiction..
I think writing fiction gives you a better perspective, actually. I’ve never stopped writing fiction. Shaun Tan made a great comment once about how people ask him when he started drawing and he responds ‘when did you stop?’ I’ve never stopped writing. I just recently took courage and posted a very short story onto my blog – it’s always a little daunting ‘exposing’ your writing to students! Fiction allows you to play with ideas, though, in ways that you can’t strictly play with them academically. While I maintain that writing in a scholarly fashion likewise involves creativity, sometimes playing with the idea in actual storytelling can give you a better feel for its nuances. It’s also a healthy reminder that sometimes a shoe is just a pretty shoe.
And finally, can you tell us a bit about your work? have you got any big projects coming up? I love the blog by the way, it’s a lovely portal into events and resources that can slip away if a person (read; Me) isn’t involved in a university/academic life any more..
I wish I could spend more time on the blog! [Doc-In-Boots- ed] At the moment, it’s a bit rough and ready, because it’s basically written during stolen moments when I find something that I want to share. It was really inspired by the idea of linking to students past and present and even future, students like yourself. One of the downsides of university life is that you can only communicate with students during the semester – but they don’t stop learning outside class. Finding ways to engage with them beyond the semester, that was my goal.
I am just about to go to Italy to teach fairy tales at Monash’s Prato campus. I’m really excited about it. This is where the literary tradition began and I’m hoping that once students see what the cities and villages are like, they’ll have a better understanding of their fairy tale heritage. I’m also working on a book about fashion in fairy tale. It’s taking a while to pull together, but I’ve learned so much already and I’ve got some new insights that I’m really enthusiastic about sharing.
Posted on July 6, 2011 by devoreurdelivres
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