Dr Silvia Storti

Research project: Brutes, Beasts, and Beauties: a study of three villains and their interpretations in fairy-tale narratives from the Victorian to the Contemporary

Abstract

This project explores the portrayal of villainy in fairy-tale narratives, starting in the Victorian Era and moving into the contemporary. I argue that villainy in fairy-tale retellings, reworkings, and adaptations has been used to reflect upon socio-cultural anxieties about the Other, functioning as an index of cultural shifts. In these specific fairy-tale contexts, the villain is identified as associated with a range of issues including orientalism, hyper-masculinity, and female sexuality. Villains therefore emerges as shifting amorphous signifiers, whose role in the narrative is no longer confined to being the foil to the hero, but instead exist for themselves as a subject of interpretive significance. My thesis is articulated via three tales—Bluebeard, Little Red Riding Hood, and Sleeping Beauty—which act as case studies; it is my hope that this project may serve as a template for future scholarly work so that my findings may be applied to other fairy tales, their villains, and their adaptations.