Claudia Schawbe’s work applies a psychoanalytical reading to Western popular-culture media revisions, remakes, and new media inspired by German fairy tales. Each of the four chapters provides an overview of the relevant fairy tale and a definition of terms as used by Freud in psychoanalytic scholarship, with the bulk of the chapters focusing on a consideration of a few chosen adaptations. In general, the author shows preference for the original Freud writings or meanings and does not refer to other foundational scholarship such as that of Alan Dundes. Schwabe caps the chapters by widening the lens to consider other works that either tangentially or more explicitly relate to the work treated in the chapter. She opens with an explanation of monstrosity, complicating the common understanding by including references to Monster High and Ever After High, and to Marvel’s superheroes and mutants in film.
Chapter 1, “Reimaging Uncanny Fairy-Tale Creatures: Automatons, Golems, and Doppelgangers,” is an analysis in contrasts, describing the original perception of these figures as dark threats, and more modern interpretations that mostly rehabilitate them. In the German fairy tales these figures are often described as both demonic and uncanny (220), lending them to comparison across genres between fairy-tale-inspired works such as Edward Scissorhands (1990), and A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), and more science-fiction-based media such as The Stepford Wives (1975, 2004). Even in Edward Scissorhands and A.I., where the commonly understood demonic figures are rehabilitated, they still retain their “uncanny” aspects (19), and Schwabe’s analysis is detailed and thorough. This chapter provides valuable information and background, especially on the origins and trajectory of automatons, which scholars and students will find useful as it is not always a topic centered in fairy-tale or folklore commentary. Schwabe’s analysis of A.I., particularly as it relates to the idea that automatons as “most terrifying when they are most lifelike” (31), is an excellent supplement to interdisciplinary research and scholarship that considers the need for humanities in tech, and the moral or immoral nature of real-life A.I.
In recent years, the idea that villains are not really villains but are instead misunderstood characters has become very popular, and Schwabe explores this thesis in chapter 2, “Evil Queens and Witches: Mischievous Villains or Misunderstood Victims?” and in chapter 3, “Taming the Monstrous Other: Representations of the Rehabilitated Big Bad Beast in American Media.” Chapter 2 is certainly the most in-depth of the chapters, analyzing a variety of Snow White adaptations and reworkings. While the evil queen in Snow White is titularly one character, the revisions Schwabe addresses fall into two main categories: villains who are simply evil, and women who are products of trauma in their lives, and made, not born. Ravenna from the Huntsman movies, Claudia from A Tale of Terror, and Regina from OUAT, all fit into the latter category. Schwabe’s analysis is detailed, but the application of medical diagnosis for mental health issues in these characters (124), as well as the presentation of these women as created by their trauma, veers towards the uncomfortable proposition that women are not interesting unless damaged, as well as to the stigmatization of mental health issues. It also reads as odd because Schwabe does not apply this mental health diagnosis to her analysis of the different rehabilitations of the male Big Bad Wolf figure, as seen in Fables, Hoodwinked, and Grimm, or the female wolf figures as seen in both Once Upon a Time and Red Riding Hood. Chapter 3 builds nicely on the idea of uncanny figures, whether or not they can be rehabilitated; the perversion of the home; and a narrative that sympathizes with the uncanny figure. Given the set-up and background Schwabe provides, it is odd that she does not build on the uncanny as her focus; instead, she leans into the problematic “monstrous Other.”
Chapter 4, “Dwarfs, Diversity, and Deformation: From Fairy-Tale Imps to Rumpelstiltskin Reloaded,” is perhaps the weakest of the book. While Schwabe touches on issues that small people have brought regarding the presentation of dwarfs in the media, and the problems caused by not having small people as actors, what is missing is an in-depth engagement with disability studies as a whole, and with this topic in particular. Schwabe discusses the move away from presenting imps or dwarfs in fairy-tale inspired work as “defomed, emasculated, infantilized, asexual” (227), but only briefly touches on these issues, and instead forwards the idea that dwarfism is a monstrous disability. Therefore, this chapter is a missed opportunity to seriously engage with disability studies as a whole, to contribute to this field, and to advance fairy-tale scholarship in this area. Instead, she uses phrasings such as “deformed, disabled, or sickly” to describe past formulation, without pushing back on them or contextualizing different historical moments.
Fairy-tale and folklore work is by its nature interdisciplinary, and occasionally, scholars miss or fail to address issues in other fields that affect our own field. This problem can be seen throughout the book with regard to the uncomplicated presentation of “the Other,” a term that historians and literary scholars have stopped using since it reinscribes a marginal status; there is, as well, a simple, non-contextualized presence of ableist issues and language throughout the book. In her introduction, Schwabe sets the rise in “positive representations of supernatural creatures in pop culture” against the rising tide of “racism and xenophobic violence by right-wing extremists, white supermacists, and neo-Nazi groups” (11), but she misses an opportunity to engage more fully with these issues.
There is a lot of ground covered in each chapter: the multiple German fairy tales she describes, the timeline she traces for similar images and tropes, her detailed analysis of media, and the related movies and television shows she references. All of this will be helpful for a newcomer to the topic and to students, though the length of her chapters may make them hard to use in a classroom. Overall, Schwabe’s work is a detailed, comprehensive addition to the field, and it is a good contribution on these topics and themes.
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[Review length: 1005 words • Review posted on March 2, 2020]