The story of Little Red Riding Hood is so universally well-known that it is quite understandable that authors around the world have used it as a springboard for their own adaptations. It is hardly surprising that the tale of the girl and the wolf has remained popular for so very many years, dealing as it does with such lurid topics as rape, cannibalism, mutilation, violent death, and resurrection. Red is of course the color of blood, and there are indeed some bloody stories contained in this anthology. Red is also a color associated with sensuality, and there is plenty of that, too, involving wolves and Riding Hoods of all ages. It is perhaps surprising that such a gory, racy yarn has ever been considered fit material for children, but such is the case, and this collection of modern (twentieth and twenty-first century) international interpretations includes works intended for all ages. There is even a satirical jab aimed at attempts to sanitize fairy tales and render them politically correct.
Sandra Beckett is the author of Recycling Red Riding Hood (2002) and Red Riding Hood for All Ages: A Fairy-Tale Icon in Cross-Cultural Contexts (2008). Revisioning Red Riding Hood Around the World: An Anthology of International Retellings appears to be essentially a continuation of the latter work. It even uses the same titles for five of its seven chapters. In her research, Beckett has come upon many retellings of the Riding Hood story not yet published in English, something that she feels is vitally important in order to make them accessible to a wider audience. Of the fifty-two works included here, only two have ever before been published in English. This book is nicely illustrated with thirty-six color plates and numerous black-and-white drawings, using at least one illustration from every picture book included in the collection. The fact that the pictures differ greatly in style helps to emphasize the diversity of the literature.
Each of the seven sections in the book contains works, or in some cases brief selections taken from larger works, all representing the theme of that section, and each work is preceded by an informative introduction. As in Red Riding Hood for All Ages, the first chapter, “Cautionary Tales for Modern Riding Hoods,” includes works dealing with aspects of the story meant to serve as warnings to young girls about the dangers of straying from the path. Chapter 2, “Contemporary Riding Hoods Come of Age,” is comprised of works that address the departure of the protagonist from the world of childhood and her initiation to womanhood. The third chapter, “Playing with the Story of Red Riding Hood and the Wolf,” is, as the title implies, devoted to stories that twist the fairy tale in various humorous and entertaining ways. Chapters 4 through 7 deal with the all-important wolf of the story, who is variously depicted as a lover to Red Riding Hood, a symbol of endangered wildlife, or as a creature of habit, so entrenched in his role that he cannot cope with any changes to the script of his story or eat anyone wearing any color other than red. Chapters 4, “Rehabilitating the Wolf,” and 5, “The Wolf’s Story,” naturally include stories written with the perspective of the wolf in mind. Chapter 6, “The Wolf Within,” sometimes literally goes inside the wolf, as it includes several stories that find Red Riding Hood seeming to feel quite at home in the belly of the beast. The final chapter, “Running with the Wolves,” is comprised of stories where, as Beckett explains, “the protagonist joins the wolf in some way” (10).
It is interesting to observe how one basic story is handled from different cultural perspectives, and this anthology incorporates a variety of themes and styles influenced by ethnicity and environment. In addition to differences in the setting of the story, there are also differences in the age and even the gender of the main character. Riding Hoods come in a variety of colors as well, including an elderly Gray Riding Hood, a black Riding Hood, and a male Little Blue Riding Hood. One Riding Hood, camouflaged in green to protect her from the eyes of the wolf, utterly detests her counterpart in red, whom she considers to be a terrible liar. Carmen Marti?n Gaite’s “Red Riding Hood in Central Park” transports the young heroine to New York, where she lives with both her parents, while “The Blinder Girl,” or “Skylappjenta” (Iram Haq and Endre Skandfer), alters the story to address the clash of cultures that particularly affects girls born into traditional Pakistani families living in Norway. Pierre Le?on’s “Little Red Riding Hood’s Economically Disadvantaged Grandmother” is a love story with a humorous twist. Another story tells of a hunter who shoots the last wolf and is subsequently arrested for his crime. Croatian author Zoran Pongras?ic? takes a tongue-in-cheek approach, declaring the whole Red Riding Hood tale to be utterly impossible and therefore just plain silly.
Beckett is a true authority on the subject of Little Red Riding Hood. This book should be appreciated by anyone interested in exploring culturally diverse perspectives and comparing different interpretations and manifestations of folk or fairy tales. It is thought-provoking to note how the story is used as a vehicle for propaganda of one sort or another, and no doubt it has always been used to promote some kind of agenda. As Beckett admits, some things will inevitably be lost in translation. Naturally, some of the works in this anthology are more satisfactory than others, but there is certainly enough variety in the collection to ensure that it does not feel as though one is reading exactly the same story over and over again. It is of course up to the reader to decide which, if any, of these retellings might be the “true” story of Little Red Riding Hood.
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[Review length: 982 words • Review posted on January 29, 2014]