Cinderella in Spain: Variations of the Story as Socio-Ethical Texts by Maria Fernández-Lamaque

Abstract

Reviewed by: Cinderella in Spain: Variations of the Story as Socio-Ethical Texts by Maria Fernández-Lamaque Shannon Murphy (bio) Cinderella in Spain: Variations of the Story as Socio-Ethical Texts. By Maria Fernández-Lamaque. Foreword by John Stephens. McFarland, 2019. Cinderella in Spain: Variations of the Story as Socio-Ethical Texts is a collection of eleven essays that dives into the unexplored territory of Spanish Cinderella stories. Maria Fernández-Lamaque pulls from various literary genres to examine how they are representatives and reflections of Spanish history and culture. She explains that no scholarly work exists regarding the socio-ethical implications and depictions of Spanish Cinderella tales, therefore filling a gap in fairy tale genre analysis. Fernández-Lamaque's first chapter discusses "Estrellita do oro," which follows protagonist María as she moves from mistreated outsider to blessed chosen one. This chapter focuses in particular on physical branding and branding as enemy. The three steps of creating the enemy character—"renaming, replacing and erasing" (21)—show how María is othered by her family. Fernández-Lamaque also focuses on the star branding received by the kindly stranger, which acts as an othering branding, both positively and negatively impacting her societal standing. Censorship is the focus of chapter 2 as Fernández-Lamaque discusses the censorship of Cinderella-esque tales during the Franco rule in Spain. The 1930s post-war period began a time of female empowerment in Spain. Antoniorrobles, a prolific children's stories writer, was banned for his depictions of politics, religion, gender, and race. Fernández-Lamaque writes how he strove to provide progressive, androgynous, agnostic, and diverse stories, and she further discusses how Antoniorrobles "[broke] and [opposed], on a textual level, the social foundations as defined by the new regime" (30) in his tales. A popular trope within Cinderella tales is the use of disguise. In chapter 3, the use of the metaphorical mask is analyzed in the 1964 musical La nueva Cenicienta. Marisol uses metaphorical [End Page 127] masks to perform different roles: as starving girl to trigger compassion from others, as "beautiful princess who fights the injustices of poverty" (43), and as pseudo-mother figure. Fernández-Lamaque uses performance theory to discuss Marisol's different roles and masks, which ultimately reflect on the political and socio-economic culture of 1960s Spain. Chapter 4 analyzes Ana María Matute's award-winning novel Sólo un pie descalzo. She notes how "children in [Matute's] novels are the voice of a society in a state of division and rupture due to the Spanish Civil War" and how protagonist Gabriela's lost shoe and the doll with a missing leg represent "the idea of otherness and incompleteness" (55, 64). Through prosopopoeia and synecdoche, Fernández-Lamaque analyzes how Gabriela is able to exist and express herself in her environment. Fernández-Lamaque's fifth chapter focuses on the representation of queer Cinderella in María Felícitas Jaime's Cenicienta en Chueca. This chapter notes the rise in queer representation after the death of Franco in 1975, and the emergence of critical LGBTQ studies in Spain within the last two decades (66, 68). Jaime's nameless protagonist moves from the heteroperformative restraints of Peru and finds liberation in the cultural hub of Madrid as she explores her sexuality in the public sphere. Using Judith Butler's scholarship as framework, Fernández-Lamaque examines the importance of lesbian representation, the confinement of performance, and emergence of the LGBTQ voice within Cenicienta en Chueca. Chapter 6 examines the chick lit genre and the role Noé Martínez's novel Cenicienta siempre quiso un Wonderbra plays within it. Fernández-Lamaque "speculates on the stages of women as virgins, mothers, and lovers in a given culture as they fear emotional independence from men" as depicted by characters Paulina, Olvido, and Coro (11). Each woman focuses on her role in society, whether it be her physical embodiment, financial stability, or intimate relationships with men. The fixation on the Wonderbra uncovers "the figurative and physical prosthetics used by women to make an illusionary and fictive image of their bodies and themselves to fit the created beauty...