Mapping Fairy-Tale Space: Pastiche and Metafiction in Borderless Tales

Abstract

Mapping Fairy-Tale Space: Pastiche and Metafiction in Borderless Tales contains just two sections: “Mapping Fairy Tales” and “Fairy-Tale Maps.” The first section analyzes and critiques the ABC television series Once Upon a Time (2011–2018), Marissa Meyer's series of The Lunar Chronicles (2012–2015), and Seanan McGuire's Indexing (2014), each of which uses a combination of classic fairy tales (such as Cinderella and Snow White) to create physical and sometimes geographical boundaries that guide audiences through the story lines. Christy Williams deems these stories “borderless” because they transcend political and geographical boundaries and exist without confinement of storytelling techniques, determined geographical boundaries, or general understandings of science.The book's second section, “Fairy-Tale Maps,” analyzes the Korean television drama Secret Garden (2010) and three short pieces of fiction by Kelly Link. Williams demonstrates how the characters in those works learn that fairy tales may contain outdated lessons and thus are not always reliable guides for modern-day behavior. For example, the characters in Secret Garden recognize that they must reject the misogynistic and gender-normative tropes of “Cinderella” and “The Little Mermaid” in order for their relationships to succeed. For those characters, fairy tales are not so much a Global Positioning System (GPS) or digital map as they are antiquated maps, which allow these characters to navigate their own stories. Williams argues that fairy tales, despite their outdated lessons, maintain their value. Through pastiche and metafiction, fairy-tale retellings may provide the same useful tools—specifically, maps and guidance—for which they were created.Mapping Fairy-Tale Space eloquently and substantively creates a basic understanding of both pastiche and metafiction as narrative styles, and also explains how these tools lend themselves to mapping fairy-tale retellings in a metaphorical way. Williams carefully explains the premise of each text before engaging with her argument. As both an example and introduction to the study of fairy tales, Mapping Fairy-Tale Space should serve as an excellent teaching tool and a guide (literally a map) for engaging with the popular fairy-tale retellings she has selected.Williams’ treatment of Secret Garden best exemplifies how she deconstructs fairy-tale retellings to demonstrate how metafiction acts as a map for the characters and how each tale's cultural context may impact the story. By the end of chapter 3, I found myself enthusiastically nodding along, and even more so with the book's conclusion: “Fairy tales are a fantastic space, open for exploring issues of one's own culture and life, and fairy-tale maps need not lead in the same directions as they have in the past” (p. 173).Nevertheless, the book left me craving more cultural context and more social commentary from its other case studies. With Secret Garden from Korea, Williams readily engages with the drama's social commentary, but unfortunately does not do the same with Once Upon a Time from the United States. The latter, for example, provides social commentary by incorporating the character of Mulan as a potential for lesbian/queer love stories. Here, Williams might have considered how popular shows like Once Upon a Time may sometimes commodify LGBTQ+ communities by queerbaiting (when creators of shows tease at but do not canonically include same-sex relationships or LGBTQ+ representation), which situationally affects the retelling of the fairy tale. Similarly, Williams fails to address the wider implications of Once Upon a Time's inclusion of a story line from Disney's Frozen (2013) shortly after the latter's release in order for Disney (which owns the television network ABC) to maximize its profits from the film. Here, too, Williams might have better connected threads and probed more deeply into the cultural contexts of these texts.Scholars in folklore studies should appreciate the way that Williams effectively demonstrates how fairy-tale elements are used in retellings. Some non-academics may need more frequent reminders that Williams uses maps and geography metaphorically. However, even though written in an academic voice, the book may appeal to a wider audience because (as Williams points out) retellings of fairy tales have become more popular, especially for the Disney generation (meaning the generation that grew up watching Disney's animated versions of fairy tales). Thus, shows like Once Upon a Time and book series like The Lunar Chronicles are fairy-tale texts that have already captivated wide audiences, who consequently may find this book alluring. For those readers, Mapping Fairy-Tale Space may be a safe, enthralling way to enter the academic realm of folklore studies.