Young Adult Fairy Tales for the New Age: Francesca Lia Block's The Rose and the Beast

Abstract

Francesca Lia Block's The Rose and the Beast attests to the resilience of the traditional folktale form. Block's work is a modern adaptation of some of the most familiar old tales, all with heroines struggling against a plastic, soulless culture beset by drugs, sex, and violence. Her heroines in these feminist retellings survive not with the help of magic but by their own ingenuity and resourcefulness. Using the folktale template, Block conveys her often strong social messages (the destructiveness of sexual violence or drug abuse, for example) with stark symbolism, surreal settings, and deceptive simplicity. The results are powerful, revisionist tales that ultimately celebrate the triumph of love—in all its manifestations—as the antidote to the neuroses of contemporary American society.