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UNIVERSIDAD DEL VALLE

ESCUELA DE ESTUDIOS LITERARIOS

INGLS III

Oscar Wilde: between the fairy tales and the anti-fairy tales

Yisela aez Ruiz 0938350

Juan Carlos Largo 0747959

Isabel Cullar Reina 0937864

Abstract

The studies about Fairy tales constantly alludes to representation of ideological figures thatrepresents- princes, witches, kings, fairies- and his influence in the human been, trying to find theright interpretation, but letting behind other proposes that also revel, in a different way, the frameof values that composes it and an interpretation of itself, like a meta-literature. If we closed up tothe Oscar Wildes tales, we found the structure of classical fairy tales but also found the

subversion of that structure. In this work, focus on three Oscar Wilde stories, The Nightingaleand the Rose, The selfish giant and The Canterville ghost, we rake the elements characteristics offairy tales and compare their function in each case, searching the twist in those elements thatcompose the subversion and its frame of values. As we will see, , following the porpoise byMarcela Arpes, that subversion tell us about the relation between the time of story and thereaders time.

Key words:

Oscar Wilde, fairy tales, frame of values, ideological figures, interpretation, subversion,

Since we already know, the fairy-tale is a fictitious history that can contain folkloric andmythological characters, such as: fairies, goblins, elfs, witches, sirens, trols, giants, ogres,dragoons, gnomes and animal speakers; also it can have characters a little bit simpler and

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archetypal as: beautiful princesses or damsels in danger, brave and handsome princes, magicassistants, wicked stepmothers, false heroes, etc. These accompanied of places and magic objects,castles, prohibitions, breaks of restrictions, and in the majority of the times of enchantmentsrepresented as an improbable sequence of the story.

With regard to the previous thing we must bear in mind, that all these characters are archetypes,whose purpose is to show a model to follow, always and when his actions are exemplary. For thisreason, it has reached the conclusion of which the fairy-tales, it helps to the children, of one oranother way, to canalize his emotions, to manipulate different situations and to solve problems.Nevertheless, these archetypes have changed with the years, since as says the investigator ZoharShavit: "from his beginning the books were written by certain idea of the child in mind, when thisone changed, the texts for children also changed", due to this there has arisen in the fairy-tales,the thing that today we know as subversion

An example of this subversion we observe it in some Oscar Wilde's stories, because into thesethey change, not only the archetypal prominent figures and his roles inside the society, they alsochange many of the factors that characterize to the fairy-tale, an example of it, it is the absence ofthe traditional magic, which is supplanted by transformations and metamorphosis.

According to Marcela Arpes, the subversion owes to that: " the interest for the location of thehistory in a royal, familiar and contemporary context, different to it happened with the traditionalproduction marked by indeterminate or wonderful contexts, appears as constant thematic".Nevertheless, we observe that, in spite of the present subversion in Wilde's stories, still prevalenta trait that appears as a constant, this it is: the magic treatment of the reality, which is a imagine

absolutely free that unfolds in histories where everything is possible beyond the realistic andcontemporary context that they try to reproduce.

For example, in The nightingale and the rose, the young in love man is not a prince, not bravely,the only thing that it possesses it is the knowledge that he has acquired of his books, he complainsand does not looks for a solution to his problem, leaves to the luck his loving future, for thisreason, is not the hero of the story, then here it changes the role of the in love in search of hisbeloved. On the other hand, we have to the nightingale, what meets with the own characteristicsof the character of the fairy-tale, he is an speaker animal, but not to the point of being understoodby the human beings, nor to the point of be a mask of a human face, that is to say, of representing

own characteristics of the man. It carries out the paper of the hero, since it sacrifices itself in thename of the love, showing how generous it is, turning this way into the archetype to follow ofthis story.

In spite of the fact that the roles in this story are totally upset, the history fulfills his function thatis to create a generous and kind conscience towards the neighbor, to the point of sacrificing thedear thing, preserving the necessary thing in order that it is catalogued as a new type of fairy-tales

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that shows a more royal perspective of the society, without leaving of side the fantastic andwonderful thing.

In The selfish giant

On the other hand in The Canterville ghost we found a different way of relating the characters.The phantasmagoric world suffers when the modern world shows its skepticism; the plot is notrelate with to disturbance in to reality of the live characters, they know who deal with it, insteadthe ghost doesnt. His existence doesnt fit in the new order of reality and it shows the frame ofvalues of the two worlds, exposing an alternative read an interpretation of the fairy tales and itscreation conditions.