S4:E6 | Modern Retellings of the Grimm Fairy Tales

Le Salon Literary Discussions

Alterations to the Grimm collected fairy tales have been ongoing since, well, the brothers began editing them in the early 1800s! The short tales lend themselves to a kind of metamorphosis that keeps them present across time and borders. In this episode we look at modern retellings of these established stories in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that reimagine and reintroduce elements—creating new fairy tales for us to remember!

[5:09] “A stark contrast to Grimm characters who had these traits of heroism and courage baked into their personality because they are male.”

[13:11] “This allows us to wonder: what if the step-mother didn’t want to be in the mother role at all? Maybe she just doesn’t connect with children.”

[17:27] “Some scholars claim that stories we are exposed to before our teenage years have a lasting impact on us, we absorb them in a way we don’t with stories read later in life.”

Books mentioned in this episode:

• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
• The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
• Bluebeard’s Egg by Margaret Atwood
• The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
• Surfacing by Margaret Atwood
• My Mother, She Killed Me My Father, He Ate Me [anthology]
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik
• Hunted by Meaghan Spooner
• Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi's
• How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann
• Rouge by Mona Awad

More resources for you:

• Join the book club you’ve been looking for!
• Follow me on Instagram @lesalonreads.
• Visit my website.