The Decadent Fairy Tale: An Introduction by the Guest Editors

Abstract

How can a fairy tale be ‘decadent’? The question itself highlights the seemingly oppositional nature of the fairy tale tradition and decadence. On first reading, the former appears to be organized around principles of conservatism, moralism and narrative resolution; the classic ‘happily ever after’ now synonymous with the numerous cinematic fairy tale adaptations led by Walt Disney. In literary fairy tales such as ‘La belle au bois dormant’ [‘Sleeping Beauty in the Wood’] (1697) by Charles Perrault, the union of the prince and princess and their establishment of a domestic family life stands as a symbolic means to reinscribe a heteronormative social order threatened by an ogress. In ‘La Belle et la Bête’ [‘Beauty and the Beast’] (1740) by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, the Beast’s human transformation is catalysed by the love and compassion evinced by Beauty, highlighting the importance of her moral virtue. Nor is this drive towards upholding the heteronormative as a moral and social ideal solely confirmed to the French tradition of contes des fées. In the Grimms’ ‘Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot’ [‘Snow White and Rose Red’] (1815), the titular Snow White helps a bear who later magically transforms into a prince bridegroom, while her sister agrees to marry the prince’s brother. In contrast, decadence is concerned with concepts of sexual dissidence, sexual contagion, and social degeneracy, with ideas and forms that result in visual and literary imagery of transgressive queer couplings, poisoned lineages, and families in states of decline.