Synthèse de document, Langues, Littérature et Culture Etrangères (fairy tales)

Synthèse de document, Langues, Littérature et Culture Étrangères (Fairy tales) doc p.24-25 livre LLCE

Fairy tales are an interesting window into what a society values and fears, and how we seek to instruct future generations. As is characteristic of fairy tales, today’s versions reflect problems relevant to our culture like incorporating feminism, the disparity of wealth, and so on, while maintaining widely recognized aspects of the Grimm’s “original” tales. We’re going to study the revisitings of Sleeping Beauty and how they are revisited. To answer this question, we’re going to see first how Sleeping Beauty is depict and then we’ll see what changes between the tale and its retellings.

First of all, we’ll look at the description of Sleeping Beauty in the new adaptations. On the one hand, there’s the description of the sick princess. Indeed, in the first document, Sleeping Beauty is at the hospital. We find in this document, the wordage of the disease: “antiseptic and illness” (l.4), “hospitals” (l.4) or else “doctor” (l.7). So we understand that something happened to her. Moreover, when she says “I kept my eyes closed and my breathing even” (l.6), we know that she’s very weak. These elements can be linked to the third document, the picture. As we can see, the white robe reminds us of hospital gowns. Added to this, the way she's lying down shows that she seems to have collapsed. On the other hand, there’s the second document. This document highlights the woman’s robot behavior. In fact, the enumeration of all these actions shows that they have become automatic, that’s why we can associated this item with the f act that in the first document Sleeping Beauty isn’t in control of herself.

Then, we’re going to focus on what changes between the two stories. In A Long, Long Sleep, it’s understable that Sleeping Beauty was in a coma or something like that. When she wakes up after her long sleep, people who were here when she fall asleep are no longer. Similarly, on the picture of Dina Goldstein, people left behind are old including the charming prince who looks desperate. He’s the only one waiting for her, the other people looks like they don’t care if she wakes up. Also, in the extract of the novel, there’s an economic dimension because they talk about a company named “UniCorp”(l.16), they say that the company “owns”(l.90) her. We find this dimension also in the poem. Indeed, the poem denounces the consumer society with all the things Sleeping Beauty has to get ready. It also denounces the feminine clichés and all she has to do before the wedding. All three documents include the fact that there is no love coming from the people around.

To conclude, in order to revisit these tales, the authors turn these writings so that they are more contemporary. They show that mentalities have changed. Sleeping Beauty's revisitings are grounded in reality. Each document shows a rational vision of the fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty. In addition, topics such as economics are discussed. These revisits also serve to denounce clichés.

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