Feasting in Fairy Tales

Abstract

Focusing on food in fairy tales provides insight into material conditions, food trends, class and other power relations, and human behavior of the time period that the tale began circulating. Literature is an important portal to understanding cultural expectations and challenges, so by analyzing one (food) within the other (literature), a multitude of overlooked information becomes available regarding individual and collective human behavior. This project focuses on how food functions in various versions of popular Western European fairy tales-commonly known as “Hansel and Gretel,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Rapunzel,” and “Snow White”- and uses contemporary film adaptations to demonstrate how fairy tales continue to permeate mainstream culture.