Professional paper
Cuisine and Punishment: Eating Transgressions in Contemporary “Hansel and Gretel” Retellings
Valentina Markasović
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia
Abstract
The fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” by the brothers Grimm remains
recognisable in today’s culture in terms of the characters, the setting, and the
way it deals with food and eating. “The Woodsman’s Second Tale,” a story found
within John Connolly’s novel The Book of Lost Things, and Leigh Bardugo’s “The
Witch of Duva” are both inspired by the narrative of “Hansel and Gretel.” However,
they are retellings of it, and as such, they propound different messages – they
exhibit different socialisation objectives. Namely, stories can be used to socialise
the audience, that is, to instil the desired characteristics, behaviours, and morals
into the audience. Being retellings of “Hansel and Gretel”, both stories make
fruitful use of the staple food-related scenes found in it – overindulgence and
cannibalism. The exploration of these eating transgressions and the punishments
that follow them allows for an examination of the civilising aims of the texts. The
paper investigates the instances in which food plays a prominent role in these
two narratives and the ways in which they cast light on the civilising objectives of
children’s literature. This is done through an elaboration of the civilising process,
the presence of food in children’s literature, and the role of eating and subsequent
punishment in “The Woodsman’s Second Tale” and “The Witch of Duva”.
Keywords
abjection, Hansel and Gretel, John Connolly, Leigh Bardugo, socialisation, transgression
Hrčak ID:
264985
URI
Publication date:
29.10.2021.
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