Gender, Fairy Tale, and Ecology in Sarah Orne Jewett’s A White Heron

This essay situates Sarah Orne Jewett’s short story A White Heron within the related contexts of children’s literature, the fairy tale, and crit ical ecofeminism, featuring comparative analysis of Jewett’s story and Angela Carter’s The Company of Wolves. Both stories are at least partly re-imagining...

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Main Author: Stephen Dougherty
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Pomeranian University Publishing House 2024-11-01
Series:Polilog: Studia Neofilologiczne
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Online Access:https://polilog.pl/index.php/polilog/article/view/604
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author Stephen Dougherty
author_facet Stephen Dougherty
author_sort Stephen Dougherty
collection DOAJ
description This essay situates Sarah Orne Jewett’s short story A White Heron within the related contexts of children’s literature, the fairy tale, and crit ical ecofeminism, featuring comparative analysis of Jewett’s story and Angela Carter’s The Company of Wolves. Both stories are at least partly re-imaginings of Little Red Riding Hood, and both stories pursue what I identify as comparable ecofeminist or proto-ecofeminist agendas. While I argue it is Jewett’s shy and withdrawn protagonist Sylvia who is actually the more convincing ecofeminist warrior, and not Carter’s bold and aggressive heroine, it is only after Sylvia escapes from the story of Little Red Riding Hood that she becomes so; it is only after this intertextual dimension of A White Heron disappears from Jewett’s storytelling that Sylvia assumes an ecofeminist mantle, and a decisively moral status.
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spelling doaj-art-c0ac2443e7f548d4b955dba641eef3f62025-08-20T02:13:11ZdeuPomeranian University Publishing HousePolilog: Studia Neofilologiczne2083-54852024-11-011410.34858/polilog.14.2024.413Gender, Fairy Tale, and Ecology in Sarah Orne Jewett’s A White HeronStephen Dougherty0University of Agder, KristiansandThis essay situates Sarah Orne Jewett’s short story A White Heron within the related contexts of children’s literature, the fairy tale, and crit ical ecofeminism, featuring comparative analysis of Jewett’s story and Angela Carter’s The Company of Wolves. Both stories are at least partly re-imaginings of Little Red Riding Hood, and both stories pursue what I identify as comparable ecofeminist or proto-ecofeminist agendas. While I argue it is Jewett’s shy and withdrawn protagonist Sylvia who is actually the more convincing ecofeminist warrior, and not Carter’s bold and aggressive heroine, it is only after Sylvia escapes from the story of Little Red Riding Hood that she becomes so; it is only after this intertextual dimension of A White Heron disappears from Jewett’s storytelling that Sylvia assumes an ecofeminist mantle, and a decisively moral status. https://polilog.pl/index.php/polilog/article/view/604fairy taleecofeminismnineteenth-century American literaturechildren’s literaturegender
spellingShingle Stephen Dougherty
Gender, Fairy Tale, and Ecology in Sarah Orne Jewett’s A White Heron
Polilog: Studia Neofilologiczne
fairy tale
ecofeminism
nineteenth-century American literature
children’s literature
gender
title Gender, Fairy Tale, and Ecology in Sarah Orne Jewett’s A White Heron
title_full Gender, Fairy Tale, and Ecology in Sarah Orne Jewett’s A White Heron
title_fullStr Gender, Fairy Tale, and Ecology in Sarah Orne Jewett’s A White Heron
title_full_unstemmed Gender, Fairy Tale, and Ecology in Sarah Orne Jewett’s A White Heron
title_short Gender, Fairy Tale, and Ecology in Sarah Orne Jewett’s A White Heron
title_sort gender fairy tale and ecology in sarah orne jewett s a white heron
topic fairy tale
ecofeminism
nineteenth-century American literature
children’s literature
gender
url https://polilog.pl/index.php/polilog/article/view/604
work_keys_str_mv AT stephendougherty genderfairytaleandecologyinsarahornejewettsawhiteheron