Stripped of skin : narrative and feminine identity from reinterpretations of fairytales in Donkeyskin, Deerskin and All-Skin

• Main Author: Lai, Ghislaine
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities; DRNTU::Humanities::Literature
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/52189
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Robin Mckinley’s Deerskin is built upon a familiar fairytale which has been retold by Charles Perrault as Donkeyskin and recorded by the Grimm Brothers as All-Kinds-of-Fur. In each of these stories, a king and queen who are rich and beautiful have a daughter who, not unnaturally, resembles her mother very much. In time, the queen is taken ill, and upon her death bed exhorts the king to not take a new wife unless said new wife can compare to her own beauty. Obeying her strictures, the king refrains from remarrying until his daughter is discovered to have grown to match and surpass her mother in looks, and then attempts to marry his daughter in order to obey his wife’s dying wish. The king attempts to woo his daughter with expensive gifts, but unable to resist his demands, she runs away from her home and takes refuge in the menial service of a nearby kingdom. In classic fairytale reversal of fortune, she comes to the attention of the prince, who then discovers her identity and exhorts her to marry him, returning her to her royal position and rescuing her from servitude, living happily ever after.