Disobedience and desire as female empowerment ; Red Riding Hood grows up.

• Main Author: Ng, Calista Bi Qing.
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Literature
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/52214
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Discussions of Red Riding Hood have focused predominantly on its genre as children's literature, the symbol of the red cloak as sexual awakening amongst others. This paper seeks to shed new light on Red Riding Hood by looking at her as a female instead of a child, and exploring the idea of disobedience and desire within the tale, from its early narratives to modern film adaptations. Film was chosen as a medium due to its visual nature, to discuss the notion of the gaze, as well as provide a more accurate depiction of female empowerment today. This paper seeks to explore the idea of disobedience through its constituent elements: knowledge, desire, the male cinematic gaze and the home as a patriarchal construct, and how disobedience is necessary in order for Red to achieve empowerment in a patriarchal society.