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capri0mniFrom the Grimm Anthology of Household Tales:
Rapunzel (for the young king's period of blindness)
The story of the young boy who went forth to learn about fear (Popular [mis]understandings of Asperger Syndrome)
Cinderella (for the blinding of the two stepsisters going to and coming from the wedding [and also, possibly, the mutilation of their feet]?)
The Seven Ravens, and The Six Swans, and The Twelve Brothers (for muteness, as in Mary's Child [posted on December 15, 2011])
Goose-Girl at the Well (For the fear of disability that comes with age / the "use" of disability to test the hero)
The Gifts of the Little People (for Hunchbacks)
The Two Travelers (sacrificing eyes in trade for food, as in the Welsh tale The Squirrel and the Fox [posted July 15])
Thumbling as Journeyman (A different version of Thumbthick [posted April 24])
*sigh* making links is taking too long; will just post titles from here on out
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From Hans Christian Andersen:
The Little Mermaid (muteness and painful walking)
The Ugly Duckling (?) [Not sure about this one, actually. Disability isn't actually mentioned in the story itself, but it's now associated with disability / illness because in the Danny Kaye musical biopic of Andersen, he tells it (sings it) to a sick boy to cheer him up when the healthy schoolboys tease him -- and it does highlight the issue, in any case, of being the "odd one out" in your own family]
The Cripple (a peasant boy becomes suddenly paralyzed [reference to polio before it was named as such?] and after receiving a book of fairy tales as a charitable gift one Christmas, spends his time reading it, and earns a scholarship at a prestigious university after showing his genius interpreting the stories for others. Really!!]
(can I just say I have a troubled fan-relationship with Andersen? I'm totally with him on the power of storytelling in general, and wonder tales in particular, but his ableism and misogyny (not to mention his Protestant obsession with sin and evil spirits) make me want to pull my hair out, sometimes. I'd love to borrow a TARDIS to go back and have a good sit-down debate with him about this. Perhaps over tea.)
Various and Sundry (literature):
Robert Browning's verse telling of The Pied Piper of Hamlin (for the lame boy who stays behind)
Clara, in Heidi
Colin, in The Secret Garden
Shakespeare's Richard III (and Sigmund Freud's literary/psychological critique of same)
Caliban, in The Tempest (yes, one popular interpretation of his character is that he represents P.O.C.. But he's also described in-text as a "moon-calf" -- i.e. someone born with deformities, and, like Hephaestos in one myth, attempts to rape the woman of his desire)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Dead-Eye Dick in H.M.S. Pinafore (Ambiguous, though; it's not entirely clear whether he's blind in one eye, as his name suggests, or if he's just ugly, and therefore despised by his shipmates)
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To be continued....
Rapunzel (for the young king's period of blindness)
The story of the young boy who went forth to learn about fear (Popular [mis]understandings of Asperger Syndrome)
Cinderella (for the blinding of the two stepsisters going to and coming from the wedding [and also, possibly, the mutilation of their feet]?)
The Seven Ravens, and The Six Swans, and The Twelve Brothers (for muteness, as in Mary's Child [posted on December 15, 2011])
Goose-Girl at the Well (For the fear of disability that comes with age / the "use" of disability to test the hero)
The Gifts of the Little People (for Hunchbacks)
The Two Travelers (sacrificing eyes in trade for food, as in the Welsh tale The Squirrel and the Fox [posted July 15])
Thumbling as Journeyman (A different version of Thumbthick [posted April 24])
*sigh* making links is taking too long; will just post titles from here on out
---
From Hans Christian Andersen:
The Little Mermaid (muteness and painful walking)
The Ugly Duckling (?) [Not sure about this one, actually. Disability isn't actually mentioned in the story itself, but it's now associated with disability / illness because in the Danny Kaye musical biopic of Andersen, he tells it (sings it) to a sick boy to cheer him up when the healthy schoolboys tease him -- and it does highlight the issue, in any case, of being the "odd one out" in your own family]
The Cripple (a peasant boy becomes suddenly paralyzed [reference to polio before it was named as such?] and after receiving a book of fairy tales as a charitable gift one Christmas, spends his time reading it, and earns a scholarship at a prestigious university after showing his genius interpreting the stories for others. Really!!]
(can I just say I have a troubled fan-relationship with Andersen? I'm totally with him on the power of storytelling in general, and wonder tales in particular, but his ableism and misogyny (not to mention his Protestant obsession with sin and evil spirits) make me want to pull my hair out, sometimes. I'd love to borrow a TARDIS to go back and have a good sit-down debate with him about this. Perhaps over tea.)
Various and Sundry (literature):
Robert Browning's verse telling of The Pied Piper of Hamlin (for the lame boy who stays behind)
Clara, in Heidi
Colin, in The Secret Garden
Shakespeare's Richard III (and Sigmund Freud's literary/psychological critique of same)
Caliban, in The Tempest (yes, one popular interpretation of his character is that he represents P.O.C.. But he's also described in-text as a "moon-calf" -- i.e. someone born with deformities, and, like Hephaestos in one myth, attempts to rape the woman of his desire)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Dead-Eye Dick in H.M.S. Pinafore (Ambiguous, though; it's not entirely clear whether he's blind in one eye, as his name suggests, or if he's just ugly, and therefore despised by his shipmates)
---
To be continued....
