Chapter 3: Fairy Tale and the Collective Unconscious in Abu
3.1 Introduction
The fairy tale tradition precedes any written history. However, it gained particular attention during the eighteenth century, when the Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, German academics and philologists, began to collect and publish folklore. Friedrich von der Leyen, a German folklorist (1873 - 1966), states in his book Das Märchen15 that the fairy tale witnessed two flourishing periods. One was in the sixth century BC in Greece and India; the other was during the Crusades, in the eleventh century and onward (von der Leyen 19). In France, just before the publication of the Grimm brothers’ tales, Charles Perrault published Mother Goose Tales, which influenced the Grimm brothers. Fairy tales had continued to appear in France, culminating in the publication around 1795 of the forty-one volume Cabinet des Fées anthology. They mostly followed the Rococo style, which typically uses exaggeration in depicting incidents in the stories. Later, the Age of Enlightenment (eighteenth-century) viewed fairy tales as inappropriate because of their irrationality, meaninglessness, and lack of specific style (20-21). According to Andrew Teverson, nineteenth-century mythologists considered fairy tales “the degenerate remains of ancient cosmic mythologies” (5). The anthropological folklorists of the same century also dismissed fairy tales and viewed them as “survivals of savage practices that codify the rites and rituals of [their] primitive ancestors” (Teverson 5).
15 The book is translated into Arabic by Nabila Ibrahim, a professor of folklore. Any reference to this source is my own translation from the Arabic translation unless indicated otherwise.
There were similar attitudes towards both genres, the Gothic and fairy tales, particularly the idea of their being degenerate and savage. Not only is there similarity in the commentators’ attitude to both genres, but the genres also share the idea of disruption. For instance, both depict violence towards the protagonist, although in fairy tales it is not as severe as it is in Gothic fiction, and the protagonist is defended.
Sarah Ghoshal explains that the Grimm brothers’ tale of Cinderella contains Gothic elements (“The Gothic”). An example is when the stepmother asks her elder daughter to cut off her big toe so that Cinderella’s shoe will fit her. The mother also asks her other daughter to do the same thing with her foot and cut off part of her heels when the prince has ascertained that it is not the elder sister whom he had met at the ball.
Violence does not end with this incident, as later, on Cinderella’s wedding day, the pigeons peck out the eyes of her stepsisters, who spend the rest of their lives blind (Grimm 103). Therefore, analysis of some fairy tales suggests their similarity to Gothic fiction. Although Carys Crossen suggests that both genres have developed separate “characteristics during their long cultural history and gradual transformations over the years,” one still can trace the overlap between the two genres (24). Jack Zipes clarifies in The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre why fairy tales still matter for contemporary authors. He proposes that fairy tales’ “irresistibility and inexplicability” resides in what they
“embody . . . of naïve morality that can still resonate with us if their underlying dramas are re-created and re-designed to counter as well as collide with our complex social realities” (135, 136). A prominent reason for the recreation of fairy tales throughout centuries is that they appeal to human desires for a world other than the reality in which they live, mainly because the depicted world in the tale is not constrained to a specific place and time, which helps in the tale’s re-creation.
Another reason is the collective unconscious in which most of the tale archetypes reside.
It could also be claimed that Gothic’s roots are in fairy tales, especially when one traces the time when each genre developed. When the Gothic firstly appeared in 1764, Walpole claimed that his work had been written sometime during the Crusades, which is the second flourishing period for fairy tales. Later, after the publication of the Grimms’ tales in 1812, there are more traces of the affiliation between them. Critics have remarked that there are “similarities in tone, motifs, and structure” “between the German fairy tale and Gothic” writing (Worley 67). Because of the dominance of the Grimms’ tales in Germany and the surrounding regions, the relationship “between the adjective ‘German’ and dark, grim tales” was reinforced (67). In her article, “The Horror! Gothic Horror Literature and Fairy Tales,” Linda K.
Worley demonstrates that the Grimm brothers created changes in the tale of “Der Räuberbräutigam” that amplified its Gothic elements (68). She questions whether the Grimms were deliberately “trying to create a new sub-genre, a Gothic fairy tale”
(Worley 77). Therefore, it is likely that some fairy tales can be seen as semi-Gothic stories. However, each of these two genres developed differently and were aimed at different social classes. The fairy tale was known to be a tradition of peasants, until the eighteenth century, when the tales received more attention and were transformed into a middle-class tradition. In contrast, when the Gothic novel appeared, it first flourished within the bourgeois class. Thus, the literary aesthetic that each class produced can be considered different. Furthermore, Joseph Abbruscato states that fairy tales influenced Gothic works. Although they are distinct genres, “they maintain similar tropes and motifs at their core, which stimulates all parts of a child’s psyche; the emotional, intellectual, and imaginative aspects are all fed” (Abbruscato
8-9). A further similarity between the genres is that they are both based on old existing beliefs. Von der Leyen clarifies that the fairy tale is about remnant beliefs.
Although the purpose and meaning of these beliefs have been lost, we still feel their impact (32). This is relatively similar to Gothic writing, which portrays “modern concern with ‘natural’ affections and familial relationships which are projected back into the past where an earlier regime holds sway” (Mighall 10).
Drawing on the ideas above regarding the probable relationship between fairy tales and Gothic, this chapter will analyse Gothic elements in Ali Abu al-Reesh’s novel Umm al-Duways. Abu al-Reesh is an Emirati novelist, poet, and journalist. He was born in Ras al-Khaima and studied psychology. Abu al-Reesh began his literary production in 1979 when he published a number of stories. In 1980 he published his first novel, The Confession, which was chosen as one of the best one hundred Arabic novels by the Arab Writers Union. He wrote more than ten novels, a number of short stories and two plays. Abu al-Reesh is considered as one of the most important authors in the UAE. His novel Umm al-Duways is based on a fairy tale that is popular in the Arab Gulf countries. Al-Reesh’s use of this tale helps to highlight the Gothic elements in the tale. Therefore, this chapter will discuss how these elements are contained within this fairy tale.