Major Project Research- Gothic Horror and Fairytales

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-018-0106-8

"Despite the narrative similarities between fairy-tales and gothic narratives, it is not my wish to suggest that they are effectively the same. There is a fairy-tale and a gothic sensibility to be applied to these apparently similar plot devices.Footnote10 A brief investigation of the tropes of magical transformation and of the animate inanimate exemplifies such a distinction and shows how Dasgupta consciously engages with both sensibilities. In Fantastic Metamorphoses, Warner (2002) argues that transformation is a common trope in the fairy-tale and appears in three forms. The first is that of the shape-changer, a trope illustrated by the mythic figure of Zeus who takes on many different animal and non-animate forms in order to seduce what appears to be half the female population of Ancient Greece. The second variant is that of the definitive change to a form that ‘more fully expresses them and perfects them than their first form’ (2002, p. 4), which Warner suggests is illustrated by the tale of Echo and Narcissus recorded by Virgil. The final variant is that of the temporary change prompted by outside force as punishment or impediment, which we find, e.g., in The Frog Prince. What unifies these three types of magical transformation is the idea of a complete transformation—a ‘become’. The ‘before’ and ‘after’ (however many times the change occurs) remain separate and complete in themselves—the frog prince retains nothing of the frog when he returns to a princely form. In contrast, in tales of gothic transformation (such as The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, werewolf narratives or The Beetle by Richard Marsh) the key focus is not a completed transformation but a process, a confusion of forms and identities or a mutation—a ‘becoming’. In The Beetle, for example, the creature is described as neither human nor animal, male nor female, large nor small (2007, p. 108–111). In The Metamorphosis and werewolf narratives, the differentiation between human and animal is increasingly blurred, not only in terms of physical appearance, but in terms of internal psychology too."

I actually like that idea of contrast in transformations between horror and fairytale narratives. This might make me want to explore different stages in which the rabbit character may change throughout the narrative, from a unsuspecting animal to a disfigured and perverted monster. Just something to think about.