Folklore Figures of French and Creole Louisiana by Nathan Rabalais

Author:Nathan Rabalais [Rabalais, Nathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Folklore & Mythology, Literary Criticism, Fairy Tales; Folk Tales; Legends & Mythology, American, Regional
ISBN: 9780807174814
Google: yYgEEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 2021-03-10T05:18:43+00:00

CENDRILLON

Cinderella is one of the oldest known folk narratives found in the oral tradition. The oldest tale that corresponds to this tale type is Yeh-hsien, a story that dates back to at least 850 CE in southern China. Earlier forms of the tale in eastern Asia likely predate Yeh-hsien, but this early Chinese influence is thought to be at the root of an otherwise peculiar aesthetic link—at least for Western audiences—between female beauty and the heroine’s extraordinarily small feet, a physical trait that comes to play an important role in the narrative when the prince must find the owner of the shoe left behind at the ball. While the tale’s genesis likely occurred in China or elsewhere in East Asia, its arrival in Greece was key in its dissemination and the solidifying of the association of the protagonist’s name with ashes.15 From Greece, the tale was translated into other languages and included in Giambattista Basile’s 1634 volume of Pentamerone (Tale of Tales) as “la Gatta Cenerentolla” (Cat Cinderella), a reference to a popular expression of the time. An “ash kitten” referred to a woman who mostly stayed at home. Other forms retained the association with ashes, symbolic of the character’s low status in the household and obligation to toil away at menial chores. The first written attestation of the French “Cendrillon” is attributed to Charles Perrault’s iconic conte “Cendrillon, ou la petite pantoufle de verre,” almost certainly influenced by the popular Italian version of Basile.16

In the Aarne-Thompson-Uther classification, ATU 510 refers to a cycle of related tales that can be divided into two basic subsets: 510A (Cinderella) and 510B (Peau d’ne, or Donkey Skin). Because of the extraordinary prevalence of Cinderella, many motifs prove to be interchangeable across regions. In the Francophone oral tradition, the most typical name of Cendrillon appears in several common variations, including Cendrillonne, Cendrouse, and Cendrillouse. Variants of the tale can be found in practically every French-speaking part of the world, and they are particularly prevalent in Acadie.17

Because of the sheer popularity of Perrault’s “Cendrillon,” many believe the tale to be steeped in aristocratic ideology for, in this version, Cinderella’s father is a widowed nobleman (gentilhomme). Whereas his first wife was “amazingly sweet-natured” and “the most charming person,” his second wife was haughty and controlling.18 The implicit friction is found in the contrast of a harmonious marriage between nobles and a second, “unnatural” marital bond between a nobleman and the nouveau riche. Frequently, a reviled stepmother represents the lower class, fraught with jealousy and a lack of good taste. The wicked stepmother thus “impinges on the sanctity of the noble household” and “embodies the forces of luxury which were blamed for undermining the society of orders by obscuring the distinctions of rank.”19

While class distinctions in Europe certainly played a role in the origins and development of fairy tales, Cinderella is generally considered to be a “rise tale”; Bottigheimer coins this term to mean “tales begin with a dirt-poor girl or boy who suffers the effects of

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