Little Red Riding Hood (again)

I'm pretty angry at the moment because I blogged last night and nasty blooger.com didn't save it so I'm going to try to remember what I wrote. I missed last week's lessons so it's quite possible I'm about to talk a load of nonsense...anyway...

I've read a few different re-tellings and reviews of re-tellings of Little Red Hiding Hood and I get the impression that the modern versions are focused on not going down the cliched innocent-girl-gets-attacked-by-predatory-male-but-good-prevails-over-evils-in-the-end route and, mirroring the trend in modern gothic Literature, are keen to explore the nature and loneliness of the 'beast' rather than making them and out-and-out villain - just as Carter does, most notably in The Tiger's Bride. Although essentially a fairytale, Little Red Riding Hood functions very well within the gothic genre as a lot of writers have picked up in their re-tellings - the gothic setting of the woods, the innocent girl, the predatory male 'beast', the symbolic red riding hood e.t.c. By design, it seems gothic texts subvert the key elements of the fairytale - Many fairy tales are allegory - a sugar-coated story with a harsh, blunt message i.e. 'don't go into the woods on your own, little children' but are distanced enough from the reality and time of the child reading so as not to scare them too much....'once upon a time' as opposed to 'last week...some girl went into the woods...' - the gothic genre des the exact opposite of this and aims to convince the reader that mythical beings can function within the 'real world' in order to scare. It's these opposites that I think make Carter's cross-over between the fairytale and gothic genres so successful. There are links, of course, between Dracula and the wolf in 'Little Red Riding Hood' with regard to the animalistic qualities (and most other gothic 'beasts')...and Red Riding Hoods curiosity and fascination with the wolf mirrors the deadly curiosity of the narrator in The Bloody Chamber. Also - the musical that I've referred to called 'Into the Woods' is, in a way, a re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood (of course taking its name from it) and, like the gothic genre, this take on the story brings the tale into real life and the song when the wolf meets Little Red Riding Hood 'Hello Little Girl' is particularly creepy when it's an old man singing it to a young girl. On that note....I'll be off.