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The Fairest Evil Looming over Earth: Representations of the Evil Queen in 21st Century ‘Snow White’ Adaptations

Svea Hundertmark (Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Germany)

Gender and Female Villains in 21st Century Fairy Tale Narratives

ISBN: 978-1-80117-565-4, eISBN: 978-1-80117-564-7

Publication date: 11 February 2022

Abstract

Snow White is one of the most popular fairy tales worldwide. Therefore, it is not surprising that the story has been reconsidered multiple times during the current trend of producing fairy tale adaptations. Especially the Evil Queen has become an object of further examination in many recent instalments of the story. In this chapter, I analyse the revision of Snow White's stepmother in the book series The Lunar Chronicles (2012–2016), the films Mirror Mirror (2012), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) and The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016), as well as the TV-series Once Upon a Time (2011–2018). Compared to other villains in recent fairy tale adaptations, who are, like Maleficent, redeemed, the queen remains an embodiment of evil and terror in most adaptations. I outline the depiction of the Evil Queen in present-day US-American fairy tale narratives, assessing what makes her the most villainous woman in all the fairy tale realms and questioning why many of these stories try to understand but do not forgive her. The focus of this investigation is on the backstory that she is equipped with, her crimes, and her ultimate fate. Although she has been abused, traumatized, and betrayed, she seems to remain an uber villain, not only attempting to kill her stepdaughter but also destroying nature, starving her people, and spreading a deadly virus. This kind of representation might result from the fact that her opponent is by the very name the purest fairy tale princess ever known.

Keywords

Citation

Hundertmark, S. (2022), "The Fairest Evil Looming over Earth: Representations of the Evil Queen in 21st Century ‘Snow White’ Adaptations", Le Clue, N. and Vermaak-Griessel, J. (Ed.) Gender and Female Villains in 21st Century Fairy Tale Narratives (Emerald Studies in Popular Culture and Gender), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 143-156. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-564-720221011

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022 Svea Hundertmark. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited