Tamara Copley

Fairy Tale into Fantasy: Emotional Healing Through Genre Fiction Tamara Copley

What happens when an author of adult fiction mixesgenres usually considered popular, non literary, andoften for children? Can the result be viewed asliterary and potent for an adult audience? Deerskinby Robin McKinley and Daughter of the Forest byJuliet Marillier exemplify the modern technique ofadapting classic fairy tales into modern adultfantasy fiction. Little scholarship exists on thisrelatively recent subgenre. This book considersthese two novels in terms of literary quality andtechnique, and particularly for the ways in whichthey deal with the sensitive topics of rape andhealing at the core of each story. This textexplores how these forms of fantasy and fairy tale,often considered light reading, lend themselves tosuch weighty topics as these, how, in fact, the oftenunmentionable topic of rape can be dealt with in away that is both protective and therapeutic to thereader specifically due to the form of the modernfantasy fairy tale. This book would appeal toaudiences interested in fairy tales, fantasy,folklore, feminism, or trauma writing.