Literary Criticism Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology
Inviting Interruptions
Wonder Tales in the Twenty-First Century
- Publisher
- Wayne State University Press
- Initial publish date
- Feb 2021
- Category
- Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology, Science Fiction & Fantasy, 21st Century
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780814346990
- Publish Date
- Feb 2021
- List Price
- $120.95
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780814347003
- Publish Date
- Feb 2021
- List Price
- $42.95
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Description
Inviting Interruptions: Wonder Tales in the Twenty-First Century anthologizes contemporary stories, comics, and visual texts that intervene in a range of ways to challenge the popular perception of fairy tales as narratives offering heteronormative happy endings that support status-quo values. The materials collected in Inviting Interruptions address the many ways intersectional issues play out in terms of identity markers, such as race, ethnicity, class, and disability, and the forces that affect identity, such as non-normative sexualities, addiction, abuses of power, and forms of internalized self-hatred caused by any number of external pressures. But we also find celebration, whimsy, and beauty in these same texts?qualities intended to extend readers' enjoyment of and pleasure in the genre.
Edited by Cristina Bacchilega and Jennifer Orme, the book is organized in two sections. "Inviting Interruptions" considers the invitation as an offer that must be accepted in order to participate, whether for good or ill. This section includes Emma Donoghue's literary retelling of "Hansel and Gretel," stills from David Kaplan's short Little Red Riding Hood film, Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada's story about stories rooted in Hawaiian tradition and land, and Shary Boyle, Shaun Tan, and Dan Taulapapa McMullin's interruptions of mainstream images of beauty-webs, commerce, and Natives. "Interrupting Invitations" contemplates the interruption as a survival mechanism to end a problem that has already been going on too long. This section includes reflections on migration and sexuality by Diriye Osman, Sofia Samatar, and Nalo Hopkinson; and invitations to rethink human and non-human relations in works by Anne Kamiya, Rosario Ferré, Veronica Schanoes, and Susanna Clark.
Each text in the book is accompanied by an editors' note, which offers questions, critical resources, and other links for expanding the appreciation and resonance of the text. As we make our way deeper into the twenty-first century, wonder tales?and their critical analyses?will continue to interest and enchant general audiences, students, and scholars.
About the authors
Cristina Bacchilega's profile page
EMMA DONOGHUE was born in Dublin and lived in England for many years before moving to Canada. She writes in many genres, including theatre, radio drama and literary history, but is best known for her fiction, both historical (Slammerkin, The Sealed Letter, Astray, Frog Music) and contemporary (Stir-Fry, Hood, Landing, Touchy Subjects). Her seventh novel, Room, won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Canada and the Caribbean region) and was shortlisted for the Man Booker and Orange Prizes. It sold more than two million copies. Donoghue scripted the film adaptation, a Canadian-Irish film by Lenny Abrahamson starring Brie Larson, which was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. And her most recent novel, The Wonder, was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2016.
Nalo Hopkinson co-edited So Long Been Dreaming, an anthology of science fiction and fantasy by writers of colour, with Upppinder Mehan. She is the internationally acclaimed author of Brown Girl in the Ring,Skin Folk,and Salt Roads. Her books have been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Tiptree, and Philip K. Dick Awards; Skin Folk won a World Fantasy Award and the Sunburst Award. Born in Jamaica, Nalo moved to Canada when she was sixteen. She lives in Toronto.
Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada's profile page
Dan Taulapapa McMullin's profile page
Rosalind Hyatt Orme's profile page
Veronica Schanoes' profile page
Nisi Shawl is an African American writer and editor best known for the first multiple award-winning New Suns anthology and for their 2016 Nebula finalist novel Everfair. In 2019 they received the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award for distinguished service to the genre. Prior to putting together New Suns, they edited and co-edited WisCon Chronicles 5: Writing and Racial Identity; Bloodchildren: Stories by the Octavia Butler Scholars; Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler; and Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany. Shawl lives in Seattle, where they take frequent walks with their cat.
Shaun Tan ("A Day in the Life") grew up in Perth, Western Australia, and made up for the fact that he was the shortest kid in every class by being known as a "good drawer." Besides working full-time as an illustrator of his own stories, Shaun has worked as a designer in theater and film, and also directed the Academy Award–winning short film The Lost Thing.
Editorial Reviews
"With this original and hybrid collection of wonder tales, Bacchilega and Orme extend to us an invitation to wander — and get temporarily lost — in the woods of contemporary folklore and fairy tales. [. . .] Indeed, only by inviting ourselves into these tales and accepting to interrupt and modify them can we, in turn, hope to recognize and reclaim our own of sense of otherness and wonder."?Apolline Weibel, Gramarye: The Chichester Centre for Fairy Tales, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction
"The stories and artworks in this book both invite and interrupt; not a single text is ho-hum, delivering a staid happily-ever-after. These are beautiful pieces that promise to reward curiosity, though with pleasure or pain depends on the text and on the reader, and the editors have framed the pieces with exquisite care and attention to detail. My only complaint is that I wanted more by the time I had finished the book."?Jeana Jorgensen, Journal of Folklore Research
"Inviting Interruptions is a major contribution to the field: an anthology of contemporary fairy tales that seeks to match and continue?in ambition, liveliness, and ideological orientation?the promise of the great renaissance of fairy tales of the 1970s and 1980s. Matching that promise involves recognizing and responding to changes in our political climate, as well as to changes in our attitude to the very idea of a climate. Inviting Interruptions does so inspiringly. There simply isn't a volume of this kind currently on the market."?Stephen Benson, senior lecturer in the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom
"Inviting Interruptions is, indeed, an amazing collection of expressionist fairy tales that reflect the troublesome times in which we live. The editors of this remarkable anthology, Cristina Bacchilega and Jennifer Orme, have carefully gathered narratives, artworks, graphic stories, and photos that will cause readers to pause in astonishment. Due to the explosion of 'wonder' tales in the twenty-first century, they could have added several hundred more. As it is, their selection?bringing together Shaun Tan, Kelly Link, Rosario Ferré, David Kaplan, and Joellyn Rock among the talented writers and artists?is a significant achievement. This is a book to read and ponder in the chaotic years to come."?Jack Zipes, University of Minnesota
"The tales themselves are generally engaging and of high quality, and the notes are eclectic in their theoretical approaches.... Many of the tales could be used profitably in undergraduate courses on fairy tales, especially to bring in new perspectives not likely explored by nonspecialists."?M. Pierce, Choice
"In a fairy-tale world wherein the best prevail (which doesn't include every fairy tale!) this truly innovative anthology would replace all others. Where most books of wonder tales focus on literary versions, using visuals primarily as illustration, Inviting Interruptions fully engages with photography, graphic novel, sculpture, film, painting, drawing, and multimedia visual art as much as with the written word. Bacchilega and Orme offer verbal-text-driven fairy-tale studies an entirely engaging disturbance."?Pauline Greenhill, Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, University of Winnipeg, Canada
"Inviting Interruptions is a treasure trove for all who like to think with and about fairy tales. Its unique combination of texts and visuals celebrates the richness of fairy-tale material today. The editors' notes open the conversation on potential meanings for each contribution, making this collection indispensable for courses in fairy-tale studies that want to keep up with this genre's latest developments."?Vanessa Joosen, Author of Critical and Creative Perspectives on Fairy Tales
