Old Men and Comatose Virgins : Nobel Prize Winners rewrite “ Sleeping Beauty ”
The ancient story of “ Sleeping Beauty ” revolves around the awakening of a young princess whose long sleep is the result of a fairy’s curse. In some recent versions of the tale, however – notably by Yasunari Kawabata in House of the Sleeping Beauties (1961) and Gabriel García Márquez in Memories of...
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| Vydáno v: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/edl, |
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| Hlavní autor: | |
| Médium: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Jazyk: | Anglais |
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Études de lettres
2012
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| On-line přístup: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Shrnutí: | The ancient story of “ Sleeping Beauty ” revolves around the awakening of a young princess whose long sleep is the result of a fairy’s curse. In some recent versions of the tale, however – notably by Yasunari Kawabata in House of the Sleeping Beauties (1961) and Gabriel García Márquez in Memories of My Melancholy Whores (2004) – the girls never wake up. Rather they give new life to the old men who watch and fondle them in their drugged state. In these novels young women continue to be represented as desirable ciphers. They also continue to be manipulated by older women (brothel keepers, replacing the traditional fairies) who determine their fate. But the central focus has become the old men themselves, their fear of aging, and their obsession with the comatose girls. |
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