Joyce Carol Oates’s “Upon the Sweeping Flood”: A Fairy Tale in Reverse
This article presents a close reading of Joyce Carol Oates’s “Upon the Sweeping Flood,” and shows how it inverts the traditional fairy tale structure. It uses Vladmir Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale and Marie-Louise von Franz’s The Interpretation of Fairy Tales to demonstrate the specific charact...
Tallennettuna:
| Julkaisussa: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/jsse, |
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| Päätekijä: | |
| Aineistotyyppi: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Kieli: | Anglais |
| Julkaistu: |
Journal of the Short Story in English
2025
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| Linkit: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Yhteenveto: | This article presents a close reading of Joyce Carol Oates’s “Upon the Sweeping Flood,” and shows how it inverts the traditional fairy tale structure. It uses Vladmir Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale and Marie-Louise von Franz’s The Interpretation of Fairy Tales to demonstrate the specific characteristics of the genre that Oates uses in this story. Oates inverts the structure by placing the main character, Walter Stuart, in the position of hero at the opening of the story, but transforms him into a villain by the end. This inversion from hero to villain is unique and leads to a different interpretation than those applied to the traditional hero tale and yet Oates’s tale is still didactic just as older fairy tales are meant to be. |
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