Feminist Fables

I have been reading various anthologies as part of my short fiction module at university, and I recently came across three of Suniti Namjoshi's Feminist Fables in an anthology edited by Angela Carter. I was struck by how her writing could be both humorous and deeply meaningful in such a small space - they can't be more than a couple of hundred words...

I particularly enjoyed 'A Room of His Own', which is a take on Bluebeard. Bluebeard goes through the usual routine with his new wife, goes on his travels, and when he comes back finds that she hasn't been in his room. He questions her and wants to know why she didn't look, and why she wasn't curious. When she tells him 'I think you're entitled to a room of your own,' he is so angry he kills her. 

It really made me think.

And it definitely made me want to try re-writing fairy tales again!

by fatamorgana1989 @ dA

The anthology I referred to is called Wayward Girls and Wicked Women (ed. Angela Carter) First published in 1986 by Virago Press.