Genre and Female Aging in Two Contemporary Filmic Adaptations of “Snow White”

Authors

  • Katherine Whitehurst University of Liverpool

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/ageculturehumanities.v4i.130596

Keywords:

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Abstract

This article outlines the role genre plays in the representation of female aging in the films “Mirror Mirror” (Singh 2012) and “Snow White and the Huntsman” (Sanders 2012). Focusing on the queen, the paper considers how the films’ varying generic engagements create alternative story worlds for the queen to take shape and evolve within. From this context, the article argues that the films’ generic alignments become instrumentalized in the (re)construction of regressive and patriarchal representations of the queen found in preceding versions. Revisiting Anita Wohlmann’s question about whether “the movies undermine and expose the tale’s implicit ageism,” the paper centrally argues that the depictions of the queen in both films entrench and supplement, rather than resist, regressive representations of female aging commonly found in preceding “Snow White” adaptations and in Western contemporary popular culture more broadly.

Author Biography

Katherine Whitehurst, University of Liverpool

is a Lecturer in Media and Film at the University of Liverpool. Her recent publications include the journal articles “Growing up in Magical Time: Representations of Female Growth and Development in ABC’s Once Upon a Time” (Narrative Culture, 2018) and “The Aged Woman as Spectre in Two Filmic Adaptations of Snow White” (Marvels and Tales, 2019) as well as the book chapter “Stories of Motherhood and Ageing in ABC’s Television Programme Once Upon a Time” in Schrage-Frueh et al. (eds.) Ageing Women in Literature and Visual Culture (Palgrave, 2017). Katherine is currently working on a forthcoming book chapter for the Oxford Handbook of Children’s Film entitled “Negotiating East and West when Representing Childhood in Miyazaki’s Spirited Away”; a book for the Routledge Cinema and Youth Cultures Series, entitled: Precious: Identity, Adaptation and the African American Youth Film; and a research project entitled “Exploring Fairy Tales in the Third Age: Viewer Response to Female Ageing in Contemporary Fairy–Tale Films.” Katherine’s research interests are in fairy-tale studies and the literary, filmic, and televisual adaptations of bildungsroman and reifungsroman narratives, particularly when these representations pertain to girls and women. Readers may write to Katherine at katherine.whitehurst@liverpool.ac.uk

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Published

2020-01-01

How to Cite

Whitehurst, K. . “Genre and Female Aging in Two Contemporary Filmic Adaptations of ‘Snow White’”. Age, Culture, Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 4, Jan. 2020, pp. 1-22, doi:10.7146/ageculturehumanities.v4i.130596.

Issue

Vol. 4 (2020): Age, Culture, Humanities

Section

Research Article

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