Incarnations of Lilith?: The Snow Queen in Literature for Young Readers
2009 (English)In: Cold matters: cultural perceptions of snow, ice and cold, Umeå: Umeå University and Royal Skyttean Society , 2009, 175-190 p.Chapter in book (Refereed)
In folk tales, good women are contrasted with evil ones. One specific kind of evil women are the snow queens, for example those depicted in Hans Christian Andersen's tales The Snow Queen and "The Ice Maiden." Other examples are the White Witch in the Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis and Mrs Coulter in Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials. The realms of the snow queens are cold, frozen and sterile landscapes always covered with snow and ice - a symbol of their cold and dangerous sexuality. The queens are powerful women, beautiful, seductive and rebellious against patriarchal structures. They can be seen as incarnations of Lilith, Adam's first wife, and as female vampires, constantly looking for new victims. The only way of escaping being seduced by a snow queen is to be rescued by true and eternal love. Women with a desire for power and independence have to live their lives without love and are doomed to a cold and lonely existence. In this way, the snow queen stories support patriarchal gender ideologies.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Umeå: Umeå University and Royal Skyttean Society , 2009. 175-190 p.
Northern studies monographs: Umeå University and the Royal Skyttean Society, ISSN 2000-0405 ; 1
Aesthetic subjects - Literature
Estetiska ämnen - Litteraturvetenskap
Research subject Swedish and Education
IdentifiersURN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-20906Local ID: 90c7ea00-c30f-11de-b769-000ea68e967bISBN: 978-91-88466-70-9OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-20906DiVA: diva2:993950
Validerad; 2009; 20091027 (ysko)2016-09-292016-09-29Bibliographically approved