Beyond the Disney spell, or escape into Pantoland

Folklore, April, 2002 by Justyna Deszcz

Theoretically, the authorial interaction with contemporary and past writers, and with storytellers of folklore is twofold: the author may choose either to duplicate given patterns and ideas, and thus confirm the existing order of the world, or to question and subvert them so as to criticise the dominant forces in the society. This fundamental distinction implies that one can speak of two tendencies within the phenomenon of contamination: on one hand, contamination may mean disfigurement or effacement of the "genuine" character of a given tale; on the other, it may be seen as the fairytale's plasticity and its potential to address social and cultural changes. [6] As such a dynamic oscillation has been operating since tales first began to be disseminated, it is impossible to point to one "true" version of a given tale. Therefore, what has to be investigated in order to comprehend the magical significance of the genre is the way in which it was instrumentalised and appropriated by particular authors to articulate their personal wishes, political opinions, and artistic preferences.

Part of the aforementioned movement within the genre has been highly regularised by society. As Zipes observes, the fairytale has become a cultural institution, which exists within an institutional framework of production, distribution, and reception, as well as fulfilling specific social functions, such as the preservation of the cultural heritage of a given country. Today, the institutionalised life of the genre is determined by the conditions of the culture industry; that is, it is contingent on the marketplace. This in turn means that to some extent, the fairytale has been reduced to a mass-produced commodity, to be purchased and owned, and to bring in considerable profit. What is more, the fairytale is being used as a source and a vehicle of powerful self-mirroring images affirming the existing value system, and thus lulling audiences into passivity and compliance. Naturally, this has led to the obliteration of the utopian impulse of the genre, which, according to Zipes, constitutes the social marrow of the fairytale and may be an incentive to oppose the dominant culture, or may even lead to a willed transformation of oppressive power relations, ideally followed by the establishment of a more emancipated human order.

Instead, some fairytales have been repackaged and are selling like hot cakes (Tatar 1992, 235); they are a fleeting, illusory and undemanding diversion from everyday life, comparable to a visit to Disneyworld, and they do not leave room for free thought. Worse still, consumers do not realise that the commodified fairytale is actually designed to reinforce their consumerist status rather than to address them as individuals. As noted above, the success of a given cultural institution is based on the public's longing for the re-creation of standard configurations. The mass-produced fairytale gratifies this desire by emphasising the sense of familiarity achieved through the outward material and ideological sameness. What really counts in the marketplace is performance, fast and efficient service, guaranteeing good profit. Among all the forms of the culture industry that inundate audiences with projections of false utopias, it is undoubtedly the Disney fairytale that has taken the lead.