The definitive study of Cinderella stories is by Cox, who separates the variants into three groups: Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap o' Rushes.  The latter two groups contain a scenario where the heroine flees from an incestuous father, usually a king, who wants to marry the daughter because she looks just like his dead wife.  She is found by another king and then goes to work as a kitchen maid.  At this point the story merges, more or less, with the Cinderella tale.  So many folklorists argue that the Cinderella group is a sterilized version of earlier tales that contained the incest scenario. 

MR

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 2, 2012, at 8:25 PM, "Carolyn Kunin" <chaiselongue@ATT.NET> wrote:

To the List,

I hate to appear dense, but I cannot for the life of me comprehend in what possible sense Zolushka (Cendrillon, Aschenbrodel, etsy etsy etsy) are incest tales. The father is passive, rarely even present, and there are no brothers - only sisters and nasty step-mother. Lesbian incest? Jamais couchee avec, as a Rumanian girlfriend used to say!

May I thank Matt for drawing my attention to the fact that M Maar makes a slight nod in my direction in his book, Speak, Nabokov. I have the book, but hadn't noticed the kind footnote.

But, Jansy if I may, I have no idea of what you mean by the following, and how I could possibly have anything to do with it.

I was happy when I read Carolyn Kunin's reference to "Speak, Nabokov" because, in her commentary, she stressed Maar's non-idolatrous vertex and the scope of his literary inter/intra-connections, favouring exciting inroads into VN's works.

By the way, I have on my bookshelves all the books you, Jansy, reference - so perhaps I need to go back and re-read. But for the sake of others who may not have Marina(!) Warner, Bettelheim and/or Levi-Strauss, could you please be more specific. Also I fail to see any homosexuality &/or pederasty in Hamlet or Oedipus Rex. Have I been missing something obvious?

I particularly identify with Zolushka, so some of this is of more than academic curiosity to me.
Zolushkalyn

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