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"Angela Carter and the Literary Marchen." Theme issue, Marvels and Tales: Journal of FairyTale Studies 12(1 ). Guest ed. Cristina Bacchilega and Danielle M. Roemer. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998. Pp. 252, preface, six illustrations, contributors.)
ALICE MORRISON MORDOH
Indiana University and Purdue University at Indianapolis
Marvels and Tales describes itself as a scholarly journal of fairy-tale studies, international and multidisciplinary in orientation, "dealing with the fairy tale in any of its diverse manifestations and contexts" (p. 11). Since its inception in 1987, the journal has published works by notable scholars in the disciplines of literary studies, folklore, psychology, gender studies, children's literature, social and cultural history, anthropology, film studies, ethnic studies, and art history. The majority of essays, however, emerge from the field of literary criticism and most often focus on the literary fairy tale rather than the traditional, oral folktale. The journal also encourages critical exchanges between authors and readers as well as translations of important research, texts, oral tales and other primary documents, and book and media reviews. Marvels and Tales has been an important addition to contemporary scholarship on the fairy tale, filling a noticeable void and providing a venue for the exploration of a topic that is inherently interdisciplinary. Jacques Barchilon, a distinguished scholar of 17th-century French literature and literary fairy tales and the founder and editor of Merveilles et Contes/Marvels and Tales (as it was originally titled) through 1996, introduces this special issue ofthe journal with a short essay entitled "Remembering Angela Carter." Carter was a writer of fiction, publishing from the 1960s until her untimely death from lung cancer in 1992, and also a translator of Perrault's fairy tales. She is best known for her retellings of famous fairy tales and engendered a wide following among literary and fairy-tale scholars following the 1979 publication of her bestknown work, The Bloody Chamber, a collection of retellings whose title story is her version of the "Bluebeard" tale. Barchilon praises Carter's poetic use of eroticism and horror in her writing, describing the stories as "beautiful literary echoes of classical folk tales" (p. 21). He admires her skill as a translator and her talent as a fiction writer, appropriately setting them apart from consideration of Carter as a scholar ofsuch folk...