This project provides an in-depth study of narratives about Bluebeard and his wives, or narratives with identifiable Bluebeard motifs, and the intertextual and extratextual personal, political, literary, and sociocultural factors that have made the tale a particularly fertile ground for an author's adaptation of the story. Whereas Charles Dickens, for example, expresses a sympathetic identification with Bluebeard, and a discernable strain of misogyny emerges in his recreation of the tale and recurrent allusions to it, his contemporary, William Makepeace Thackeray, uses the tale as a springboard for his critique of avarice, hypocrisy, pretension, and the subjugation of women in Victorian society.

About the Author

Shuli Barzilai is Professor of English at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Reviews

"This is a subtle and multi-threaded book that will prove interesting to a wide variety of readers...Barzilai's sophisticated approach combines intertextual readings with an extratextual viewpoint that explores the interplay between stories using the Bluebeard theme and the story author's lives." --Francisco Vas da Silva, Marvels & Tales

Book Information
ISBN 9781138868731
Author Shuli Barzilai
Format Paperback
Page Count 206
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 294g