Leah Persaud

Bio: Leah Persaud is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Ideal (set theory) & Beauty. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 9 citations.

Who's the Fairest of Them All? Defining and Subverting the Female Beauty Ideal in Fairy Tale Narratives and Films through Grotesque Aesthetics

Abstract: ............................................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. viii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 ........................................................................................................................................ 20 1 How History, Typology and Psychoanalytic Scholarship Have Maintained the Beauty Ideal as a Dominant Presence in Female Relationships in Fairy Tales ...... 20 1.1 The Medieval Basis for the Dominant Presence of the Beauty Ideal for Women in Literary Fairy Tales ......................................................................................................................... 22 1.1.1 How the Written Tales Were Influenced by a Medieval Association between Beauty and Good Morality ................................................................................................................................................ 22 1.1.2 The Historic Reality of Death in Childbirth and its Influence in Creating the Cruel, Envious Stepmother ............................................................................................................................................ 25 1.1.3 How the Medieval Approach to Marriage and Beauty Establishes a Power Hierarchy for Women in Fairy Tales ............................................................................................................ 26 1.1.4 How a Combination of the Medieval Beauty Ideal, Physical Reward and Punishment, and Marriage Enforce Violent Female Relationships in Versions of “Cinderella” ............................................................................................................................................................. 27 1.1.5 The Lack of Correlation in Male Characters between Appearance, Violence and Morality ..................................................................................................................................................................... 30 1.2 How the Archetype of the Mother and the Typology of a Tale Encourage Envy and Conflict Centered around the Beauty Ideal .......................................................................... 32 1.2.1 Exploring the Mother Archetype and its Influence on the Moral and Aesthetic Splitting of Female Characters into Two Extremes ............................................................................... 33 1.2.2 How Envy and Violence Based on the “Snow White” Typology Reinforce Beauty as the Source of Power and Center of Conflict in Female Relationships ............................................ 35 1.3 How the Perceived Audience of the Tales and Psychoanalytic Scholarship Have Legitimized the Use of Violence and Punishment of Female Envy over Beauty ............... 42

The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales

Abstract: Bruno Bettelheim has spent his lifetime working on behalf of children and their secure upbringing. Having survived two concentration camps, he came to the United States and created a new therapeutic environment to help psychotic children survive their illnesses. He has frequently written about that experience; now he turns to a seemingly different subject, the fairy tale. He perceives an underlying continuity in his work, maintaining that the familiar fairy tale is, in fact, an art form, delineating the ultimate goal of child and man alike, a life with meaning. He indicates why other children's stories fail to attain this goal, and at the same time, why fairy tales themselves have fallen into disuse. In discussing their virtues, the author employs his extensive clinical experience, his engaging style, and, of course, the fairy tales themselves. Psychoanalytic assumptions constitute the organizing principle of his book, its consistency, and its occasional shortcomings;

Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales

Abstract: If a critique of everyday life is to become a serious undertaking, virtually everything we experience needs to be subjected to careful and critical scrutiny. Even fairy tales. Like so much else in modern culture, these tales may not be as innocuous as they appear. To the extent that the culture industry has appropriated them and uses their motifs to manipulate consciousness or shape behavior, especially in children, fairy tales may be more effective as instruments of social control than one would think. Perhaps for this reason the study of these tales is too important to be left to folklore aficionados or specialists in children's literature.

Fairy tales transformed? Twenty-first-century adaptations and the politics of wonder

Abstract: Bacchilega, Cristina: Fairy tales transformed? Twenty-first century adaptations and the politics of wonder Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2013, 290 p

Claiming Knowledge, Claiming Lives: Decolonial Feminist Pedagogy and the Experiences of Low-Income Women Undergraduates in Community College

Abstract: This qualitative study explores the experiences of low income women undergraduates in a community college classroom anchored in decolonial feminist pedagogy. Analyses of in-depth interviews, student writings, and questionnaires are offered to further understanding of the impact of decolonial feminist pedagogy on the experiences and learning outcomes of low-income women undergraduates in community college, and also works to shed light on how the praxis of decolonial feminist pedagogy disrupts traditional hierarchies and claims to epistemic authority in the community college classroom.