C LIT243 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Little Red Riding Hood, Red Riding
15 May 2018
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Department
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Professor
January 31, 2018
The Story of Grandmother
• Belongs to no one – recorded by authors
• Recorded much later; tale is older than date of recording as it had been in circulation for
long time
• Must see the context of story (social, market, oral/written)
• Violence, references to body, subtext of sex
o Indicators of folklore
o Censored depending on audience
• Oral tradition is very conservative
o Notorious for keeping tale in same shape for centuries
o All about repetition and formulaic elements
• Role of character
o How she is constructed
o Has little agency
▪ Not found in literary adaptations that pursue different ideologies and
different values
o Ends up in potentially dangerous situation, but escapes unscathed and fool
predator
o Displays control of situation, some smarts
Little Red Riding Hood Perrault’s Story
• Arguable whether it should be read to children
• Version where the red hood is shown
• Ending – she does not escape but eaten by wolf
• Female characters have lot more freedom in articulating agency
• Little girl acquires identity in this version, all characters more developed than The Story
of Grandmother
• Race between wolf and little girl – she knew he would be there
• No description of girl in The Story of Grandmother – described as pretty girl in this
version; emphasis on beauty
o Given red cape by grandmother because she was so beautiful, and grandmother
loved her so much
• Significance of red cape
o Provocative in sexual way – red = wine
o Maturity
o Dressed in bright red – socially transgressive
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