Transplanted Wonder: A Special Issue of "Marvels & Tales" on Australian Fairy Tale

As an academic, I spend a lot of my research time scouring databases for articles. Marvels & Tales is a journal devoted to fairy tales that I have always admired, and used for both teaching and research. It was an absolute pleasure to co-edit a special issue of the journal on Australian fairy tale with Dr Emma Whatman, whose doctoral work broke new ground in the study of fairy-tale adaptations and postfeminism.

In postcolonial contexts, thinking about fairy tale history can be a fraught exercise, particularly when it comes to the way that Aboriginal stories were appropriate by white writers. Nevertheless, our contributors made the job of celebrating, at the same time as critiquing, Australian fairy tales, simple. 

Juliet O'Conor, for example, contributes her unparalleled knowledge about Indigenous children's literature to contrast "Aboriginalist" texts such as Katie Langloh Parker's Australian Legendary Tales (1896) with stories written an illustrated by traditional owners, such as Wilf Reeves and Olga Miller's The Legends of Moonie Jarl (1964). While Victoria Tedeschi's article about Jennifer Kent's distressing film The Nightingale illuminates how contemporary Australian writers and filmmakers can use fairy-tale conventions to interrogate the nation's colonial history.

And to prove this point in practice, as well as in theory, it was an unanticipated delight to include Nike Sulway's beautiful, gut-punching short story "a void and a chasm and a run". We were also extremely fortunate to include a selection of Lorena Carrington's astonishing photographic illustrations taken from some of her recent fairy-tale book collaborations with author Sophie Masson. 

If you're interested in Australian fairy tale from 1870 to the present- from young adult novels to films- you will find something of interest in this special issue. 

Table of Contents

Introduction
"Transplanted Wonder: Australian Fairy Tale"
Michelle J. Smith and Emma Whatman

Articles
"Indigenous Voices in Australian Children’s Literature"
Juliet O'Conor

Fairy Tales and Colonial Trauma in Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale
Victoria Tedeschi

“Not a Dream, but a Harrowing”: Writing a Colonial Fairy Tale
Nike Sulway

Female Collaboration in Australian Fairy Tales
Sarah Hart and Kristine Moruzi

Perpetuating Stereotypical Masculinity in the Australian YA Fairy-Tale Valentine
Elizabeth Little

Texts and Translations

"A Void and a Chasm and a Ruin"
Nike Sulway

"The Golden and the Diamond Light: Lorena Carrington’s Fairy-Tale Illustrations"
Sophie Masson

"Five Fairy-Tale Images by Lorena Carrington"
Lorena Carrington

"A Note by Lorena Carrington about How She Creates Her Works"
Lorena Carrington

"The Australian Fairy Tale Society: Celebrating Eight Years of Enchantment"
Danielle McGee

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