A Bibliography of Feminist Folktales

Below is a bibliography of Feminist Folktales. Please send comments and corrections to me.

See also the Amazon Feminist Folktale Store.

• Accad, Evelyne (1978). Women in contemporary Persian folktales. In: Lois Beck & Nikki R. Keddie, eds. Women in the Muslim World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 698 pp., illustrated. Out of print: Check Amazon.com for used copies.
• Feminist Folktales from India. By Qiron Adhikary (2003). Oakland, CA: Masalai Press, 97 pp.
  In print!
• Bacchilega, Christina (1997). Postmodern Fairy Tales: Gender and Narrative Strategies. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 208 pp., illustrated.
  In print!
• Barchers, Suzanne I. (1990). Wise Women: Folk and Fairy Tales from Around the World. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 324 pp., illustrated. Out of print:
  Check Amazon.com for used copies.
• Berkeley Public Library (1996). Brave, Active and Resourceful Females in Picture Stories.
• Binchy, Maeve, ed. (1992). Ride On Rapunzel: Fairy Tales for Feminists. Dublin, Ireland: Attic Press, 143 pp., illustrated. Out of print: Check Amazon.com for used copies.
• Carter, Angela, ed. (1990). The Old Wives’ Fairy Tale Book. The Pantheon fairy tale and folklore library. New York: Pantheon, 242 pp., illustrated. Out of print: Check Amazon.com for used copies.
• Carter, Angela, ed. (1993). Strange Things Sometimes Still Happen: Fairy Tales from Around the world. Second Virago book of fairy tales. Boston, MA: Faber & Faber, 233 pp., illustrated. Out of print: Check Amazon.com for used copies.
• Chinen, Allan B. (1996). Waking the World: Classic Tales of Women and the Heroic Feminine. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 280 pp. Out of print:
  Check Amazon.com for used copies.
• Coffin, Tristram Potter (1975). The Female Hero in Folklore and Legend. New York: Seabury Press, 223 pp., illustrated. Out of print: Check Amazon.com for used copies.
• Crowley, Elaine; Cathleen O’Neill; Gerardine Meaney, Maeve Kelly, Roz Cowman, Grainne Healy, Anne Le Marquand hartigan, Margaretta D’Arcy, Clodagh Corcoran, & Rita Kelly (1989). Sweeping Beauties: Fairytales for Feminists. [a.k.a. Contrary Fairies and Other Fairy Tales for Feminists.] Dublin, Ireland: Attic Press, 64 pp., illustrated. Out of print: Check Amazon.com for used copies.
• Dorcey, Mary, Maeve Kelly, Clairr O’Connor, Joni Crone, Róisín Sheerin, Anne Cooper, Máirín Johnston, Joni Crone, Frances Molloy, & Anne Killean (1987). Mad & Bad Fairies: Fairytales for Feminists. Dublin, Ireland: Attic Press, 64 pp., illustrated. Out of print: Check Amazon.com for used copies.
• Estes, Clarissa Pinkola (1992). Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype.
  In print!
• Greenhill, Pauline & Tye, Diane, eds. (1997). Undisciplined Women: Tradition and Culture in Canada. Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queen's University Press, 306 pp., illustrated.
  In print!
• Hamilton, Virginia (1995). Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True tales. New York: Blue Sky Press, 112 pp., illustrated.
  In print!
• Hanlon, Tina L. (2003). Feminist Collections of Folktales. A bibliography.
• Hanlon, Tina L. (2003). Mutsmag. A bibliography of tale type 1119.
• Hollis, Linda Pershing & Young, M. Jane (1993). Feminist Theory and the Study of Folklore. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 414 pp., illustrated. Out of print: Check Amazon.com for used copies.
• Kavanagh Linda, Sue Russell, Elizabeth O’Driscoll, Anne Claffey, Carol Lanigan, Wendy Shea, Mary Maher, Fleet Street Fairies, Carolyn Swift, Anne Sharpe, Joni Crone & Maeve Binchy (1985). Rapunzel’s Revenge: Fairytales for Feminists. Dublin, Ireland: Attic Press, 64 pp., illustrated. Out of print: Check Amazon.com for used copies.
• Kelly, Maeve (1995). Alice in Thunderland: A Feminist Folktale. Dublin, Ireland: Attic Press, 140 pp. In print!
• Lake, Rosemary (2002). Once Upon a Time When the Princess Rescued the Prince. Dragon Tree Press, 127 pp. * Stories include: The Enchanted Crab, The Vampire Grandmother, The Crystal Sphere, Sir Marzipan, Panalou’s Little Red Riding Hood, The Enchanted Tree, The Bear Princess, The Little Brother Who Cried “Wolf!”, Under the Glass Mountain, Queen-of-the-May and the Vampires, The Girl Who Could Not Shudder, The Flying Turnips, and The False Dragonfly Queen. Samples of these stories are available. In print!
• Lam, Ka-yee (2000). Feminine roles in Fairy Tales and Folktales. Master’s Thesis, University of Hong Kong, 51 pp. Table of contents is available on-line.
• Leavy, Barbara Fass (1994). In Search of the Swan Maiden: A Narrative on Folklore and Gender. New York: New York University Press, 374 pp.
  In print!
• Lofaro, Michael A., ed. (2001). Davy Crockett’s Riproarious Shemales and Sentimental Sisters: Women’s Tall Tales from the Crockett Almanacs, 1835-1856. Stackpole Books, 320 pp.
  In print!
• Lurie, Alison (1980). Clever Gretchen and Other Forgotten Folktales. New York: Crowell, 113 pp., illustrated. Contents: Clever Gretchen; Manka and the judge; The black geese; Mizilca; The baker’s daughter; The mastermaid; Molly Whuppie; The hand of glory; Maid Maleen; Kate Crackernuts; The sleeping prince; Cap o’Rushes; Gone is gone; Mother Holle; Tomlin. Out of print: Check Amazon.com for used copies.
• McMaster, Susan, ed. (1999). No More Dragons: Feminist Fantasies, Fables and Folktales. Quarry Press, 96 pp. Out of print: Check Amazon.com for used copies.
• Minard, Rosemary, ed. (1975). Womenfolk and Fairy Tales. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 163 pp., illustrated. Contents: Leodhas, S. N., The stolen bairn and the Sidh; Chang, I. C., The Chinese red riding hoods; De La Mare, W. Molly, Whuppie; Jacobs, J., Mr. Fox; The brothers Grimm, The twelve brothers; Hearn, Lafcadio et al., The old woman and her dumpling; Lang, A., The forty thieves; Jacobs, J., Kate Crackernuts; De La Mare, W., Clever Grethel; Jacobs, J. Cap o’Rushes; Leodhas, S. N., The lass who went out at the cry of dawn; Stamm, C., Three strong women (a tall tale from Japan); Asbjornsen & Moe, The husband who was to mind the house; Asbjornsen & Moe, East of the sun and west of the moon; Arnott, K., Unanana and the elephant; Leodhas, S. N., The woman who flummoxed the fairies; Fillmore, P., Clever Manka; Asbjornsen & Moe, The three sisters who were entrapped into a mountain.
  In print!
• Murray Melissa, Leland Bardwell, Anne Claffey, Heather Celmalis, Evelyn Conlon, Mairin Johnston, Liz Mellon, Liz McManus & Maeve Kelly (1986). Ms Muffet and Others: Fairy Tales for Feminists. Dublin, Ireland: Attic Press, 63 pp., illustrated. Out of print: Check Amazon.com for used copies.
• Muten, Burleigh (1999). Grandmothers’ Stories: Wise Woman Tales from Many Cultures. New York: Barefoot Books, 80 pp., illustrated. Contents: The midwife and the djinn (Sengalese); The old woman who was not afraid (Japanese); Grandmother’s basket (Russian) -- The woman in the moon (Hawaiian); The beautiful crone of Cordoba (Mexican); Go ask the wise woman (Irish) -- Old Mother Holle (German); The old woman who was right (Swedish)
  In print!
• Namjoshi, Suniti (1981). Feminist Fables. London: Sheba Feminist Publishers, 133 pp., illustrated.
  In print!
• Namjoshi, Suniti (1981). Feminist Fables: Saint Suniti and the Dragon and Other Fables. South Asia Books, 200 pp. In print!
• Neylon, Margaret, Moya Roddy, Linda Kavanagh, Joni Crone, Zoë Fairbairns, Maeve Kelly, Celia de Fréine, Róisín Sheerin, Roz Cowman, Ivy Bannister & Méríde Woods (1991). Cinderella on the Ball: Fairytales for Feminists. Dublin, Ireland: Attic Press, 64 pp., illustrated. Out of print: Check Amazon.com for used copies.
• Phelps, Ethel Johnston, ed. (1981). The Maid of the North: Feminist Folk Tales from Around the World. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 176 pp., illustrated. A collection of twenty-one folk and fairy tales from around the world featuring clever heroines.
  In print!
• Phelps, Ethel Johnston (1979). Tatterhood and Other Tales. New York: The Feminist Press at CUNY, 165 pp., illustrated. “All the central characters in these folk tales are spirited females-decisive heroes of extraordinary courage, wit, and achievement who set out to determine their own fate. Some of their stories are comic, some adventurous, some eerie, and some magical. The 25 traditional tales come from Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas.”
  In print!
• Radner, Joan Newlon (1993). Feminist Messages: Coding in Women’s Folk Culture. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 309 pp., illustrated. In print!
• Ragan, Kathleen, ed. (1998). Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World. New York: W.W. Norton, 450 pp.
  In print!
• Riedel, Ingrid (1995). Taboo in Folktales: Imprisoned in Nature’s Revenge. New York: Fromm International. Translated by Marie Siegenthaler & Douglas Witcher from Tabu im Märchen. Out of print: Check Amazon.com for used copies.
  In print!
• Rose, Deborah Lee (1990). The People Who Hugged the Trees: An Environmental Folk Tale. Niwot, CO: R. Rinehart, illustrated.
• Roth, Susan L. Brave Martha and the Dragon. Dial Books for Young Readers. Out of print: Check Amazon.com for used copies.
• Sand, George & Hirko, Ersine, eds. (1994). The Castle of Pictures and Other Stories. New York: The Feminist Press at CUNY. “The Castle of Pictures and Other Stories is a collection of four very different stories written by George Sand for her granddaughters. Chosen from the 13 stories George Sand wrote in her sixties for her two granddaughters, the four stories of The Castle of Pictures and Other Stories present a world still relevant today. Both girls and boys are hardworking, persistent, and honest. They want to work creatively, and they are curious about plants, animals, even insects, and science. Through ingenuity and integrity, they protect themselves from danger or dreariness.”
  In print!
• San Souci, Robert D. (1993). Cut from the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend, and Tall Tale. New York: Philomel Books, 140 pp., illustrated.
  In print!
• Sisters’ Choice (no date). Active Heroines in Folktales. A bibliography.
• Stone, Kay (1975). Things Walt Disney never told us. The Journal of American Folklore 88(347): 42-50.
• Tchana, Katrin (2000). The Serpent Slayer and Other Stories of Strong Women. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 113 pp., illustrated. A collection of twenty traditional tales from various parts of the world, each of whose main character is a strong and resourceful woman.
  In print!
• Tso, Wing-bo (2000). Female Sexuality in Grimm’s Fairy Tales and their English Translations. Master’s Thesis, University of Hong Kong, 60 pp. Introduction is available on-line.
• Walker, Barbar G. (1998). The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects. San Francisco, CA: Harper ∓ Row, 563 pp., illustrated.
  In print!
• Winter, Jeanette (1984). The Girl and the Moon Man: A Siberian Tale. New York: Pantheon Books, 32 pp., illustrated. Out of print: Check Amazon.com for used copies.
• Yolen, Jane & Stemple, Heidi E. Y. eds. (2000). Mirror, Mirror: Forty Folktales for Mothers and Daughters to Share. New York: Viking, 258 pp., illustrated.
  In print!
• Yolen, Jane, ed. (2000). Not One Damsel in Distress: World Folktales for Strong Girls. San Diego: Harcourt, 116 pp., illustrated.
  In print!
• Zipes, Jack David, ed. (1986). Don’t Bet on the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North America and England. New York: Methuen, 270 pp., illustrated.
  In print!
• Zipes, Jack David, ed. (1994). The Outspoken Princess and the Gentle Knight: A Treasury of Modern Fairy Tales. New York: Bantam Books, 237 pp., illustrated. Out of print: Check Amazon.com for used copies.

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Last modified February 14, 2004.