What is beastliness? Little Red Riding Hood stories used to be tales of warning for young women to manage their sexuality in the face of the dangerous beasts of court, who were smooth on the outside, but hairy on the inside. In the 21st century, paranormal teen romances use enchantment to transform the beasts into objects of desire. Dr. Nicola Welsh-Burke, a scholar of fairy tales and romance, is here to discuss hot wolf boys, brooding Byronic figures, pseudomarriage and pseudovirginity, hot villain discourse, and why young women need beastly men to unlock their sexuality.
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Guest: Dr. Nicola Welsh-Burke
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Dr. Welsh-Burke is an academic and lecturer at Western Sydney University in Sydney, Australia. She’s an early-stage researcher in folklore and fairy tales and the romance genre, and her PhD was on contemporary YA supernatural romance, retellings of little red riding hood from the 21st century.f
Discussed:
Nicola’s Texts:
- Wolves of Mercy Falls Series by Maggie Stiefvater
- Sister's Red by Jackson Pierce
- Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin
- Red Riding Hood, the novelization of the 2011 film
The Toast: A Day In The Life Of A Brooding Romantic Hero
Aarne-Thompson-Uther index
Little Red Riding Hood is: ATU 425
Famous Folklorists & scholars:
- Angela Carter: “hairy on the inside”
- Charles Perrault: “smooth-faced wolves”
- Countess d'Aulnoy: coined the term “fairytale”
- Cristina Bacchilega: “the fairy tale web”
Dr. Jodi McAllister: The Consummate Virgin
Dr. Christina Seifert: pseudovirginity
The complex fantasy (Diamond, 2011): to have the bad boy, to never come to harm, to have his wildness for one’s self.
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