Princesses and Dragons. The Refashioning of Female Identity as a Rescuer in Victorian and Contemporary Fairy Tales

The article stresses a continuity between the construction of female identity in a selection of Victorian fairy tales (by Nesbit, Sharp, De Morgan) and contemporary fairy tales which subvert stereotypical female roles by dispensing with marriage-dominated plots and presenting alternative options for princesses' self-definition as females. It is a contribution to current debates on the representation of gender in children's literature and the ambivalence in society towards accepted and "safe" female cultural identities and new empowering female roles