Exploring speech in Russian fairy tales

Both because of their prevalence in contemporary culture and because of their ability to affect the acculturation of children, fairy tales are commonly examined from a feminist perspective. Many scholars have begun to ask if the distribution of agency in tales reflects patriarchal values, for example, are princesses nothing more than passive damsels in distress? One way to discuss these types of power relationships is to examine speech. The ability to speak can be viewed as a type of agency that shapes a character’s outcome within a narrative; it is through speech that characters bless, curse, and interact with one another. This paper seeks to explore the connections among agency, gender, moral alignment, and speech in Russian fairy tales from the Alexander Afanas′ev collection. As part of this research, the frequency of male and female vocalizations has been measured, as well as different types of silence. This research also examines the patterns of speech that appear in different tale typologies that revolve around a central female character