MIRROR, APPLE TREE AND NIEVE NEGRA. ANALYSIS OF CHILEAN SNOW WHITE FROM A FEMINIST APPROACH

Abstract

Over time, Snow White has lost some of its defining features to be then replaced by others. Most versions and re-workings of this classic folk tale -such as that by Disney or the satirical revisions by Roald Dahl and James Finn Garner– trivialise the impact of the story by focusing on the stepmother’s vanity and unhealthy envy. In this way, the rivalry between mother and daughter and the oedipal conflicts derived from it are set aside. However, this fact does not apply in the young adult novel Nieve negra, by Camila Valenzuela (2014). Two stories take place in the same setting in
two different times, following a feminist perspective which pays homage to Chilean roots, and makes male characters be secondary. This paper aims at analyzing this updating by discussing its structure, narrative voice, setting and characters. The analysis enables us to state that Nieve negra is a young adult novel displaying great expressive quality; the key elements of the original work are subverted to offer a new reading which shows many features of of Valenzuela’s literature