{"product_id":"9780814765395","title":"In Search of the Swan Maiden: A Narrative on Folklore and Gender","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn her compendious study, [of the folktale of the runaway wife] Leavy argues that the contradictory claims of nature and culture are embodied in the legendary figure of the swan maiden, a woman torn between the human and bestial worlds.  \u003cbr\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis is a study of the meaning of gender as framed by the swan maiden tale, a story found in the folklore of virtually every culture. The swan maiden is a supernatural woman forced to marry, keep house, and bear children for a mortal man who holds the key to her imprisonment. When she manages to regain this key, she escapes to the otherworld, never to return.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThese tales have most often been interpreted as depicting exogamous marriages, describing the girl from another tribe trapped in a world where she will always be the outsider.  Barbara Fass Leavy believes that, in the societies in which the tale and its variants endured, woman was the other--the outsider trapped in a society that could never be her own. Leavy shows how the tale, though rarely explicitly recognized, is frequently replayed in modern literature.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBeautifully written, this book reveals the myriad ways in which the folktales of a society reflect its cultural values, and particularly how folktales are allegories of gender relations. It will interest anyone involved in literary, gender, and cultural studies.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"New York University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47069133177072,"sku":"9780814765395","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780814765395_p0.jpg?v=1769909922","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780814765395","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}