Fairy Tale and Intertextuality in Michael Cunnigham´s The Snow Queen (2014)

Slovakia, ID CLEaR2015-254;

In his The Snow Queen, Michael Cunnigham depicts a story of two brothers with unhappy life which turns out, finally, to be a story on empathy and creativity. This story is loosely reminiscent of Ch Andersen´s story of the same title to which Cunnigham´s story alludes. This paper will analyze the role of intertextuality and fairy tale in this novel to show a contemporary recreation of the famous story and the funciton of a fairy tale genre conventions in comtemporary culture. At the same time, this paper will try to show the author´s emphasis on imagination and creativity as an alternative to materialist and consumerist way of life characteristic for contemporary consumer societies.

Key Words: Fairy tale, intertextuality, play, alternative, materialist culture, postmodernism, allegory