Feminist Fables

by Suniti Namjoshi

A reworking of fairy tales from the East and West. There was once a man who thought he could do anything, even be a woman. So he acquired a baby, changed its diapers and fed the damn thing three times a night. He did all the housework, was deferential to men, and got worn out. But he had a brother, Jack Cleverfellow, who hired a wife and got it all done. Suniti Namjoshi is elegant and subversive in creating new patterns of meaning through stories that are simultaneously spare and full of richness. An ingenious reworking of fairy tales from East and West.

Genres: Feminism, Short Stories, Fiction, LGBT, India, Lesbian, Retellings

133 pages, Paperback

First published April 27, 1981

About the author

Suniti Namjoshi is a poet, children's author, and teacher. She ran a collaborative fiction site in the late nineties called The Reader's Text of Building Babel. She lives in England with her partner Gillian Hanscombe.

Reviews

[Mehwish · Rating 4 out of 5]

133 witty, poignant and candid tales.

The best one:

"There was once a man who thought he could do anything, even be a woman. So he acquired a baby, changed it's diapers and fed the damn thing three times a night. He did all the housework, was deferential to men, and got worn out. But he had a brother, Jack Cleverfellow, who hired a wife, and got it all done." - The Tale of Two Brothers.

[Laura Verret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Supremely satisfying.

[Yamini · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot put into words how much I enjoyed this book. It is a classic retelling of fables, age-old fantasy tales, and the folktales we have heard of since birth, everything from a female and LGBT perspective, with a tint of sarcasm and fun, and sometimes a pause. And imagine, a stalwart like Suniti Namjoshi wrote this as early as the 80s. What an achievement! What a book!

[Soren · Rating 4 out of 5]

El estudio preliminar que se hace sobre el contexto en el que Suniti Namjoshi escribe, y escribió, sus fábulas me parece de lo más acertado. De no haber leído tal estudio se me hubieran escapado infinidad de detalles sobre estas fábulas.

La verdad es que me siento incapaz de explicar de manera acertada lo que este libro puede transmitir, tan solo diré que juega muy bien con los elementos de la identidad de género.

[Mangolden · Rating 4 out of 5]

很难不联想到《她来劈开这山》，但风格基调大相径庭。《劈山》的动作是摧毁和飞越，不留余地的明亮和激昂。这本更像是在黑暗的洞穴里举起火把，与其说驱散不如说是还原阴影的形状，因此也就离沉重的现实更近，大多数时候都在“还原真相”，通过讽刺来指出旧叙事中隐藏的男权逻辑，但并未给予女性主人公另一个结局。但也有旧瓶子装新酒的篇目。有几篇的主旨隐隐像是女男平等，读着很割裂。主角是女同的篇目都很喜欢。Cut：Thorn Rose/The Badge-Wearing Dyke and Her Two Maiden Aunts/Bird Woman/Confessions of a Short Person/A Mortal Tale /Whore,Bitch,Slut,Sow/The Giantess/The Moon Shone On/A Quiet Life/Of spiders/Troglodyte/The Grace of the Goddess/For Adrinne Rich—If She Would Like it/The Homicidal Streak/The Oyster Child/Monkey系列/The Derbyshire Fish/The Mouse and the Lion/For Carla and Aditi

[Tuğba · Rating 1 out of 5]

Feminizmi, erkek düşmanlığı olarak yansıtan birçok hikâye vardı ki bu gerçekten üzücü ve tarafgirlige iten bir tutum. Kadın erkek ilişkisindeki hakların gözetilmesi yerine erkeklerin saf dışı bırakılması tavsiyeleri de gereksiz yoğun olarak sunulmuş. Gerçek sevgiyi, aşkı yalnızca iki kadının arasında gerçekleşmesi mümkün algısıyla dikte edilen öyküler iticiydi. Yanlış ve yanlı bir bakış açısı bana göre. Feminizm ile ilgili eserler okumak için kesinlikle doğru bir eser değil.

[Mayryott]

像是写作练习册，带给我的感受——复杂略大于触动，因为我很难认同女同恋情约等于友情或（加）欲望，也不觉得女同性恋相爱就可以不受歧视、不反击。或许是作者在写这本书的时候还没想清楚，或许是我和她对女同性恋的理解不同。叙事方面，整体写得还是比较直白的。以下故事让我印象比较深，比如“The Grace of the Goddess”，“Her Mother's Daughter”，“Philomel”，“Of Spiders”，“The Moon Shone On”，“Whore, Bitch, Slut, Sow”，“A Moral Tale”，“Bird Woman”，“That Fabulous Beast”，“Confessions of a Short Person”，“Thorn Rose”。

[Alex Sharps · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5* I definitely didn't understand all of these, but overall enjoyed them.

[Everett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Namjoshi has a lot of wit and weaves these feminist cover versions in a genuine fashion. But where these original fables, myths, and folktales have had hundreds of years to mature, through countless re-tellings and revisions, the immediacy of Namjoshi´s style doesnßt adequately capture their original potency. Perhaps by taking out the element of the inherent or percieved misogyny of these fables, their essential power is diminished? Perhaps new feminist folklure, perhaps even manifested in the oral tradition, would be more profound? By creating a world on one´s own, instead of mining the patriarchal past to produce cover versions of cover versions, a new understanding might develop, one that´s not based on reaction but progress.

[Gill · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not really my cup of tea. These are short easy to read in spare minutes 'fables', but I really just didn't get them although there were passages that were amusing. I had mooched it for someone else and read it before posting it on. Not impressed but perhaps it's just me...

[Mirabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rarely read fables and this is the first time I ever read anything similar to Sanskrit fables. I like the parodies but I think some of them should be a bit longer. The hedgehog one was adorable and funny. I read Bitch, Slut, Whore, Sow to one of my friends. My favourite one was Jewel because of how provocative it was in such few sentences. Trigger warnings for this book: rape, death, misogyny, kidnapping

[Maral Çankaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Masallar çoğu zaman eğlendirdi, fakat bazı bazı referans verilen masallar, efsaneler ve olaylar hakkında bilgi eksikliğinden olsa gerek anlamadığım noktalar oldu. Verilen dipnotlar belki biraz daha geliştirilebilirdi.

Fakat toplumsal cinsiyet tartışmalarının evrensel imgeleriyle bezenmiş masallar gayet eğlendirici ve zevkli idi.

Bununla beraber çevirinin yer yer okumayı zorlaştırdığını düşündüm. Ancak buna dair yeterli kanıtım yok…

[Charvi]

DNF

I wasn't very fond of the writing style. Another problem I faced was not being aware of all the original fairytales which made it hard for me to get what the new version of them meant.

[hawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

really enjoying Suniti Namjoshi's 'Feminist Fables' - a combination/collection of inventive, witty, disturbing, sad, satisfying, funny, and even some happily ever after, twists on traditional tales.

[M. Winslow · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book filled with very short fables and big thoughts.

[Ermina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Iako je i ovdje dominantna jedna vrsta ideologije, radije biram ovo štivo za djecu i odrasle nego ono ezopovsko.

[Nesa · Rating 2 out of 5]

good idea,bad writing

[Meher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyable, witty and amusing. Still poignant sadly, all these years after they were published

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read: "Nymph," "The Princess," "Local History," and "Jewel" from this collection.

[Aisha (thatothernigeriangirl) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ✨
Feminist Fables is a collection of feminist retelling of fairytales/ mythology by Suniti Namjoshi. The collection contains stories from the Greek and Sanskrit mythology, stories from Tales from the Arabian Nights and even some Hans Andersen’s tales. Its peculiar quality is its ability to force the reader to re-examine the female standings in the tales.

A case in point for me, is the take of Sheherazade which formed the bedrock for Tales from the Arabian Nights. I read that book in July and I didn’t see the problematic position Sheherazade had to resort to to prevent the Caliph from executing her. In this example and many more, Namjoshi shorn light on these problems. She employed the use of sarcasm, humor and wit to deliver her views.

Although, I think it would be an added advantage if the reader is familiar with the stories she retold as it would present a clearer contest. Nevertheless, the overall goal of the collection is easily accessible to the average reader. It’s also important to note that trigger topics like rape, assault, harassment were discussed
My final verdict is that this book isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
I wouldn’t recommend it vehemently but I did enjoy reading it and i appreciate its goal!

[Rhiannon Fennell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favourite story is on page 99