Shape-Shifting Tales

This book provides an analysis of the representation of womens bodies and their monstrous metamorphoses in selected short stories by contemporary English writer Michle Roberts. The author explores the relationship between traditional fairy tales such as the Grimm Brothers and Charles Perraults, the lives of female saints and Robertss counter-narratives, focussing on the analysis of images of sublimed fleshliness and of acts of monstrous violence on the body. The book takes into account relevant Womens Studies criticism regarding the mother-daughter relationship, as Robertss stories question the role of mother figures in traditional fairy tales and hagiography and at the same time rework the concept of motherhood itself.