SOURCE: "Barthelme's 'Snow White': The Making of a Modern Fairy Tale," in Southern Folklore Quarterly, Vol. 45, 1981, pp. 145-53.

In the following essay, Halden looks at Donald Barthelme's Snow White both as a traditional fairy tale and as an inversion of established fairy-tale symbolism.

A close examination of Donald Barthelme's Snow White¹ reveals that, in one sense, his retelling of the traditional fairy tale is nothing new. For centuries storytellers have retold tales in their own ways, embellishing the storyline with details peculiarly representative of both the individual teller and his time.² This is precisely what Barthelme does in Snow White: he relates the tale of Snow White, her prince, and the seven dwarves in a way which accommodates his own contemporary sensibilities. The novel, contrary to several current analyses, is indeed a fairy tale; however, Barthelme's creative license with the tale blurs the fairy tale elements, making them...