Transformations: The Modern American Fairy Tales In Consumer Society

Anne Sexton is the most important confessional poet in America. Confessional Poets usually use experience as material source directly and are interest in self-exposition and vindicating. Sexton is the most conspicuous example of them. She uncovered herself to the readers boldly and frankly. Transformations, Anne Sexton's fifth volume of poetry is markedly different from her earlier works. Anne Sexton took Grimms' Fairy Tales and "Transformed" them into something all of her own. These poems seems at first not a conscious departure but as Sexton said herself they are just as much about her as her other poetry. It is obvious that Grimm's Fairy Tales is the source text of Transformations. So this thesis bases its analysis on the premise of Intertextuality.We found that in Transformations Sexton were trying to start a new way of self-exploration. Though Transformations dose not change the plot and the structure of the stories, it has the sophisticated form. Without the fabulous camouflage of the fair tales the truth which exposed to the Sexton is the fragmentized American dream. Transformations not only responds the intrapersonal struggle of the author but also reflects the culture trait of the modern America under the consumerism. In the poetry "intertextuality" is no longer merely "rewriting" or "the second version". It should describe the evolution of the classic work and the diversity of "intertextuality" should be root in the characteristic of the texts. Although in the process of explanation, we make an exposition of the common ground between Transformations and Grimm's Fairy Tales, we pay more attention to the differences between them.In the process of explanation, we draw lessons from the theory of "external research" and "internal study" in Theory of literature which wrote by Rene Wellek and Austin Warren. This essay has three Chapters. The first chapter is "external research" of Transformations. In the personal unconscious level, Transformations which is a kind of unconscious confession is confessional poetry. In the collective unconscious level, Sexton's rewriting has not adapted the fairy tales, what's more, it reveals the cruel truth under the beautiful fairy tales. In addition, under the context of Consumerism and Mass Culture, Transformations has permeated with the spirit of the times in the 20th century. The Chapter II and Chapter III are the "internal study". The second chapter discussed the existence of the text: the narrative tone, the formatted text and the heroines who are surrounded and obsessed by commodity and materialism. The last chapter analyzes Transformations' two themes: "survival" and "love". Sexton broke up happy-ever-after fairy tale ending of fairy tales and pointed that marriage is a market in the true life.