Major Project for my Honours thesis, changes in the red riding hood tale over time influenced by the society they came from

french red riding hood is a bad arse XD 1697

watercolour, ink, pencil

Perraults tale. the first literary version. dark humour intended for the french court and not particulaly for children as the 'concept of the child' was not yet realised. symbolic of the debaucherous nature of the court.

red and the wolf stand very close as oppossed to the Grimm tale where they are at opposite sides of the composition. Organic shapes, french court in bg., fleur dis lis pattern on dress.

Illustration inspired by Gustave Dore who was the first to illustrate Perraults tales.

edit: just thought id paste this in coz some people have bin asking:
the original tale was a rural french oral tradition in the late medieval period told by peasants for peasants. its very dirty.....;D then there was this one (the first literary translation for the upper class), then the grimm one and then a whole bunch of cheesy sacharine ones, then there were the rebelious ones of the 30s, 70s, 80s and now.

the best book ever on the deconstruction of the RRH tales and their corresponding social aspects is The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood by Jack Zipes. it has all the main versions of the tale in it and then discusses the symbolism within them and how that relates to the society of the time. its on amazon but will probably be at your local library.