WAVES · Women’s Agency in Visionary Eco-Aquatic Storytelling: A Transnational Study of British and Italian Fairy Tales, 1840-1910

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Project objective

WAVES (Women’s Agency in Visionary Eco-Aquatic Storytelling) is an interdisciplinary research project that investigates women and water’s entanglements in British and Italian fairy tales (1840-1910). Situated at the crossroads of comparative literary studies, environmental humanities, gender studies and cultural history, WAVES is the first transnational study of these fairy-tale traditions through the dual lens of ecocriticism and gender studies. The project positions itself at the intersection of two mutually illuminating currents: the flourishing of fairy-tale narratives and the birth of ecological thinking in the 19th century. It aims to (1) pioneer ‘visionary eco-aquatic storytelling’ as a new critical framework that foregrounds 19th century fairy tales as key interventions in environmental ethics; (2) examine the functions of water as a material agent in British and Italian fairy tales, analysing how human and otherworldly characters negotiate identity and power by disrupting patriarchal and anthropocentric worldviews; (3) recover neglected women-authored fairy tales in this timeframe. The project will achieve these goals through archival research, comparative literary and historical analysis, and the development of a typology of water motifs in the corpus under scrutiny. By mobilising 19th century fairy tales as forward-looking forms of environmental consciousness, WAVES contributes to urgent European and global agendas, generating academic and public-facing outputs that support sustainable and gender-inclusive narratives. As the EU advances its Water Resilience Strategy, WAVES uncovers how 19th-century fairy tales anticipated today’s debates on human-water interdependence. With expertise in comparative literature, fairy-tale studies and 19th-century women’s writing, I am ideally placed to develop this project, which will enhance my interdisciplinary profile and prepare me for a cross-sectoral career in academia, cultural heritage and ecofeminist advocacy.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

• UNIVERSITA CA' FOSCARI VENEZIA · VeneziaCoordinatorItaly
• TRUSTEES OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE · HANOVERUnited States

Links

• View on CORDIS
• DOI: 10.3030/101276065