The Nutcracker: Intergenerational and War Trauma in Contemporary Fairy-Tale Adaptations

This thesis draws on theories of fairy-tale adaptation and trauma studies to examine war, mental illness, and intergenerational trauma as they are represented in contemporary fairy- tale adaptations published for young adult and adult readers. Through interpretation of fairy- tale novels that engage with war-related trauma and a creative component that adapts E.T.A. Hoffmann’s The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1816), entitled “Nutcracker”, it investigates how fantasy and the marvellous can shield readers from traumatic material. The creative component mobilises the narrative features of fairy tale to voice the unspeakable, and unrepresentable, and to depict the psychological consequences of trauma.