The third chapter of the Peer Webinar organized by the Department of English

Peer Webinar is a novel initiative taken by the Department of English as an attempt to encourage academic dialogue and widen research perspectives amongst the members of the faculty in the department of English. The final semester students of M.A English are also included as audience in order to encourage research aptitude and familiarize them with research methodology. As a part of this ongoing regular process, the Department will be organising a peer webinar each month where a member of the faculty will present their research papers in front of the other teachers of the Department and the final semester students of M.A English.  

The third chapter of the departmental Peer Webinar was organized by the Department of English, The Bhawanipur Education Society College on 28.01.2022 from 7.00 p.m. In this session, Prof. Sonal Kapur, Assistant Professor, Department of English, delivered a presentation entitled “Images in the Mirror: Reflecting/ Refracting the Beauty Myth in Snow White”. Prof. Kapur has her specialization in Children’s Literature, Literary Historiography, Gender Studies, Cultural Studies and Contemporary Literary Theory. She is presently pursuing her PhD from Presidency University.

Prof Kapur began her presentation with the visual of a mirror projected on her screen. She traced the history of the mirror in human history and described it as the medium towards an alternative representation, bridging the real with the reflected. She observed that the mirror has served to reflect as well as subvert the concept of beauty in literary works. In this context, she situated the well-known story of Snow White – a popular 17th century German Fairy Tale first published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. Providing a gist of the story which is apparently a simple narrative, Prof Kapur argued that the story has a subterranean layer of meaning which construes the mainstream idea of beauty. She referred to Foucault’s theory linking power, image and body and located it in the queens’ desire in Snow White to be the most beautiful. She argued that the queen’s perception of beauty is shaped by the patriarchal concept of beauty. The cultural perception of ‘beauty’ as physical appearance is internalized by her and this deludes her into an obsession. This obsession reveals her desperate desire to conform to the societal norms of beauty. Her repeated invocation of the magic mirror to tell her who is the “fairest of them all” shows her terrible insecurities which call for constant reassurance. In the mirror’s reference to Snow White, her sense of supremacy based on appearance is challenged. The excesses of the queen through the story go beyond being described as evil. The queen sees Snow White as a potential threat to her undisputed beauty, which she must eliminate in order to retain her relevance in the patriarchal matrix where the body/ beauty paradigm dominates the patriarchal discourse. The ambiguous mirror surface capable of simultaneously reflecting and refracting, manifests the duality with which the human individuals approach the mirror – the desire to see the real and at the same time, the desire to retain the mysteries. In the story, the queen is punished for her misdeeds but in the story or even in the adaptations later, the cause of the entire process is not addressed. Snow White’s silence at the queen’s predicament shows her subject-position as compliant to the patriarchal definition of beauty. The magic mirror, which is a metaphor for the patriarchal gaze, changes hands. And women across cultures, spaces and times are controlled by the society’s definition of what constitutes ‘beauty’. She referred to Anne Sexton’s poem called “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and observed that in today’s world, the ‘beauty’ myth has acquired monstrous dimensions – it is imperative to be ‘beautiful’ in order to be loved. She referred to Naomi Wolf and argued that beauty is the best last dominance system that keeps the patriarchal power structure alive. Prof. Kapur concluded her presentation with a reference to Eduardo Galeano, stating “Mirrors are filled with people./ The invisible see us./ The forgotten recall us./ When we see ourselves, we see them./ When we turn away, do they?”

The webinar was conducted through the GSuite for Education made available by the College and has been recorded by the English Department.