fairytale

The article discloses the images of a fairytale character Cinderella in the literary heritage of Western Europe and the East. The comparative analysis of the character’s external and internal qualities is carried out, the relation between fairy tales and myth-ritual basis is ascertained, totemic motives of the characters are examined.

The term ‘hybridity’ used in the article refers to the issue of how human and animal features merge in the post-Darwinian idea of the human model, as it is presented in the works of Byatt. In her novels hybridity takes many various forms and is perceived as an inherent genetically developed structure unlike the crude mixture of bestiary creatures.