• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.885-906
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• 2009

In terms of class, race, or gender, critical literacy takes seriously the problem of inequality and injustice embedded in texts. Texts are considered as tools that are used for maintaining the status quo by constructing and communicating our identities, particularly in relation to others. While reading texts and identifying our roles in society, some feel empowered, and others, marginalized. Thus we need to challenge the characterization and the message included in those texts by asking problem-posing questions. In this paper I have demonstrated how to read and teach four versions of "Snow White" from a critical literacy stance. By the use of problem-posing questions, students are led to discover that one of Grimms' fairy tales, the original version of "Snow White," was written from the perspective of men with power, thus marginalizing women in general, as well as the seven dwarfs. Through a critical analysis of Snow White's personality, the typical theme of fairy tales - good is rewarded while evil is punished - should be challenged. In the animation, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, power is given to the marginalized people in the original, the seven dwarfs and women in general. In "Snow Night,"a feminist short story, women in general are empowered while men, who should be judged by their looks, are powerless. "Snow-Drop"reminds us of the original, but challenges stereotypes, prejudices, and the theme inherent in the story. In those three stories many parts from the original are rewritten from the perspectives of the marginalized, but still some people are described prejudicially. So students should be guided to write another story from a new perspective. When those four works were taught with problem-posing questions in a university, this approach proved to be quite successful: most students acknowledged the effectiveness of critical literacy in teaching literary works.