In this talk, Kimberly Lau offers intertwined readings of several cognate fairy tales that revolve around true and false brides, beginning with Black slaves and white fairies in 17th-century Naples and tracing their evolution into (implicitly raced but unmarked) kind and unkind girls in 19th-century Germany. Through her readings, Lau illustrates some of the ways that culturally specific, historical ideas about race, racial thinking, and racism have contributed to the development of the European fairy tale as a genre as well as to the creation of the fairy tale’s enduringly white world.

Kimberly J. Lau is Professor of Literature and Provost of College Nine and John R. Lewis College. She is the author of Specters of the Marvelous: Race and the Development of the European Fairy Tale (2025); Erotic Infidelities: Love and Enchantment in Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber” (2015), Body Language: Sisters in Shape, Black Women’s Fitness, and Feminist Identity Politics (2011), and New Age Capitalism: Making Money East of Eden (2000), as well as articles in a number of interdisciplinary journals. Her research interests include fairy tales, folklore, and fantasy; feminist theory and critical race studies; the intersection of popular and political cultures and monster studies.

Slugs and Steins are free informal lectures served up over Zoom. Brought to you by the UC Santa Cruz Alumni Association, each talk will engage one of our favorite professors in discussion with you, the local community of Silicon Valley, and beyond. We will cover everything from organic artichokes to endangered zebras, self-driving cars to Shakespeare. All are welcome. Audience participation is encouraged.

Watch past Slugs and Steins events here.