Aubrial Harrington

The story of Vasilisa and Baba Yaga has all of the key features of an enthralling folktale, with strong female themes and figures including magic, morality, a heroine, a powerful witch, a supernatural helper, and a series of tests. It can also be seen to reflect patriarchal systems and values. Can feminist meaning be found in tales such as the story of Vasilisa and Baba Yaga? Using a feminist philosophical lens, I argue that we can find meaning and insights without ignoring or downplaying the patriarchal patterns reflected in this story.In this piece, I bring feminist methodology and concepts into conversation with “Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave” to look for meaning in the story as an archive for historical contexts and as a folktale with interesting features when looked at in our current context. The general feminist orientation of being sensitive to context and social embeddedness gives us the starting point for bringing feminist concepts into conversation with folktales. To do this, I use this fairytale to illustrate concepts from feminist theory like liminality, relational agency, power, and the rejection of binaries. Secondly, I use these concepts to look for feminist meaning or insights that can be drawn from “Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave.”