'The Erl-King'- Innovative and experimental?

'The Erl-King is the most innovative and experimental of the narratives.' How far does this quotation support the statement?

To measure how far 'The Erl-King' is innovative and experimental, we need to first define what a narrative is. A traditional narrative usually occurs in chronological order, uses the same narrative POV and the same tense. In the other narratives in ‘The Bloody Chamber’, it mostly follows this definition of a traditional narrative. If a narrative is defined as such, it is obvious that 'The Erl-King' is innovative and experimental and could even be describes as an antinarrative in comparison to the other stories in 'The Bloody Chamber'.

'The Erl-King' is innovative and experimental because of the way it deconstructs identity. The quote 'the imaginary traveller' then the change into second person 'It is easy to lose yourself in these woods' shows this. In the original sources 'Der Erlkonig' and 'Red Riding Hood', the story is in third person allowing the reader to be detached to the events in the novel. Carter changes this in her version of the fairy tale and this shows how the text is innovative by changing the narrative POV. This relates into the Gothic tradition of transgression, as the woman is both herself and not herself at the same time. Although in 'The Erl-King' this narrative variation is present, it also occurs in 'The Bloody Chamber', when the narrator is looking in the chamber she refers to herself as 'this spoiled child', therefore 'The Erl-King' is not the only story where narrative perspective changes, but it is more explicit.

The establishment of the setting in 'The Erl-King' is traditionally Gothic, and therefore either innovative or experimental. The woods are personified and seem almost human-‘the intimate perspectives of the wood’, showing how the woman is trapped by the Erl-King and by her own curiosity. The theme of entrapment and the fallen woman is also a feature in the Gothic. This is not dissimilar than in ‘The Bloody Chamber’ as it is set in a castle, and the woman herself is locked in a tower. ‘The Snow Child’ is also set in the traditional Gothic setting of winter and the whole world is ‘white’. On the other hand, ‘The Erl-King’ could be described as following the traditions of the fairy tale genre and the magic realism genre. The woods seem as though they are moving around the narrator, which connects into the magic realism genre as within the mundane setting of the woods there is a magical element. ‘The Erl-King’ consequently experiments with the idea of reality and dreams.

The generic conventions associated with the fairy tale genre are used in 'The Erl-King' because of its basis on 'Little Red Riding Hood' and this means that, in comparison with the other narratives, the text is innovative and experimental. The woods are described using the metaphor 'chinese boxes' and this connects with the fairy tale genre because of the theme of confusion and the power and nature in fairy tales. However, both 'The Bloody Chamber' and 'The Snow Child' use characters as constructs to portray a certain idea. The piano tuner and the Marquis are polar opposites, and Carter does this to show how men should be versus how men are. In 'The Snow Child', the Countess is an example of how women are trapped in a system that they unknowingly contribute to, and the snow child is used to show how innocence is destroyed by men. In fairy tales, characters are supposed o be distant, so they do not take away from the moral message of the story.

To conclude,  'The Erl King' is the most innovative and experimental of the narratives in terms of the language used. The level of description in the narrative surpasses any of the others and in 'The Erl-King' Carter fully embraces language that is like that of a fairy tale. 'The Bloody Chamber' and 'The Snow Child' are more traditionally Gothic and often follow similar conventions. Within the collection of stories, 'The Erl-King' stands out because of its poetic language and the ending that sets it apart from the other narratives by truly making the man a victim.