Genres
Fairy tale retelling
A work that retells a traditional fairy tale from a new point of view, setting or moral frame.
A fairy tale retelling takes a traditional fairy tale and retells it from a new point of view, in a new setting, or against the grain of the original's morals. The label has no standalone encyclopedia article; Wikipedia's coverage of contemporary fairy tales documents the practice, naming Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, which retells a number of fairy tales from a female point of view, and Robin McKinley's Deerskin, a recasting of Donkeyskin.
The same coverage records the writers' reasons: examining the human condition from the simple framework a fairy tale provides, addressing modern issues, and multicultural or feminist reevaluation of tales that were predominantly Eurocentric and male-dominated. The built-in serial advantage is a plot skeleton the audience already knows, so every divergence from the original lands as a deliberate signal; retellings run from comic (The Stinky Cheese Man) to dark adult work adjacent to dark fantasy.