Critical And Creative Perspectives On Fairy Tales

The first systematic approach to the parallels between fairy-tale retellings and fairy-tale theory.

This book draws on original material and approaches from the developing fields of the history of emotions and childhood studies and brings together scholars from history, literature and cultural studies, to reappraise how the early modern world reacted to the deaths of children. Child death was the great equaliser of the early modern period, affecting people of all ages and conditions. It is well recognised that the deaths of children struck at the heart of early modern families, yet less known is the variety of ways that not only parents, but siblings, communities and even nations, responded to childhood death. The contributors to this volume ask what emotional responses to child death tell us about childhood and the place of children in society. Placing children and their voices at the heart of this investigation, they track how emotional norms, values, and practices shifted across the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries through different religious, legal and national traditions. This collection demonstrates that child death was not just a family matter, but integral to how communities and societies defined themselves. Chapter 5 of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com.

In the twenty-first century, American culture is experiencing a profound shift toward pluralism and secularization. In Fairy Tales in Contemporary American Culture: How We Hate to Love Them, Kate Koppy argues that the increasing popularity and presence of fairy tales within American culture is both indicative of and contributing to this shift. By analyzing contemporary fairy tale texts as both new versions in a particular tale type and as wholly new fairy-tale pastiches, Koppy shows that fairy tales have become a key part of American secular scripture, a corpus of shared stories that work to maintain a sense of community among diverse audiences in the United States, as much as biblical scripture and associated texts used to.

“I have used this textbook for four courses on children’s literature with enrollments of over ninety students. It is without doubt the most well organized selection of literary fairy tales and critical commentaries currently available. Students love it.” —Lita Barrie, California State University, Los Angeles This Norton Critical Edition includes: · Seven different tale types: “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Snow White,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Cinderella,” “Bluebeard,” and “Tricksters.” These groupings include multicultural versions, literary rescriptings, and introductions and annotations by Maria Tatar. · Tales by Hans Christian Andersen and Oscar Wilde. · More than fifteen critical essays exploring the various aspects of fairy tales. New to the Second Edition are interpretations by Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Max Lüthi, Lewis Hyde, Jessica Tiffin, and Hans-Jörg Uther. · A revised and updated Selected Bibliography.

What exactly are fairy tales and how did they get their name? Have you ever wondered what fairy tales were like before Walt Disney got his hands on them? And who the heck are these Grimm brothers? Fairy Tales 101 is your one-stop shop for these answers and more, giving you all the dirt on the people who have shaped fairy-tale history and exploring the many ways fairy tales have shape-shifted their way into literature and pop culture. This book also prepares you to think like a fairy-tale scholar by examining how tales are transmitted, by whom, and why. Whether you're a scholar aspiring to join the fairy-tale conversation, a writer or an artist who uses fairy tales in their work, or simply a general fan of fairy tales, this is the book for you. In addition to the twenty-two essays explaining basic fairy-tale concepts, methods, and theories, there are also valuable guides and resources on both classic and adapted fairy-tale works to further your studies. Looking beyond how fairy tales are utterly wrapped in magic and fantasy, we can see that fairy tales have always and ever been about us: our views about gender, our fantasies about being happy, and our deeply held notions about who deservers power. Far from being just for kids, fairy tales offer clues into the deepest underpinnings of society, and this book gives you the tools to explore fairy tales to the fullest so you, too, can live happily ever after. "If you want to understand fairy tales - like really understand fairy tales and talk about them like a pro - seriously, read this book." – Sara Cleto, The Carterhaugh School “Dr. Jorgensen has created an excellent bridge text for readers with a general interest in fairy tales to cross over into a world of fairy tale scholarship. Her language throughout the beginner basics is colloquial and accessible as she carries the reader into scholarly thought." – Katrina Reinert, co-host of The Fairy Tellers podcast “Engaging and witty, Dr. Jorgensen delivers a masterful introduction into the study of fairy tales with an easily accessible and consumable book that belongs on everyone’s bookshelves.” – Maggie Mercil, Folklorist

At the same time that 1970s feminist psychoanalytic theorists like Jean Baker Miller and Nancy Chodorow were challenging earlier models that assumed the masculine psyche as the norm for human development and mental/emotional health, writers such as Anne Sexton, Olga Broumass, and Angela Carter were embarked on their own revisionist project to breathe new life into fairy tales and classical myths based on traditional gender roles. Similarly, in the 1990s, second-wave feminist clinicians continued the work begun by Chodorow and Miller, while writers of fantasy that include Terry Windling, Tanith Lee, Terry Pratchett, and Catherynne M. Valente took their inspiration from revisionist authors of the 1970s. As Schanoes shows, these two decades were both particularly fruitful eras for artists and psychoanalytic theorists concerned with issues related to the development of women's sense of self. Putting aside the limitations of both strains of feminist psychoanalytic theory, their influence is undeniable. Schanoes's book posits a new model for understanding both feminist psychoanalytic theory and feminist retellings, one that emphasizes the interdependence of theory and art and challenges the notion that literary revision involves a masculinist struggle with the writer's artistic forbearers.

Examines how popular fairy tales collapse narrative borders and reimagine the genre for the twenty-first century.

This concise and accessible critical introduction examines the world of popular fairy-tale television, tracing how fairy tales and their social and cultural implications manifest within series, television events, anthologies, and episodes, and as freestanding motifs. Providing a model of televisual analysis, Rudy and Greenhill emphasize that fairy-tale longevity in general, and particularly on TV, results from malleability—morphing from extremely complex narratives to the simple quotation of a name (like Cinderella) or phrase (like "happily ever after")—as well as its perennial value as a form that is good to think with. The global reach and popularity of fairy tales is reflected in the book’s selection of diverse examples from genres such as political, lifestyle, reality, and science fiction TV. With a select mediagraphy, discussion questions, and detailed bibliography for further study, this book is an ideal guide for students and scholars of television studies, popular culture, and media studies, as well as dedicated fairy-tale fans.