FAIRY TALES

Fairy tales, also known as wonder tales or märchen (from the German), are a sub-genre of folktales involving magical, fantastic or wonderful episodes, characters, events, or symbols. Like all folktales they are narratives that are not believed to be true (fictional stories), often in timeless settings (once upon a time) in generic, unspecified places (the woods), with one-dimensional characters (completely good or bad). They function to entertain, inspire, and enlighten us. In these episodic narratives the main characters are usually humans who often follow a typical pattern (as in a heroic quest) that is resolved partly by magic. The fact that these wonder tales still appeal to us attests to their richness and effectiveness as symbolic (artistic) communication.  

Folktales are often discussed as one of the three principle genres of folk narrative (first categorized by the Grimm brothers in the 19th century). The other two principle genres are myths and legends. See the GENRE link for more information.

(The following information comes from Jack Zipes “Cross-Cultural Connections and the Contamination of the Classical Fairy Tale” in The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm, ed. Jack Zipes, New York: WW Norton & Co., 2001, pp. 845-868)

"Writers and storytellers during the Renaissance began setting a trend by distinguishing a certain type of telling and writing from the main body of storytelling. This type, which can be broadly defined as the oral wonder tale, eventually succeeded to specify and define itself as a separate species and became a literary genre in the late-seventeenth-century France" (p. xii).

All STORIES reflect culture (and shape culture)

Fairy Tales reflect universal themes, metaphors, but also a very alien world

Themes: often socio-economic classes seeking power, but also delights of existence & intricacies of the civilizing process

Fairy Tale Scholarship much of 19^th & 20^th cent. = CLASSIFICATION (comparison, collection)

Our collections filtered through highly educated upper class (still true today of our stories)

ORAL TRADITION   – no way to trace origins, tellers, details

 Oral wonder tale à literary fairy tale

FUNCTION of Fairy Tales: “awaken our regard for the miraculous condition of life & to evoke profound feelings of awe and respect for life as a miraculous process, which can be altered and changed to compensate for the lack of power, wealth, and pleasure that most people experience” (pp. 848-9, Zipes)

 HERO:      usually humble, simple, naïve, untainted (can recog wonder signs)

                   Believes in the miraculous & reveres nature

                   Wants to keep process of natural change flowing à happiness

VILLAIN: uses words & power to exploit, control, transfix, incarcerate, and destroy, intentionally for personal benefit

                   No respect or consideration for nature & other humans

                   Seeks to abuse magic (for personal gain)

ORAL TALES: may stabilize or conserve or challenge common beliefs, laws, values, norms

 Narrator evokes MOOD & MESSAGE (may be conservative, radical, sexist, progressive, etc.)

 Regardless of purpose, wonder tale is:

“a celebration of miraculous or fabulous transformation in the name of hope that accounts for its major appeal” (849, Zipes)

Fairy Tale: metaphor to mark the persistent human quest for utopia (existence without restraint)

 FOLK (like children) sometimes considered quaint, superstitious, foolish

 Tales thus cast as unbelievable

Untruth associated with women (gossips, old goose, etc.)

 BUT people weren’t stupid or diff. – metaphor fundamental to humanity

 Fairy Tales symbolize material conditions, wishes, relations in society

 Magic / marvelous believed in by all classes (church tried to suppress)

 All traditions / cultures have magic, fantastic tales

 Religions often circulate own tales that compete with secular versions

 Authorities feminized the tradition to dismiss it

Hence collection named: Mother Goose, Bedtime stories, Nursery stories, etc.

Such titles are NOT a true reflection of audience, tellers

 TALE TELLING crosses all boundaries (fundamentally human); people are eager for any store / tale (new or ritual); everyone exposed to some kind of storytelling (still true today)

GRIMM Brothers (Jacob and Wilhelm)

 1807-1812 gather 49 tales (from oral & written sources)

Transformed tales into exquisite literary creations

Between 1812 – 1857 12 editions published, continually revised, edited, added to, to a total of 210 tales stylized carefully by Wilhelm to reflect “genuine” “folk” tone (ironic b/c they were heavily edited) + customs/beliefs

          (plus they knew of pan-European nature of tales & origins in Orient)

HOPE to build a sense of German identity / community–utopian nationalism

Became most popular and famous collection worldwide (probably because of cross-cultural connections); intertwines, interlaces diverse cultural experiences suited to middle class taste, values, in Europe & N. Amer.

 Still influential reference points for much of our culture.

 Tales heavily psychoanalyzed, interpreted, debated

 As morally deficient, sexist, nationalistic, hegemonic, violent, etc.