Title
The irresistible fairy tale [electronic resource] : the cultural and social history of a genre / Jack Zipes.
ISBN
9781400841820 (electronic bk.)
9780691153384
Imprint
Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2012.
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (xvii, 235 p.) : ill.
Call Number
GR550 .Z59 2012eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
398.209
Summary
"If there is one genre that has captured the imagination of people in all walks of life throughout the world, it is the fairy tale. Yet we still have great difficulty understanding how it originated, evolved, and spread--or why so many people cannot resist its appeal, no matter how it changes or what form it takes. In this book, renowned fairy-tale expert Jack Zipes presents a provocative new theory about why fairy tales were created and retold--and why they became such an indelible and infinitely adaptable part of cultures around the world. Drawing on cognitive science, evolutionary theory, anthropology, psychology, literary theory, and other fields, Zipes presents a nuanced argument about how fairy tales originated in ancient oral cultures, how they evolved through the rise of literary culture and print, and how, in our own time, they continue to change through their adaptation in an ever-growing variety of media. In making his case, Zipes considers a wide range of fascinating examples, including fairy tales told, collected, and written by women in the nineteenth century; Catherine Breillat's film adaptation of Perrault's "Bluebeard"; and contemporary fairy-tale drawings, paintings, sculptures, and photographs that critique canonical print versions. While we may never be able to fully explain fairy tales, The Irresistible Fairy Tale provides a powerful theory of how and why they evolved--and why we still use them to make meaning of our lives."--book jacket.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description
Description based on print version record.
The cultural evolution of storytelling and fairy tales: human communication and memetics
The meaning of fairy tale within the evolution of culture
Remaking "Bluebeard", or Good-bye to Perrault
Witch as Fairy/Fairy as witch: unfathomable Baba Yagas
The tales of innocent persecuted heroines and their neglected female storytellers and collectors
Giuseppe Pitrè and the great collectors of folk tales in the nineteenth century
Fairy-tale collisions, or the Explosion of a genre
Appendix A: Sensationalist scholarship: a "new" history of fairy tales
Appendix B: Reductionist scholarship: a "new" definition of the fairy tale.
