ENGL 360 E1
New Realism
(1963) Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are - considered the 1st picture book that is a work of new realism (1964) Louise Fizhugh's Harriet the Spy - considered the 1st novel that is a work of new realism - Shockingly realistic - novels & picture books become norm in children's publishing - Show children realistically (opposed to idealistically) - present Taboo subjects (Conflict w/ parents, Death, Broken families, Sex, History books w/ unpopular viewpoints)
1900-1950 Picture Books are born
- Beatrix Potter (1902) - The Tale Of Peter rabbit, 1st picture storybook, pictures and text work together to tell story - Wanda Gag (1928) - Millions of Cats - 1st American picture book - Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) - And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street - his first picture book 1937
Tatar - H&G - profusion of references to food in tale of parental abandonment that ends w/ reunion of children w/ their father
- Bettelheim - psychological reading of tale - oral greed, denial, regression of the children; children ready to live happily again w/ parents - Tatar points out error w/ this reading: mother eradicated; her death eliminates "twin dreads starvation and the fear of being devoured"
19th Century verse becomes entertaining
- Edward Lear - Robert Louis Stevenson
Minority Books
- Ezra Jack Keats (1962) The Snowy Day - 1st picture book w/ black child as protagonist - awards for minority books est - # of books by & about minorities increasingly published in US over past 50 yrs
Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm
- German - tales gathered from middle class - genius: reproducing the natural speech of storytellers - modified to make appropriate for children
Modern Fractured Fair Tales' Hansel & Gretel
Originally created as "Fractured Fairy Tales" segment in Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoons - Pure nonsense These kids not victims! - Family faces starvation b/c father keeps getting distracted by trees & cuts down rather than getting food. - Parents go nuts; H&G set out to rescue family from hunger - Notice that in this version, Hansel's plan to drop corn is "for the birds" and Gretel is the clever one who realizes this! - Note description of witch's house: might be any house in Suburbia - Witch incompetent; the kids never in danger Only capable of turning kids into aardvarks. Burdened by having to uphold "the witches" tradition. Gretel has to teach her how to ride a broom "There's a little witch in all us girls" this seems significant given presence of female witches throughout tales and Tatar argument about stepmother/mother = witch aspect of H&G. Also seems to tie into Garth Nix version of tale. Witch still orbiting Earth, so she's gone, but not dead! - Family remains intact: Mom does not die in interim, Father has learned to hunt, Mom no longer hungry, Stray bullets whizzing around living room. - kids are not responsible for prosperity of family as they are in original tale. they do not return w/ food or w/ treasure; they've just managed to go on odd adventure. What do we make of this change?
Modern Roald Dahl LRRH - "The Three Little Pigs"
Red - as bounty-hunter type figure? hit-girl? - barbie-doll feminine sounds false, one envisions a lovely, dangerous, lying "bad girl" Notice the illustration details and that when pig calls, Red is washing her hair. "My darling pig"..."my sweet" Notice what the pig calls her: "Miss Hood" - name carries negative connotations as in the sense of a mob "hood" a criminal - kills for lovely clothes; exacts a price for her services! - do we read her as hero? anti-hero? Innocent, foolish, trusting pig. Seemingly villainous wolf, but notice the last stanza which almost acts like a moral to the story! How does this paint our Red?
Characteristics of Folktales PLOT
formulaic (journey is common); repetitious patterns (twelve tasks, 3 wishes); wimple and direct; happy endings; fast moving - hero(ine) sets forth on journey, often helps someone along the way, often receives magical power, overcomes obstacles, returns to safety - sequential (beginning, middle, end); circular (ends up where it began); cumulative (additions and repetitions build the story)
Trickster Tales
humorous tale about a trickster who uses his wits to overcome opponents that are bigger or stronger than he is (The Brer Rabbit Tales; Hop O' My Thumb)
American High Fantasy
rises to challenge the dominance of Brit fantasy, most notably that by C.S. Lewis for kids. Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles - beginning w/ The Book of Three (1964)
Cumulative Tale
successive additions are made to a repetitive plot line (I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly)
Mirror, Mirror
Silverstein - poem
Tatar - LRRH Critics
"The tale itself, by depicting a conflict b/w a weak, vulnerable protagonist and a large, powerful antagonist, lends itself to a certain interpretive elasticity." The girl can be any innocent victim and wolf any predatory villain. However, Tatar observes that critics tend to "play fast and loose w/ the tale" - Nazis: "rapacious Jews" preying on "innocent German purebloods" - Feminists: allegory about rape - Psychoanalysts: fable about "female maturation pitting women against men who try to 'play the role of a pregnant women, having living things in [their] belly" ROBINSON - the feminist reading of fairy tales, incl LRRG, are by far the dominant readings. They are the most common (popular) and extensive, largely b/c feminists scholars are writers are, for the most part, the ones responsible for rescuing fairy tales from the nursery and bringing them back into the cultural limelight - feminist readings are also the shaping force of many (if not most) retelling since the mid-twentieth century. Will find that most of the retellings of fairy tales (incl LRRH) that we encounter this semester are written by authors who are responding to feminists concerns
Characteristics of Folktales SETTING
"once upon a time in a kingdom far, far away" Tale is removed from the real world to time and place where animals talk, witches roam, magic is common. Descriptions & details are few
Johann Comenius
(1657) Orbis Pictus (The World in Pictures - often 1st picture book - educational, not written for fun
John Locke
(1693) proposes that children's books be made both available and easy an pleasant to read
Tatar - History of Red & Her Transitions
- "emerged as part of storytelling culture that took up theme of predatory animals roaming the countryside in search of food" - 19th century: story "bifurcated" into 2 versions: In "nursery to become a story w/ disciplinary edge & all kinds of behavioral directives designed to teach the child outside the story lessons" In "adult culture where she and a metaphorical wolf dance a tango of innocence & seduction, w/ sultry RRH perfectly capable ... of playing the wolf" - modern Red "now often positioned as a seductive innocent who stalks a monstrous predator as much as she fears him, is no longer a willing victim - transition to predator not as unexpected as one might think. "Fairy Tales ... have their roots in a peasant culture relatively uninhabited in its expressive energy ... [the peasants] favored fast-paced narratives w/ heavy doses burlesque humor, melodramatic action, scatological jokes, free-wheeling violence ROBINSON - pay attention to 2 trajectories: - child audience - didactic moralistic tales - adult audience - often sexualized w/ a predatory Red
Charles Perrault
- (1697) publishes Tales of Mother Goose - tales of peasants in courtly society - achievement: tales synthesize literary sophistication w/ oral simplicity - audience: children - morals make tales overtly cautionary, but irony in morals & tales, also indicate appeal to older audience - tales designed for moral instruction
21st Century
- (1990s) - begin to see emergence of fantasy and sci-fi, especially series books, that will become dominant genres of the 21st century - Harry Potter, Twilight, Percy Jackson, The Hunger Games - Graphic Novels - New Didacticism (politics)
Randolph Caldecott
- A Frog he would a-wooing go - And the dish ran away with the spoon!
Hop O' My Thumb & Molly Whuppie
- Hop O' My Thumb & Molly Whuppie as trickster figures (Tatar) - Hop O' My Thumb & Whuppie the youngest sibling - youngest, weakest, son/daughter overcoming odds, giants, etc - a common motif in fairy tales - Hop O' My Thumb: father the one who instigates getting rid of children; in Molly both seem equally responsible - Witch replaced by ogre & his family - Ogre kills own children (having been tricked by Hop O' My Thumb or Molly) - Hop O' My Thumb & Molly steal Ogre's possessions, gain great wealth and spouses w/ them - Errands/labors/trials for king (and others in case of Hop O' My Thumb HOMT - amasses great wealth, supports family Molly rewarded w/ prince - Cleverness, resourcefulness of these heroes - Molly as strong female figure - Questionable morals? anything wrong w/ HOMT & Molly do to ogre (wife & children) problematic? Of course Ogres are by fairy tale df always evil! Note how ogre's wife describes him in HOMT (fond of eating small kids) Also, the children trick the ogres into killing their own kids in order to escape w/ their lives, so maybe we can see necessity of this. And of course, Molly steals to provide husbands for her sisters - clearly a necessity And HOMT steals from ogre b/c?
1900 - 1950 Classics produced early in the century
- L. Frank Baum - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) 1st classic modern fantasy produced in America - Immortal Fantasies: Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows - animal fantasy (1908) A.E. Milne - Winnie the Pooh - toy fantasy (1926)
19th century, fantasy novel is born
- Lewis Carrol's Alice Adventures in Wonderland (hallmark - nonsense, entertain, no didacticism) - George MacDonald
"The Young Slave" Basile
- Lisa "Snow White"
19th Century Little Women
- Louisa May Alcott - 1st novel specifically written for young adult female readers - mostly conventional - Jo - 1st female protagonist who begins to break stereotypical female mold
1900 - 1950 Stratmeyer Syndicate begins publishing the most popular series books of all time
- Nancy Drew - Hardy Boys - many others - Pre-outlined plots & ghost writers whose work is published under various pseudonyms (Carolyn Keene & Frank Dixon)
George Cruikchank
- Oliver Twist - Jack and the Beanstalk
Literary folk tale
- Perrault & Grimms - Tale written down; thus becoming literary - writers imposed their imprints on their versions
Hallet & Karasek - the versison that changed everything
- Perrault &Grimms are entirely responsible for taking a naive, but quick thinking little girl who can save herself, and turning her into a hopelessly naive little girl who is eaten
Tatar - Perrault's LRRH
- Perrault changed Red & her story when he published her story and removed the "vulgarities, course turns of phrase, and unmotivated plot elements" - Perrault "rescripted the events to accommodate a rational moral economy" [he turned it into a story that contained a moral & taught a lesson] Red naive, frivolous She doesnt fight back or resist in any way - Red falls prey not to "rapacious beast in the woods" but to a "tame wolf." It must be true that peasant cultures figured the wolf as a beast of prey, but folk raconteurs had probably already gleefully exploited the full range & play of the sexual innuendos in the story ROBINSON: - note that Tatar points out, Perrault changed the story forever, changing Red from a trickster who saves herself to a naive weak Red who is unable (unwilling?) to save herself and is eaten
Kate Greenaway
- Pied Piper - Jack & Jill
Modern "Twins" - Vivian Vande Velde
- Pure Horror - No longer about poverty & starvation. again why? - think of children & especialy twins, that you have seen in horror films. Children as cold, heartless, and murderous are particularly horrific b/c we expect them, especially at 6 and 7 to be innocent and responsive to love and care Beautiful as the carved marble angels over the doors over a cathedral: stone, cold, not alive. Beautiful exterior implies beautiful interior. ut theses children's beauty does not indicate similar goodness we expect (childlike innocence, trust, loving hearts) it covers murderous hearts Silent Eyes: large, pale, unblinking, cold Faces expressionless ...just there Creepy, silent communication that foretells horrific acts The phrase of judgement and death: "she didnt love/like us", "we didnt like her/ dont like you" - Both stepmother & witch redeemed in this version Stepmother - Isabella, kind and gentle Offers gifts that exemplify love and care Heirlooms she treasures (watch & ring) Clothing she spent time, labor and pain to sew Cakes designed as "special supper treat" (time, labor, thoughtfulness) All gifts rejected Children repay gift w/ poisoned porridge gift. Horrific inversion of motif of food as temptation & trap; instead of witch using food to lure children to deaths, children use food to murder stepmom. And we cant help but wonder if they also used to murder mom. Repeatedly cant bring herself to think ill of twins - Witch becomes family's neighbor, baker's widow Clearly afraid of children Seeks to keep kids away from her home rather than luring them there, they invade it. She is clearly victim (both stones in garden & murder) Only children call her witch. - Weak & Silent Father Remains This father isnt cowed by wife, he is silenced by children. Speaks in monosyllables begging kids to be kind. Note word he speaks is "children" a term which seems wholly inappropriate when applied to twins! - Elements of children's abandonment in forest inverted Twins put stones in widow's garden: pure malice They crumble cake and throw it away on path, again just mean Are not abandoned in forest; they run away in order to kill widow, apparently eat all her baked goods. Parents search for twins 2 days. - Ending Subverted when twins return home, they will find only father, but this is b/c stepmom ran away, did not die
Tatar - LRRH
- ubiquitous in our own culture - 2 Little Reds for two audiences (children & adults) telling us about "encounters b/w predator & prey" and about "human interactions that foreground innocence & seduction - its a story about appetite of all kinds & its consequences - Little Red both naive & innocent, seductive & deadly
H&G - Characters of parents
- Stepmom hateful, stronger personality Stepmom & witch: verbally abusive, cruel, deceitful, unnatural. Women in fairy tales often seem to be: weak and good (dead mom SW, cinderella) strong and bad (stepmother SW, Cinderella) - Dad loves children but weak, ineffective against stronger wife Men tend to be ineffective, weak, or absent in fairy tales. Note that the children live happily ever after ONLY w/ father. Mother/witch is gone.
Maria Tatar's Intro SW - easily identifiable, stable core consistent in all versions
- Steven Swan Jones (9 episodes) 1. origin (birth of heroine) 2. Jealousy 3. Expulsoin 4. adoption 5. renewed jealousy 6. death 7. exhibition 8. resuscitation 9. resolution - Story's narrative structure sustained by tension of binary oppositions - Cannot really account for staying power of tale - Bruno Bettelheim vs. Sandra Gilbert & Susan Gubar : powerful staging of mother/daughter conflicts Bruno Bettelheim (Freudian critic): Oedipal Oedipal child needs to preserve positive image of mother, uncontaminated by anger or hostility feelings that naturally develop when difference develop b/w mother & daughter. Malice of stepmother is only projection of heroine's imagination. Jealousy of evil queen has nothing to do w/ possible competition w/ daughter' reflects only daughter's envy of mother. Gilbert & Gubar (Feminist Critics): essential but equivocal relationship b/w angel-woman and monster-woman of Western patriarchy. - Absent father holds central, if invisible position in this domestic drama. Bettelheim: assumes competition for him b/w mother & daughter; generational conflict. Gilbert & Gubar: find him acoustically present if physically absent "His surely, is voice of looking glass, the patriarchal voice of judgement that rules Queens - every woman's self eval". At stake for women: love, affection, approval of father, " a father whom we see only briefly as huntsman and hear as voice in mirror." - Basile's "The Young Slave" notes that persecution of heroine is driven by aunt's sexual jealousy & concludes that "Basile's tale, one of earliest recorded versions of SW, suggests that complex psychosexual motivations shaping plots of fairy tales underwent process of repression once the social venue for the stories shifted from household to nursery. - Gilbert & Gubar - conflict in tale [argument is one of most important in history of feminist criticism & in history of SW critical history] - see notes
Tatar - ATU 333 & ATU 123: the Foundational Narratives
- Tatar - argues that the LRRH tales (ATU 333: the Glutton) and the "Wolf of the Seven Kids (ATU 123) should be considered together b/c "folklorists have made the mistake" of putting them into separate categories. Tatar argues that these tales should be considered a single tale type b/c both tales "pit a predatory creature against vulnerable children separated temporarily from maternal protection" - interests in considering these tales together is partly in observing the children's actions when confronted by the predator: do they survive by using courage and wit or do they perish? Are the children tricksters or helpless victims? - argues that these tales together are "foundational narratives, plots that provide instructional manual for survival at a time when life turned on the hunter and the hunted. - astonishing " fact that these stories ... ft a child as trickster or as victim, modeling tools for survival for the very young or revealing the consequences of cowardice and fear. The story lives no as a primer about predators and prey, animals and humans, life and death, survival and suffering. But its roots in the childhood of culture and its move into the culture of childhood are symptomatic of how LRRH is in one sense the story of stories, the rock-solid foundation on which folkloric traditions were built as cultures evolved
Characteristics of Folktales MOTIF - recurring thematic element
- a younger brother/sister who is good - conversely, the elder brother/sister who is mean or evil - a clever trickster - a wicked stepmother - a poor or mistreated younger child - the use of magical objects - a marvelous transformation - a long sleep or enchantment - magical powers - an incantation (mirror mirror on the wall) - 3 wishes - trickery - the power of naming (think Rumplestiltskin) - invisibility - becoming stuck (think golden goose) - number 3 or 7, lucky, # of repetitions in plot elements/tasks - repetitive: phrase, tasks - a journey - wise/ foolish beast - time is past
Hallet & Karasek - Perrault's LRRH
- adapted for high society - wolf as predator & interloper - gave us the red hood (symbolic of sexuality) - happy ending from Grandmother story replaced by tragic one (goes against folk tale custom; fits Perrault's moral) - addition of moral changed fairy tales FOREVER b/c instilled belief that exists even today that tales should carry morals - more IMPORTANTLY, it changed this particular fairy tale forever by replacing a strong, clever girl w/ a naive, weak one who is killed by the wolf - though this is a literary tale, it was reabsorbed into oral culture (& changed the nature of the tale forever)
Modern Roald Dahl LRRH "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf"
- again satire! "so funny" characteristic of Dahl - wolf and grandma seem to know the story (can we read grandmother as symbolic of earlier "weak" Reds? those that get eaten) - notice story begins w/ focus on wolf (entire 1st stanza) Much of the humor relies on the frustration of the wolf's perceptions "That's wrong! cried the wolf. Have you forgot To tell me what BIG TEETH I've got?" - last line of 1st stanza: "she stopped. she stared, and then she said..." Red notices something; implies she understands something; prepares us for what comes later - beginning of 2nd stanza the questions are those we expect in the story - wolf anticipates "normal" ending - questions in 4th stanza change! this is "turn" in this version of story (furry coat); the place that we understand this story will be different from the one we ... an wolf... expect - this Red not only prepared, but one gets sense that she enjoys encounter, perhaps is hunter herself? not as innocent as one expects Red to be? "the small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers. /She whips a pistol from her knickers she aims it at the creature's head/ And bang x3, she shoots him dead...Wolfskin coat! - this red is the hero of her own story; needs no hunter... or do we read this more negatively? has she hunted the wolf much as the wolf hunts the little girl in traditional tales? do we admire girl or are we little bit uneasy about her?
Tomi Ungerer LRRH (1974)
- again, satire - wolf is redeemed in this version (made good guy) Nobleman (Beauty & the Beasts). Wolf given a bad reputation by society - apparently not accurate. Offers to carry her baskets to his castle and promises to share secrets, treasures, clothes, furs, a library and pool. All thing a rich, older man "with whiskers turning to silver" would offer a young "pink and soft" little girl, a "morsel of a maiden" to entice her to marry him. How do we read this? - Rescues Red from her unhappy life; plays role of Prince Charming - Grandmother is bad guy; what do we do w/ this reversal? Threat is from w/in family (opposed to outside in woods), not only that, but from female side. Red seems to be isolated from her family & from society. Something else going on here? - Red again, capable of taking care of self, but there is no need from this wolf. This is not the LRRH we might have read about; this the real, no-nonsense one - she is trespassing on wolf's land; does this imply anything about the traditional sotries where Red is almost always accosted in the woods? are the woods the wolf's domain? does he have a right to behave as he does? - Red & Wolf marry, happily ever after So what about sexual aspect? No longer do we have rape or threat thereof; we have rescue from abuse and sex happens w/in confines of marriage and results in children! All very traditional & acceptable. Red leaves her family, her society, joins animal wolf. Do we read this as ironic comment on nature of human beings? something about them being the real animals while those we characterize as animals are noble? Or is this going entirely too far?
Characteristics of H&G
- at first, Hansel the clever one, the one who comforts sister (man's domain: the woods?) - in witch's house, this reverses; Gretel rescues them (woman's domain: the house?) - both children take on aspects of trickster when they have ascendancy over the adults (Hansel over parents: Gretel over witch) - what about the duck episode at end of tale? It is Gretel who thinks of the duck as a way across the water and it is she who talks to the duck. - Hansel looks for technology: bridge or ferry; Gretel sees supernatural option - talking duck who will give the children rides - interestingly, earlier in story, Hansel has made up animal pets/companions to trick stepmother when he is dropping pebbles/bread, but there are no animals really connected to him - Gretel, however, really does interact w/ animal in meaningful way. - Are there any gender issues here? Can we think of any other male/female and animal connections in fairy tales?
John Newberry
- begins publishing exclusively for children in the 18th century - (1774) A Pretty Little Pocket Book - (1765) The History of Little Goody Two Shoes - books educational and entertaining - "changes history of books for children"
Hallet & Karasek - "The Story of Grandmother" Paul Delarue
- bzou - quite possibly similar to version Perrault knew/changed - crudity - red outwits & escapes wolf (unties string from foot and runs away at end) - some scholars have argued that Red's eating of grandmother is possible symbolic of passing of the generations: the old generation can no longer bear children to assure the continuation of the community, so she must give way to the younger who will now bear and raise the next generation
Hallet & Karasek LRRH
- bzou: werewolf - for listeners/readers who are not kids, it is clear that stories are not necessarily about wolves eating little girls, but about men taking advantage of women (rape)
Hallet & Karasek - Chinese Version LRRH
- children escape through clever ruse (wolf raising up in basket & dropping him) - feels more contemporary than other tales, but it is not! - this wolf, while clever enough to get into the house, is not clever enough to outsmart 3 children, he never has a chance against these tricksters - the insinuation of rape is still present in this tale in the wolf's invitation to go to bed, but it seems far less of a threat than it does in previous tales. The children never really even come close to the bed - this tale is funny once it becomes apparent that the gullible wolf is really no threat
Hansel & Gretel - Children v. Adults
- children victorious - their success, ironically, allows the survival of the family - what do we make of the children taking the witch's treasure? How does this compare to what Molly and Hop O' My Thumb do when they steal the ogres' things? Or does it?
Oral folk tale
- common people, illiterate - oral tradition - eventually recorded
Tatar - Grimms' H&G
- cruel stepmother is a creation of Wilhelm Grim The oral version actually had a biological mother & father conspire to abandon children. Villainous stepmother re-emerges in woods as monster equipped w/ powers far more formidable than those she exercised at home (stepmother becomes witch) Witch becomes more and more complex and formidable in succeeding Grimm editions. Stepmother at home intends to starve the children. Witch - seemingly bountiful - but more exaggerated form of maternal malice b/c she feeds children only to fatten them so she can eat them
Hansel & Gretel - Overarching Conflicts
- famine & poverty; food at the heart of this story - generational conflict - class issues: poverty, starvation, rural (woodcutter & family) What kinds of issues do the poor face and what kinds of stories do they tell?
Hallet & Karasek - Flossie & the Fox
- female trickster tradition - set in american south; reminiscent of Brer Rabbit (uncle remus tales) - this fox never has a chance; Flossie plays him from the beggining - also, the rape motif seems absent from this telling. We simply see a predator intent on a basket of goodies; the little girl is never in his sights
Characteristics of Folktales CHARACTERS
- flat, simple, straightforward - archetypes, meant to symbolize certain basic human traits - tend to be either good or bad - wicked stepmothers - weak, ineffectual fathers - jealous siblings - beautiful = good; ugly = bad - characters motivated by one overriding desire (greed, love, fear, hatred, jealousy)
Tatar - LRRH & the Pedagogy (teaching) of fear
- for Perrault & Grimms, "the story itslef never stood in the way of a message" - Red responsible for her own downfall b/c Talks to strangers Disobeys mom and strays from path - in these kinds of cautionary tales, every act of violence that befalls the heroes/heroines, we can generally find a cause in something that the character(s) did to bring the violence upon themselves - "a chain of events that might once have created burlesque surreal effects can easily be restructured to produce a morally edifying tale. The shift form violence in the service of slapstick to violence in the service of disciplinary regime may have added a moral backbone to fairytales, but it rarely curbed their uninhibited displays of violence - 19th century versions of LRRH "rely on a pedagogy of fear to regulate behavior" - "the story of LRRH seems to have lost more than it gained as it made the transition form adult oral entertainment to literary far for children. once a folktale of earth humor and high melodrama, it was transformed into a heavy-handed narrative w/ an adult agenda. In the process, the surreal violence of the original was converted into a frightening punishment of relatively minor infraction
Beyond New Realism
- historical fiction & informational books flourish - early readers (Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat - 1st of these) - poetry, especially verse novels, the first of which, Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse was published in 1997
James Garner "Politically Correct LRRH" (1994)
- introduction gives us his agenda - careful to paint Red in other than stereotypical role Reason for going to grandmothers. Not afraid of forests; confident in her budding sexuality. Reads wolf as product of his environment, not as evil. Red screams b/c wolf invades her space, not b/c fear. Berates would-be rescuer. - grandmother NOT sick, completely able to care for self Jumps out of wolf not at Red's 1st scream, but at her screaming at woodchopper. Chops off woodchopper's head. - in this version The women take care of themselves. The wolf is simply product of his environment and misunderstood. The would-be rescuer is the bad guy (male, patriarchal, thinks women can't take care of themselves) - In the end all the misunderstood, societally-imposed upon persons form an "alternate household"
Tatar - Hansel & Gretel - FOOD
- its presence and absence - shapes the social wold of fairy tales in profound ways... fairy tales often take us squarely into the household, where everyone seems to be anxious both about what's for dinner and about who's for dinner. Children Perpetually under double threat of starvation and cannibalism." - H&G set in time of famine
Hallet & Karasek - Trickster Reds LRRH
- like the story of grandmother, these tales give us a strong, clever Red - Chinese version - Flossie & the Fox
19th Century
- often, 1st great age of children's books - shift - first books written to entertain - but moral lesson almost always included - Perrault - Grimms' Household Tales - Hans Christian Anderson - children's magazines - best illustrators many for children's books
Hans Christian Anderson
- original literary fairy tales (w/ clear echo of folk tale) - Contribution: personal involvement w/ the tales; they self-revelatory - tales placed in personal context as well as social
Hallet & Karasek Grimms' LRRH (Little Red Cap)
- perrault's wolf & red garment remain - happy ending restored through paternalistic hunter - balance: hunter (male goodness) v. wolf (male wickedness) concerned mother 2 endings - but still, the hopelessly naive child is eaten and our image of Red is one of weakness & stupidity
Tatar - The Story of Grandmother - Paul Delarue
- recorded in Britanny 1885 France - pre-dates Perrault & probably "more faithful to oral traditions" than Perrault's version - this Red is clever, escapes wolf, becomes a trickster figure; summons her courage & uses her wits to escape danger - part of adult storytelling tradition ROBINSON - pointers: - as an oral tale, it would have been told by adults & to an audience that included children, but the story was not intended for children, but for the larger community audience, hence Tatar's observation that it was part of adult storytelling tradition - Perrault probably knew a version much like this & altered it to create his own tale
Modern James Thurber LRRH "The Little Girl and the Wolf"
- satire - wolf seems to already know the story: waiting for little girl to come along asks if girl is going to grandmothers - notice that the littler girl is not names, identified, or described as Little Red Riding Hood Notice little girl's behavior Goes no nearer than 25ft Immediately recognizes wolf not grandmother Narrator's comment: "wolf does not look any more like your grandmother than the Metro-Goldwyn lion looks like Calvin Coolidge. - moral takes us full circle: satirizes Perrault & Grimms' versions of the tales; this Red more like her oral tradition ancestors; stronger than early literary versions
Fairy Tales (Marchen or Wonder Tale)
- stories of supernatural wonders, the most magical of the folktales, typically depicting the battle b/w good & evil, often focused on characters of royal birth. - most conclude w/ triumph of virtue & a happy marriage (Cinderella, Snow White)
1950's Realistic Fiction
- tends to be optimistic, portraying attractive, smart, carefree, successful, usually white, children with stable home lives - literature reflects "the basic decency and restrained good fun that most adults expected (Tunnel 55) - traditional families - obedient, happy children - strict social rules for males & females - traditional values regarding sex, marriage, divorce, gender roles
Modern: David McPhail's LRRH (picture book 1995)
- this story very much doctored for young readers: cannibalism, death, violence, sexual implications, punishment for breaking prohibition removed. - the prohibition remains - the wolf tempts Little Red to leave the path; he becomes a tempter - grandmother not eaten; hides in closet - we have an explanation for why Red does not recognize the wolf in the bed (curtain drawn around bed) - Red realizes her dander at the last minute and does not get into the bed, but crawls under it - wolf gets stuck, Red jumps on bed calling for help (echo of trickster Red?) - everyone in forest, incl Grimms' woodcutter, comes to rescue - wolf is not killed, runs away... as a matter of fact seems to have left neighborhood altogether!
ATU
Aarne-Thompson-Uther classification of folk tales
Jack and the Beanstalk
British tale; unique to England - replays conflict similar to that of Odysseus vs. Cyclops, David vs. Goliath: weak, shrewd, Jack manages to defeat dim-witted ogre Jack - not model child and at first does not seem terribly bright! - conventional wisdom says that fairy tale heroes are handsome, active, cunning - Jack is naive, silly, guileless in beginning - later in story (once ogre's land) slips into role of trickster; seems to change character traits Many modern revisions of this tale paint Jack as juvenile delinquent and give the ogre vengeance, or show him as a decent, badly treated bystander of sorts - does this say something about our judgement of Jacks behavior/morals? - note, that when he steals harp, she cries for her master, she clearly does not want to be stolen Ogre: powerful cannibalistic father opposed to dead (powerless) father - like mother/witch in other tales
Tatar - The Children and the Ogre tales
Fathers reunited; mother remain menacing & cruel to end. Chodorow's psychoanlytic reading - Father seperate status b/c of traditional absence in early childhood rearing, symbolic of autonomy & of public, social world. Development defined in terms of growing away from mother who represents dependence & domesticity. - children have "successfully negotiated the path from dependence to autonomy by eradicating the mother and joining forces w/ the father" Ill will and evil so often personified as adult female figure in fairy tales raise some weighty questions that challenge the notion of fairy tales as therapeutic reading for children [this is how Bettelheim says fairy tales can/should be used]
Tatar - Father figures do not always fare well - ogres of British and French folklore
Molly Whuppie: little girl, trickster figure Molly Whuppie & Tom Thumb - comic relief in form of spunky adventures who use their wits to turn tables on adversaries w/ daunting powers. Cruikshank's warning - about trickster figure and their bad examples for children! Tatar: no wonder adults more likely to prefer sufferings of "God-fearing" siblings of H&G to irreverent antics of Molly or Tom
Beatrix Potter
Peter Rabbit
Tomie dePaola
The Legend of the Bluebonnet
Modern Hansel's Eyes - Garth Nix
Urban Gothic - burned out, destroyed city - twisted, dangerous PlayStation shop - basement that is subterranean chamber of horrors - Frankenstein cat: Lazarus Frankenstein (classic Gothic novel) Lazarus the man Jesus raised from dead after he had been in tomb for 3 days Witch sees through his eyes - this about parents who hate their children, not about poverty and starvation (change why?) - Hagmom - conflation of witch & stepmother figure in traditional tale (remember Tatar's argument about conflation of these 2 figures) - Powerless father (doesnt love them). Note Hagmom has "hypnotized" him much as witch will later do w/ Hansel. - Hansel just a boy...w/ blue eyes... but changes Also idea man (supplies, map, liquid nitrogen idea) like his traditional counterpart. Is the one who is susceptible to witch's power. By end, has "gained strange powers from magic cat's-eye." - Gretel has seeds of witch Gretel chooses to learn to be witch. Enjoys her lessons In danger of forgetting Hansel Pre-meditated plan to kill witch By end, "more than half a witch" Place this in context w/ Fractured Fairy Tales "There s a little witch in all us girls" - Modern witch Bewitches Hansel - playstation spell spider horror who murders children to harvest their organs cant be killed by metal or blows spell to graft eye to her socket "must be fueled by your fear" bewitches Gretel w/ her own breath on Gretel's heart (this like the Snow Queen in Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen) Dies in freezer, not in oven - The children kill both witches in their lives kill urban witch (Gretel aided by Hansel) Hansel kills Hagmom They have gained ability to fight (destroy) stepmoms who dont love them, but have they also become less human? How do we fell about these changed children And what about the fact that the children have to kill stepmother; she hasnt conveniently died?
Maurice Sendak
Where the Wild Things Are
Tatar - Grimms' LRRH Little Red Cap
the Grimms take what Perrault began and take it even further, "placing the action in the service of teaching lessons to the child inside and outside the story Problematic Cautionary Tale - narrative begins w/ prohibition (mom's warning), which is "alien to the spirit of fairy tales - which are so plot driven that they rarely traffic in the kind of disciplinary precision on display here - but also misfires in its lack of logic - Red even voices the lesson she has learned; thereby, making sure that the child reader doesnt miss the moral. Furthermore, almost any picture book version for children today contains the moral found in the Grimms' version: dont stray from the path when Mother has told you not to. - Tatar questions whether or not this is even a lesson that we particularly want our children to learn - forcing story into cautionary mode "resists" its ability to "engage w/ a range of cultural binaries" : predator v. prey, nature v. culture divide, innocence v. seduction - cautionary version "gives us a tableau of violence intended to drive home a lesson about the consequences of disobedience and transgression" - Red even "faulted or her love of beauty" - martian story ROBINSON: - the grimms build off of Perrault's tale and reinforce its characteristics. Furthermore, as Tatar points out, this is very problematic b/c Grimm's tale was popular that it becomes universal and is the version of the tale that most people know today - b/c of the popularity of the Grimms' tale, the trickster Red of the oral tradition faded from our memory and culture. For us, Red is naive and does (stupid) things that cost her dearly - the final reason that Perrault and the Grimms' version of story are so troubling is that they took a clever little girl and turned her into a naive innocent who is responsible for her own downfall. She is responsible for her horrific fate.
Characteristics of Folktales THEME
while folktales are primarily for entertainment, they generally present themes important to their audiences - small and powerless achieving success through perseverance & patience; oldest, largest often fail - humility, kindness, patience, sympathy, hard work, courage rewarded - justice: good is rewarded; evil is punished - power of love - wishes come true, but not w/o trials
