LITR 4533:
TRAGEDY

Genre Presentation 2000

Sami Cantwell

Fairy Tales Today

Defining FAIRY TALE -

"…a story involving fantastic forces and beings (as fairies, wizards and goblins)…marked by unreal beauty, perfection, luck or happiness" – Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition

"…fairy tale is wise, lucid, realistic in the midst of fantasy…outlined by dramatic climaxes, a ladder of gifts leading to the neglected and malignant fairy at the top, a palace sinking into sleep and reawakening as the princess awakens…all things are possible, in the sense the lowest can rise to the highest position, and those in the highest position, even the evil queens, princes, princesses, government, ministers can fall and be destroyed" – Max Luthi, Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales, New York, Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1970.

"…struggles over voice, storytelling, and the socialization of children…literary fairy tales were complex symbolic social acts intended to reflect upon norms, and habits organized for the purpose of reinforcing a hierarchically arranged civilizing process in a particular society" – Jack Zipes, Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales, Children, and the Cultural Industry, New York, Routledge, 1997.

Related Genres: folktales, myths, fables, legends, science fiction, fantasy

Representational Genres: narrator + dialogue

Narrative Genres: tragedy, comedy, and romance

Example: The Frog Prince Continued by Jon Scieszka ISBN 014054258X; (Additional example) "The Frog Prince", Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, James Garner, Macmillan Publ. Comp., New York, 1994.

Highlights of Example: physical condition of the witches, expectations of the frog prince, happy ending

Additional Examples of Genre: (authors) works by Madame D’ Aulnoy, Madame de Murat, Marie de France, the Grimm Brothers, Hans Christian Anderson, Charles Perrault; (stage) Into the Woods – 1987; (film) The Princess Bride – 1987 and Ever After –1999; (literature in print) Princess Smartypants by Babette Cole ISBN 0399214097, The Principal’s New Clothes by Stephanie Calmenson ISBN059041822X, The Princess Test by Gail Carson Levine ISBN 0060280638; (hypertext) Rapunzel http://www.newchapter.com/kidz/fairy/rapunzel/rap_c1.html

Teaching Ideas: Keep original fairy tales and discuss elements that might be archaic, demeaning, etc. Write different versions of fairytales or alternate endings. Discuss different points of view. Discuss how some stories relate to others. Use different versions of fairy tales and where they originated to incorporate multiculturalism. Retell the story. Discuss different themes. Encourage the students to predict the outcomes of different fairy tales.

Questions:

  • How does different media (film, hypertext, storytelling) affect the fairy tale genre?
  • Besides enjoying them, how might children react (positively or negatively) when exposed to fairy tales? Why?
  • Fairy tales have already changed so much over time. How will the definition of "fairy tale" change as these stories evolve?