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Author
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Comment
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stbrn
Registered User
(10/8/03 10:35 am)
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A Grimm inquery
I don't personally have a ton of knowledge on this subject but I am, like what seems a lot of people on this board, writing a research paper as part of the English requirement for my degree. When I was very young my grandmother had rented Cinderella and bolted from her chair to turn off the television when the stepsisters started cutting off the heels of their feet and so on. She not having paid attention had thought she had rented the Disney version of the story. Nonetheless, I now own Tales of the Brothers Grimm... (Clarissa Pinloka Estes, PhD). I would like to write about them and their stories. I am sure that the angle I am trying to research has probably been worn thin by analysts and reseachers but since the topic is new to me I was hoping those of you with such a plethera of knowledge on the subject of fairytales could help me.
The angle you ask, something along the lines of the violence within the Grimm tales as compared to that of other German writers in the same period and an overall comparison to the modern Disney versions.
Any info, opinions (if you don't mind my possibly quoting you for a secondary source in my paper), books you may know of would be wonderful! Thanks...
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Peter
Unregistered User
(10/8/03 3:35 pm)
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Grimm Violence and Disney
To start, you might want to try looking for relevant books by conducting
a subject search on the Library of Congress’s catalog (catalog.loc.gov)
for the following subject headings:
Fairy tales Germany History and criticism.
Grimm, Jacob, 1785-1863 Criticism and interpretation.
Grimm, Wilhelm, 1786-1859 Criticism and interpretation.
An example of the type of book you will find is:
Author: Tatar, Maria, 1945-
Title: The hard facts of the Grimms' fairy tales / Maria Tatar.
Expanded 2nd ed.
Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 2003.
Publisher’s Description: www.loc.gov/catdir/descri...42719.html
Based on the publisher’s description, this book appears quite relevant for your topic of research, and you should be able to find related studies in the catalog as well.
To search LC’s catalog by subject, from the main catalog page, select "Basic Search." At the new page that is returned, highlight “Subject Browse” as the search type and then enter one of the above subject heading exactly as it's written above. Now click "Begin Search." This will take you to a page listing many subject headings, the first of which should be the one you entered. Select this heading to be brought to a list of books on the subject. You can click on a book's title to be brought to a more specific description of the book that will help you determine whether it's relevant. If it is, and it is not available at your local library, you should speak with a reference librarian there about withdrawing a copy via interlibrary loan.
An example of an article that might interest you on the Grimm and Disney versions of Cinderella is:
Title: Aschenputtel and Cinderella: The Brothers Grimm versus Walt Disney: Or, A Moral and a Social Story
Author(s): Bartsch, Wilhelm
Source: Annual of Foreign Films and Literature 1996; 2: 31-42.
This was found using the MLA International Bibliography database, which your school should subscribe to and you can use to find additional articles of relevance.
There’s really a lot our there. For a look at Disney’s transformation of fairy tales, you might want to read, for instance:
Zipes, Jack. "Breaking the Disney Spell." The Classic Fairy Tales. Ed. Maria Tatar. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1999. 332 – 352 (this article appears elsewhere as well)
I’m sure other more knowledgeable members of this board will be able to direct you to more specific resources. Also, your local reference librarian will also be able to direct you to indexes and electronic databases that you can search to find articles and other resources on the topic. If you get stuck, you might try broadening your search by identifying books in LC’s catalog with the following subject heading:
Fairy tales History and criticism.
Hope this helps!
Peter
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Jess
Unregistered User
(10/8/03 10:10 pm)
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I hope you reviewed the Surlalune discussion archives
Mostly I hope you had a chance to look at some of the discussions we have had on this subject. There are some fascinating comments by real experts, including CPE, who you mention above.
Peter makes some great suggestions as well.
Jess
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RymRytr1
Registered User
(10/9/03 1:02 pm)
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Re: I hope you reviewed the Surlalune discussion archives
that ")" on the end of the line will keep you from getting
there. Try catalog.loc.gov
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stbrn
Registered User
(10/12/03 3:32 pm)
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A Grimm inquery
Thanks for all ou input...
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Midori
Unregistered User
(10/12/03 6:50 pm)
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violence in the tales
it's an interesting thought, this question of violence in the tales. Harold Scheub, my professor from the University of Wisconsin in Madison dismissed the hand wringing about violence in the folktales--
especially since they were told to all ages and just as appropriately it seemed, the violence changed slightly depending on the make up of the audience (more scatological and hilarious slap stick for younger audiences, more brutal and pointed for adult audiences--same story...just pitched higher or lower). But ultimately all the stories contained a significant share of violence--in part because those images elicit such strong emotional repsonses from the audience and a good storyteller wants her audience wrapped round her voice.
But I wonder if what we can get away with in the oral tales becomes more problematic when rendered in film? There are studies that indicate that children are desensitized to violence when they view a lot of violence on T.V....so the evocative response to the violent images in the oral tradition (where one must imagine the scenario) is bludgeoned by the graphic nature of violence in the tales when depicted in film. This is really just a thought...but it would make a different kind of critique--the violence in the oral tales versus the graphic violence of the filmed tales. In the spoken tales one knows the speaker--there is an intimacy and the storyteller "reads" her audience as she performs, making sure they are with her. But in film--we really are at the mercy of the vision of a stranger who captures us there in the dark and gives us images whether we like it or not. (o.k. I'll admit it--I just saw "Kill Bill" and I am struggling with it's postmodern life doesn't mean anything its all a cartoon message wrapped up in a gorgeous, startling movie!)
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