Western Fairy Tales

[Joseph]

Fairytales are stories that range from those in folklore to more modern stories defined as literary fairy tales. Despite subtle differences in the categorizing of fairy tales, folklore, fables, myths, and legends, a modern definition of the literary fairy tale, as provided by Jens Tismar's monograph in German,[1] is a story that differs "from an oral folk tale" in that it is written by "a single identifiable author". They differ from oral folktakes, which can be characterized as "simple and anonymous", and exist in a mutable and difficult to define genre with a close relationship to oral tradition.[2]

Last Saturday I decided to revisit one of the popular western fairytale called Sleeping Beauty. This was the 1959 version. The older versions of movies tend to possess purity and simplicity, unlike the refurbished ones we see today.

After sitting down for a whole hour and some minutes reveling under fantasy and reminiscence while watching the Beauty tale, I had an epiphany! What makes the difference between the childhood of an African kid and that of a kid who grew up in Asia, Australia, America, or Europe.

The fables always had an ending with a lesson. Apart from fables were the African tales on ogres, tribes, gods, ancestors, and magical powers. As I grew up to a fine age of 8-1o, the western stories came into view.

I used to wonder why the females in Western fables were portrayed as fragile and unable to do what their male counterparts did. Most of the princesses sang and were always in trouble. They had to wait for a prince to save them like in Sleeping Beauty.

Also, Western fairytales that I knew of ended in weddings. A man saves you, fall in love, fight evil, marry, and live happily ever after. Not to mention that some of the stories focused on royals. For instance Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Shrek, and Rapunzel.

On the other side, since a large number of African tribes had chiefs and not kings, royalty was not in the cards. A tribe was ruled by a man appointed by the clans. Furthermore, heroism was defined by war victories, inhuman capabilities, and spiritual prowess.

The stories revolve around famous men and women who handled hard and impossible situations. However, since the stories were orally passed down from one generation to another, the details got distorted. In the side of animals, the hare and wild dogs were portrayed as a cunning creature. The owl and tortoise as wise and slow. The hyena has a greedy title while the lion a strong leader.

When you compare African and Western tales, there is a big difference. Western tales exert more importance on male counterparts. How they solve issues and save lives. Women also play a role but a limiting one. That is a damsel in distress waiting for rescue and a homemaker.

African tales has a balance between female and male heroes. Nonetheless, the woman remains under the shadow of men. What makes African stories stand out is the focus on raising children into warriors. They teach children on decision making and pass warnings on breaking taboos.

Oxford University Press, 2000. Hardcover. From the book jacket: [This Companion] "provides an authoritative reference source for this complex, captivating genre, exploring the tales themselves...the writers who wrote and reworked them and the artists who illustrated them." Of particular note are the lengthy articles on the relationship between fairy tales and film, art, opera, ballet and music. This fascinating encyclopedia included an extensive bibliography and 70 illustrations. There are also detailed histories of fairy tales in various European countries and in North America. There was a team of 67 contributors who wrote the informative and interesting entries. Bound in black cloth with gilt titling to spine. In a pictorial dust jacket with yellow spine with brown titling. In about fine condition. Measures 6.25 x 9.50 inches. 601 pages. Fine.

Well, a lot of it has to do with society and the process of canonization. For a long time, men were typically in charge of what got printed, filmed, discussed, etc. and their choices depended largely on patriarchal norms of the time in which they were working. In cultures where women were supposed to be subservient to men, it made sense to prioritize the tales in which they were. It also has a lot to do with the fact that most of the famous fairy tales are Western stories in which patriarchy was (is) kinda a big deal.

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Objective: The image of the wicked stepmother has created a prejudice against stepmothers, which makes it difficult for them to adjust to their stepfamilies. This study compared fairy tales from different cultures to reestablish the nature of stepmothers.

Methods: Grimms' Fairy Tales (GFT) was used to represent Western culture, with stepmother characters appearing in 15 out of 210 tales. "The Collection of Korean Traditional Fairy Tales" (KFT) was used to represent Eastern culture, with stepmother characters featured in 14 out of 15,107 tales. We examined the relationships between stepmothers and stepchildren in GFT and KFT.

Although Chinese fairy tales have trickled into the West over the past century, they have yet to receive much scholarly attention. And stories by the Brothers Grimm, along with those by Hans Christian Andersen, are still among the most widely read fairy tales in both East and West. This is a direct product of European, British, and Russian scholars publishing monster anthologies of folklore in a push to consolidate national identity in the 19th century, collecting everything they could get their hands on, and thereby establishing the fairy-tale canon as we know it today, with all its geographical limitations.

These stories do what fairy tales do supremely well: signaling virtue with alluring markers and staging punishments as a strategy for purging the world of evil. Like European tales in their unbowdlerized form, they promote a cult of radiant beauty and indulge in displays of stylized, theatrical violence. The aesthetics of the fairy tale are as primal and problematic as its ethics, always giving us something to contest, debate, and talk about.

The question remains of the extent to which the tropes in these stories belong to indigenous lore or are drawn from other traditions. In the introduction, Zhang, a Chinese studies professor at Willamette University, writes that many of the tales are hybrids of European folklore and Chinese oral tradition. Yet we are faced with something of a chicken-and-egg problem, never quite clear about who borrowed from whom, especially since it is impossible to source an original version of a tale from oral storytelling traditions that predate print and visual culture.

Despite all that remains unknown, the Lin Lan fairy tales, like their European counterparts, remind us that the domestic sphere matters, and it matters deeply. Family life carries an urgency that finds outlets in gossip, storytelling, chatter, and a range of expressive tools to help process and heal trauma. If happy families are all alike, as Leo Tolstoy wrote, and unhappy families are all unhappy in their own way, then fairy tales enact that unhappiness with an agonizing bite of the real.

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Our FOLKTALES mailing list offers an interdisciplinary discussion of folktales, fairy tales and fantasy literature with contributions such as research enquiries, original writing, relevant publications, events and more.

FOLKTALES facilitates interdisciplinary discussion of folktales, fairy tales and fantasy literature. Contributions may include research enquiries as well information about relevant publications and events. Sign up here!

The very familiarity of fairytales that makes them so magical is also problematic in that it stems partly from a racist, patriarchal media. And even within the most popular ten fairytales, white versions are usually the ones that are retold.

Read a selection of the most popular Grimms' fairy tales and consider why they have remained so popular. What is it about fairy tales that has made them such a lasting source of creative inspiration into our time? Learn to understand and critique fairy tales and their role in Western cultures through analysis of the tales and creative adaptation of a tale for a modern audience. This course may be subject to Enforced Prerequisites that restrict registration into the course. Check the offerings below for more information.

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The portal contains both classical Armenian fairy tales (of Tumanyan, Khenkoyan, Agayan and many others) and translations from William Saroyan, Oscar Wilde, Cervantes and others, as well as stories composed by modern authors, Sarin Akbas, the translator of the site said in a interview over Skype.

The site was established in 2014 by the Karagozyan School of Istanbul, which was celebrating its centennial that year. With Karagozyan being the sponsor of the website for the first three years, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation later joined the effort. Turkish-Armenian teachers and community activists also contribute to pokrig.org.

Liz Grauerholz, an associate professor of sociology, teamed with Lori Baker-Sperry, an assistant professor of women's studies at Western Illinois University and a former Purdue graduate student, to study how beauty is written about in fairy tales and whether stories with beautiful princesses are more likely to be popular. Grauerholz says parents need to be aware that some stories tell children that unattractive people are more likely to be evil and reinforce traditional gender roles that may be confusing for today's young women.

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