ENGLISH

Off with Their Heads!: Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood

By Maria Tatar

Book information

Publisher
Princeton University Press
Year
2020
ISBN
9780691214818
DOI
10.1515/9780691214818
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
42 MB (43823611 bytes)
Pages
332\324
Library
degruyter.com
Time added
2023-08-25 04:15:12

Description

When Hansel and Gretel try to eat the witch's gingerbread house in the woods, are they indulging their "uncontrolled cravings" and "destructive desires" or are they simply responding normally to the hunger pangs they feel after being abandoned by their parents? Challenging Bruno Bettelheim and other critics who read fairy tales as enactments of children's untamed urges, Maria Tatar argues that it is time to stop casting the children as villians. In this provocative book she explores how adults mistreat children, focusing on adults not only as hostile characters in fairy tales themselves but also as real people who use frightening stories to discipline young listeners.

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