Popular culture’s enduring influence on childhood: Fairy tale collaboration in the young adult series The Lunar Chronicles

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 304-315
Author(s):  
Alexandra Lykissas
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
The People ◽  
Literary Theories ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Type

Fairy tales have a long history of providing educational morals for young women, particularly children. The lessons from older fairy tales have long influenced the metanarratives regarding how women should act in our culture and contemporary versions are no different. Contemporary adaptations of these fairy tales, however, have moved the genre beyond restrictive metanarratives and are now offering new solutions to 21st-century problems like authoritarian rulers. In Marissa Meyers’ Lunar Chronicle series (2012–2015), the characters interact and work together to overcome the villain. This collaborative fairy tale is a new type of fairy tale adaptation in which the characters work together instead of focusing on their individual happily-ever-afters. My article uses postmodern and feminist literary theories along with close-reading literary analysis to examine how this young adult series shows how young adult literature has become political and is able to address adult problems in ways that are easier to process for younger readers. I focus on how the series uses the character of Levana to examine how authoritarian rulers maintain control over the populace, in order to show how the characters then work together to overthrow Levana to free the people from her oppression. This series uses collaboration to show the reader how to resolve possible problems within their own lives. Working in community then becomes as a solution for young adults who may feel disenfranchised or lonely in our increasingly divisive world. Cooperation also becomes a transgressive move against the tendency to become segregated from those around us.

New Heroines in Old Skins: Fairy Tale Revisions in Young Adult Dystopian Literature

2020 ◽  
pp. 95-108
Author(s):  
Jill Coste
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Sleeping Beauty ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Dystopian Literature ◽  
The Status

This chapter examines three Sleeping Beauty retellings to illustrate the way dystopian scenarios complicate traditional fairy tale tropes. Dystopian literature and fairy tale retellings often feature elements of embodiment, romance, and political activism, and this chapter uses these key notions to consider how the dystopian fairy tale deploys feminist empowerment. While YA dystopian fairy tales often highlight collective action and social activism to resist the status quo, others reproduce troubling representations of passive heroines. This chapter argues that the dystopian YA fairy tale is uniquely primed to address the potential and power of contemporary young women.

scholarly journals Peculiarities of national cultural adaptation of Grimm's Fairy Tales when translated into Russian

Litera ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 111-120
Author(s):  
Lola Bobodzhanova
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Cultural Adaptation ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Brothers Grimm ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
History Of Literature ◽  
Different Cultures

This article is dedicated to the analysis of fairy tales as a special genre of children's fiction literature with unique features and a long history. In the course of this work, the author gives definitions to the key concepts; examines correlation between the literary fairly tale and folk fairy tale, evolution of fairy tale genre, namely the works of Brothers Grimm. The article the stages of establishment of fairy tales as an independent genre in the history of literature. An attempt is made to determine the genre similarities that make fairy tales comprehensible within the framework of other linguocultures. Special attention is turned to the specificities of national cultural adaptation in translation of fairy tales from German into Russia, taking into account the peculiarities of translation transformations. The conducted analysis allows concluding that children’s fairy tale literature is a reflection of the national linguistic worldview, and largely depends on the existing in the society national cultural traits, mentality and perception of the world. These facts indicate that translation and adaptation of fairy tale literature requires the translator to understand the uniqueness of worldview of the people affiliating to different cultures, as well as convey the national cultural identity and specificities of foreign perception and mentality of the representatives of various linguocultures.

Grimm Legacies

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Zipes
Keyword(s):  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Folk Tales ◽  
Brothers Grimm ◽  
Folk Tale ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
High Standards ◽  
Wilhelm Grimm

This book explores the legacy of the Brothers Grimm in Europe and North America, from the nineteenth century to the present. The book reveals how the Grimms came to play a pivotal and unusual role in the evolution of Western folklore and in the history of the most significant cultural genre in the world—the fairy tale. Folklorists Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm sought to discover and preserve a rich abundance of stories emanating from an oral tradition, and encouraged friends, colleagues, and strangers to gather and share these tales. As a result, hundreds of thousands of wonderful folk and fairy tales poured into books throughout Europe and have kept coming. The book looks at the transformation of the Grimms' tales into children's literature, the Americanization of the tales, the “Grimm” aspects of contemporary tales, and the tales' utopian impulses. It shows that the Grimms were not the first scholars to turn their attention to folk tales, but were vital in expanding readership and setting the high standards for folk-tale collecting that continue through the current era. The book concludes with a look at contemporary adaptations of the tales and raises questions about authenticity, target audience, and consumerism. The book examines the lasting universal influence of two brothers and their collected tales on today's storytelling world.

»die Träume gehören zweifellos zur Wirklichkeit«

2020 ◽  
pp. 11-24
Author(s):  
Caroline Roeder
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
German Democratic Republic ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Cultural Policies ◽  
Dream Narratives ◽  
Literary System

Artikelbeginn:[English title and abstract below] Theodor Storms Kindermärchen Der kleine Häwelmann, von dem Autor 1849 für seinen Sohn Hans verfasst und 1850 veröffentlicht, ist in seiner moralisch-komischen Form ein exemplarisches Exponat der Kinderliteratur des 19. Jahrhunderts. Gemäß der biedermeierlich gestimmten, belehrenden Funktion des Textes steht kindliche Allmachtsfantasie im Mittelpunkt des Geschehens. Die Haltung des ›Mehr-mehr‹ überschreitet indes die Grenzen der Moralerzählung. Entgegen der abschreckenden Funktion scheint vielmehr der kleine Häwelmann in der Verschränkung von Norm-Übertritt und Eskapismus ein ›modernes‹ Kind seiner Entstehungszeit zu sein und durchaus mit den Figuren des Struwwelpeters vergleichbar, die der Arzt und Kinderpsychiater Heinrich Hoffmann 1845 entworfen hat.   »Dreams Undoubtedly Belong to Reality«Dream Narratives About Childhood and for Children The call for ›more!‹ is the force driving the protagonist of Theodor Storm’s literary fairy tale Der kleine Häwelmann (1850) on his imaginary journey through the night. This dream narrative is a combination of an exciting exploration of transcending borders with a hint of the moral tale, and can be seen as a model for the configuration of the dream motif in children’s and young adult literature. Although the dream narrative has a prominent place there, its investigation has hitherto almost exclusively taken place within the con­text of fantasy; the didactic functions of the dream, however, and the motif of the dream journey have largely been neglected. This article looks at how post­1945 children’s dream narratives explores representations of childhood. Benno Pludra’s Lütt Matten und die weiße Muschel (1963), a children’s story from the German Democratic Republic (GDR), is analysed and situated within the context of its literary system. Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (1963) is next considered in relation to Pludra’s text in order to pro­vide a contrastive view to a key text from the Western literary system. Both texts were hugely innovative for their time and respective systems, both use Storm’s Häwelmann as an intertextual anchor, and both, as this analysis shows, reveal recognisable societal discourses about childhood and cultural policies for children.

Fröschen und Gurken

2018 ◽  
pp. 59-70
Author(s):  
Julia Boog-Kaminski
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Sexual Liberation ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
Children And Young Adults

Artikelbeginn:[English title and abstract below] Kaum eine Zeit steht so sehr für die sexuelle Befreiung und Sprengung familialer Strukturen wie die 1968er (vgl. Herzog 2005). Kaum ein Märchen steht in der psychoanalytischen Deutung so sehr für den sexuellen Reifungsprozess und das Unabhängigwerden eines Kindes wie Der Froschkönig. Der vorliegende Artikel greift diese Verbindung auf, da gerade während der 68er-Bewegung verschiedene Wasser- und Amphibienfiguren in der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur (KJL) vorkommen, die stark an die Motive des Märchens erinnern. Frogs and CucumbersTransformed Men in Children’s and Young Adult Literature Since 1968 In psychoanalysis, the fairy tale The Frog Prince has attracted much interest as a narrative of sexual liberation. Placing this motif at the heart of Nöstlinger’s and Pressler’s ›antiauthoritarian classics,‹ this article puts forward a new reading of literature for children and young adults. Through the ambiguity of the frog figure – oscillating between nature and culture, consciousness and unconsciousness – these books chronicle, in their own manner, the social transformation associated with 1968. They portray the emancipation movement as a hurtful and paradoxical process instead of one that reproduces the myth of linear progress.

scholarly journals “We are the People”: The Holodomor and North American-Ukrainian Diasporic Memory in Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s “Enough”

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 49-71
Author(s):  
Anastasia Ulanowicz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
North American ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
The People

“We are the People”: The Holodomor and North American-Ukrainian Diasporic Memory in Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s Enough. Although the Holodomor — the Ukrainian famine of 1932–1933 — has played a major role in the cultural memory of Ukrainian diasporic communities in the United States and Canada, relatively few North American children’s books directly represent this traumatic historical event. One exception, however, is Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s and Michael Martchenko’s picture book, Enough 2000, which adapts a traditional Ukrainian folktale in order to introduce young readers to the historical and polit­ical circumstances in which this artificial famine occurred. By drawing on what scholar Jack Zipes has identified as the “subversive potential” of fairy tales, Skrypuch and Martchenko critique the ironies and injustices that undergirded Soviet forced collectivization and Stalinist famine policy. Additionally, they explicitly set a portion of their fairy tale adaptation in Canada in order to gesture to the role played by the Holodomor in structuring diasporic memory and identity, especially in relation to post-Independ­ence era Ukraine.«Мы — народ»: Голодомор и североамериканско-украинская диаспорная память в книге Enough Марши Форчук Скрыпух. Несмотря на то, что Голодомор — голод в Украине 1932–1933 гoдов — сыграл важную роль в культурной памяти украинских диаспорных общин в Соеди­ненных Штатах и Канаде, относительно мало североамериканских детских книг описывает это травматическое событие. Важное место в этом контексте является книга Марши Форчук Скры­пух и Майкла Мартченко «Достаточно» 2000, которая адаптирует традиционную украинскую сказку для того, чтобы познакомить молодых читателей с историческими и политическими обстоятельствами этого искусственного голода. Опираясь на то, что ученый Джек Зайпс назвал «подрывным потенциалом» сказок, Скрыпух и Мартченко критикуют иронию и несправедли­вость советской принудительной коллективизации и политики сталинского голода. Кроме того, они установили часть своей сказочной адаптации в Канаде, чтобы показать роль Голодомора в структурировании диаспорной памяти и самобытности, и связи последних с независимой Украиной.

scholarly journals A Group Interview about Publishing with Professor Jack Zipes

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-44
Author(s):  
Emma Louise Parfitt ◽  
Emine Erdoğan ◽  
Heidi Fritz ◽  
Peter M. Ward ◽  
Emma Parfitt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Group Interview ◽  
University Of Minnesota ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Brothers Grimm ◽  
History Of ◽  
Conversation Piece

The conversation piece is the product of a group interview with Professor Jack Zipes and provides useful insights about publishing for early career researchers across disciplines. Based on his wider experiences as academic and writer, Professor Zipes answered questions from PhD researchers about: writing books, monographs and edited collections; turning a PhD thesis into a monograph; choosing and approaching publishers; and the advantages of editing books and translations. It presents some general advice for writing and publishing aimed at postgraduate students. Professor Zipes is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, United States, a world expert on fairy tales and storytelling highlighting the social and historical dimensions of them. Zipes has forty years of experience publishing academic and mass-market books, editing anthologies, and translating work from French, German and Italian. His best known books are Breaking the Magic Spell (1979), Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion (1983), The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre (2012), and The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (2014).

scholarly journals THE VIOLATION OF A TABOO: MODERN YOUNG ADULT IN THE SCHOOL LITERATURE PROGRAM

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-58
Author(s):  
Elena A. Pogorelaya
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Foreign Literature ◽  
Modern School ◽  
Teenagers And Young Adults ◽  
Adult World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Popular Texts

The article offers a variant of updating the modern school literature program by including modern texts aimed at “young adult literature”. In contrast to the foreign practice of publishing and discussing literature for teenagers and “young adults”, in which new children’s literature has long been working with the established taboos of the adult world (themes of death, sex, bullying in the collective, domestic violence, etc.), in Russia the value of such literature is a debatable issue, although a number of popular texts (P. Sanaev, N. Abgaryan, D. Sabitova et al.), obviously, correspond to this trend. Based on an experiment with grade 8 students, who were offered modern works of three thematic blocks (texts dedicated to unknown and tragic pages of the history of the XX century, family themes and topical issues of relations between peers), the potential of modern domestic and foreign literature young adult to encourage interested reading and dialogue with the student is shown. The article presents comments on excerpts from school essays, in which they tell about the texts they read and offer to include in the school course works that are understandable and close to the modern teenager.

scholarly journals ‘Once Upon a Time in Marseille’: Displacement and the Fairy Tale in Anna Seghers’ Transit

Humanities ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 173
Author(s):  
Rebekah Slodounik
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mistaken Identity ◽  
Anna Seghers ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Formal Level ◽  
History Of

Written in 1941, while she was living in exile in Mexico, and published in 1944 in Mexico and the United States, Anna Seghers’ novel Transit replicates on a formal level an experience of displacement, statelessness, and exile. In the following analysis, I examine Transit as a text of forced migration. Several features of the novel attempt to produce an experience of displacement: the narrative situation, the incorporation of descriptions that place the events of World War II into a longer history of forced migration, and the use of references to the genre of the fairy tale. The descriptions that engage with past forced migration and displacement attempt to universalize the historical specificities of the time period, whereas the references to fairy tales generate a sense of timelessness associated with this genre. Through these strategies, Seghers’ novel itself attempts to displace time. Seghers situates Transit within a long history of forced migration and exile, in which the categories that are often used to define and divide populations—such as nationality, ethnicity, and religion—are in flux. By emphasizing the role of mistaken identity, Seghers destabilizes the concept of immutable identities in a period of upheaval and transition.

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