Syncretism or Superimposition: An Analysis of the Devil in "The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm"

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany M. Stachnik

Since their first full publication in 1815, the folk and fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm have provided a means of studying the rich oral traditions of Germany. The Grimm brothers indicated time and time again in their personal notes that the oral traditions found in their folk and fairy tales included symbols, characters, and themes belonging to pre-Christian Germanic culture, as well as to the firmly Christian German states from which they collected their folk and fairy tales. The blending of pre-Christian Germanic culture with Christian, German traditions is particularly salient in the figure of the devil, despite the fact that the devil is arguably one of the most popular Christian figures to date. Through an exploration of the phylogenetic analyses of the Grimm’s tales featuring the devil, connections between the devil in the Grimm’s tales and other German or Germanic tales, and Christian and Germanic symbolism, this study demonstrates that the devil in the Grimm’s tales is an embodiment of syncretism between Christian and pre-Christian traditions. This syncretic devil is not only consistent with the history of religious transformation in Germany, which involved the slow blending of elements of Germanic paganism and Christianity, but also points to a greater theme of syncretism between the cultural traditions of Germany and other nations worldwide.

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 150645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Graça da Silva ◽  
Jamshid J. Tehrani

Ancient population expansions and dispersals often leave enduring signatures in the cultural traditions of their descendants, as well as in their genes and languages. The international folktale record has long been regarded as a rich context in which to explore these legacies. To date, investigations in this area have been complicated by a lack of historical data and the impact of more recent waves of diffusion. In this study, we introduce new methods for tackling these problems by applying comparative phylogenetic methods and autologistic modelling to analyse the relationships between folktales, population histories and geographical distances in Indo-European-speaking societies. We find strong correlations between the distributions of a number of folktales and phylogenetic, but not spatial, associations among populations that are consistent with vertical processes of cultural inheritance. Moreover, we show that these oral traditions probably originated long before the emergence of the literary record, and find evidence that one tale (‘The Smith and the Devil’) can be traced back to the Bronze Age. On a broader level, the kinds of stories told in ancestral societies can provide important insights into their culture, furnishing new perspectives on linguistic, genetic and archaeological reconstructions of human prehistory.


Author(s):  
Jack Zipes

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.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-44
Author(s):  
Emma Louise Parfitt ◽  
Emine Erdoğan ◽  
Heidi Fritz ◽  
Peter M. Ward ◽  
Emma Parfitt ◽  
...  

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).


2020 ◽  
pp. 211-242
Author(s):  
William V. Costanzo

The rich oral traditions of storytelling in Black Africa have evolved into cinematic forms, adapting social satire and political humor to the realities of modern life. After a brief history of the region and its early encounters with the medium of motion pictures, this chapter introduces concepts like négritude, the griot storyteller, pan-Africanism, and Afropolitanism to explain how African beliefs and sub-Saharan cinema differ from others in the world and how African filmmakers like Ousmane Sembène and Djibril Diop Mambéty, Jean-Pierre Bekolo and Adama Drabo, Henri Duparc and Benoît Lamy, Flores Gomes and Fanta Régina Nacro have fashioned a cinema that reflects the way Africans see themselves and their place in the world.


Author(s):  
Надежда Степановна Коровина

В данной статье предпринята попытка на основе конкретного сказочного сюжета о Безручке (СУС 706) исследовать особенности взаимодействия фольклорных произведений народов, не родственных этнически, но тесно общаюшихся на протяжении длительного времени и имеющих близкие культурные традиции. При рассмотрении данного вопроса использовалась методика сравнительного анализа, позволяющая установить, каким образом международный сказочный сюжет становится культурным достоянием народа коми, т. е. прояснить историю национального сказочного репертуара. В процессе анализа коми сказок о Безручке выявлено сходство с русскими вариантами в области содержания, в типах героев и способах их создания, развитии действия и последовательности эпизодов. В результате автор приходит к выводу о том, что сюжет о Безручке (СУС 706) заимствован у русских. Одновременно в статье отмечен тот факт, что рассмотренные варианты коми сказок имеют свою специфику и не создают впечатления однообразия. Это происходит за счет того, что постоянные элементы, представляющие композиционный стержень сюжета, во-первых, обрастают своеобразными деталями, которые придают повествованию национальный колорит. Именно в них отражается быт, привычки, обычаи народа коми. Во-вторых, своеобразие каждого варианта во многом зависят от индивидуального стиля, степени исполнительского мастерства, творческой манеры, отношения к данному сюжету того или другого исполнителя. В-третьих, именно в отдельных его вариантах сказываются социальные, временные различия, в совокупности своей отражающие исторические изменения сказки In this article an attempt is made on the basis of a specific fairy-tale story about «The Maiden without Hand» (CIP 706) to explore the features of the interaction of folk works of peoples who are not related ethnically, but who closely communicated for a long time and have close cultural traditions. When regarding this issue, we consider it appropriate to use the methodology of comparative analysis, since it is the comparative study of Russian and Komi variants of the fairy-tale plot that allows us to establish how the international fairy-tale plot becomes the cultural heritage of the Komi people, to clarify the history of the national fairy-tale repertoire. In all analyzed Komi tales about the Maiden without hand there is a similarity with the Russian variants in the development of the action, the sequence of episodes, the type of characters, their characteristics, the common ideological content. The structural and typological analysis allows us to conclude that the plot about «The Maiden without hand» (CIP 706) was borrowed from the Russians. However, the considered variants of Komi fairy tales do not create the impression of monotony because the constant elements that represent the compositional core, firstly, acquire peculiar details that give the narrative a national flavor. They reflect the life, habits and customs of the Komi people. Secondly, the originality of each option depends largely on the individual style, the degree of performing skills, creative manner, attitude to the story of a particular artist. Thirdly, it is in its individual options where the impact of class, time differences manifest themselves reflecting the historical changes of the tale.


2011 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 234-249
Author(s):  
Gerd Bockwoldt

AbstractThis article analyzes whether anti-Judaism, which was widespread during the German Romantic period and which was evident in organizations such as the "Christlich deutsche Tischgesellschaft" (a German Christian Society), and here especially in Achim von Arnim, also included the Brothers Grimm. One could conclude so when considering mainly the publishing history of their collection of fairy tales, which since its third edition (1837) has been appended. The same was already true for the previously published selection of tales for children (1825). However, a closer look reveals the stylistic nature of these appendixes, which provided a linguistic characterization for the tales' character types (Jew, farmer, soldier, etc.). The actual problem that the Brothers Grimm – especially Wilhelm Grimm – did not recognize and/or ignored is evident in the breaches of law as depicted in the fairy tales "Der gute Handel" and "Der Jude im Dorn." Thus, while one cannot accuse the Brothers Grimm of clear-cut anti-Judaism, one can fault them for their careless handling of problematic texts, which still causes irritation today.


Author(s):  
Jack Zipes

This chapter considers Edgar Taylor's (1793–1839) adaptation of the Grimms' German Popular Stories (1823, 1826), which radically changed the destiny of what we today call the “fairy tales” of the Brothers Grimm. It recounts and analyzes the Grimms' intentions in collecting and publishing the two volumes of the first edition of their tales in 1812 and 1815 as well as the second edition of 1819. Then the chapter reviews the history of how Taylor came upon their tales in the early 1820s and why he decided to “translate” them into English. This chapter concludes by discussing how Taylor participated in the romantic antiquarian movement, what we would today call folklore, to recapture neglected relics of the past, and to defend the imagination against rationalism.


Litera ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 111-120
Author(s):  
Lola Bobodzhanova

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-197
Author(s):  
Muhammad Sajid Khan

Reading habits among young generation is going to declining and culture of reading books is modified to modern methods of communication like browsing social sites and internet, playing on cell phones and watching T.V. This era modernization has taken away the youth from reading habits. It is important that the young generation learns about the rich Urdu literature including Urdu fiction in which several writers have significantly contributed. The emergence of Urdu literature facilitated the expansion of Urdu language. Fiction writers try to indicate important weaknesses of the society, cultural traditions, and norms, so as to find out the solutions to these issues. There were so many fictional works in Urdu literature having done during the progressive and independent movement. “ANGARAY” is a collection of fictional short stories authored by four young writers who had a progressive approach and tried in their own way to bring forth several social issues through their work at the time British India. This paper attempts to present a brief history of this collection and the consequences emerging out of its publication at that time. The study is reviewed and analyzed the criticism on selected short stories of subsequent publication. The study found that the readers would find the ideas and views of the four writers in the present time may provide them some relief from the opposition they faced on publication of their work.


2021 ◽  
Vol VI (I) ◽  
pp. 186-196
Author(s):  
Muhammad Saeed Nasir ◽  
Muhammad Riaz ◽  
Barirah Nazir

The Genre of Drama had always been reflective of social life. The history of drama is as old as of humans on earth. Saraiki drama is believed to be developed from undeveloped but organized expressions of caricatures; such kind of organized caricature is found still in the local area. It is a tradition that people of the lower caste named Bhaands. This kind of art was established by the people who were very poor, and they used to caricature the rich and gentry to amuse them and other people. The present study is aimed to trace the social realities and their representation in Saraiki Drama. Two Saraiki dramas Roshan Zameer and Qatil e Hamsheer had been analyzed in light of the Qualitative Content Analysis model proposed by Altheide(1996). It has been found that selected Saraiki dramas speak the prevailing ideological, social realities. It is suggested that more studies should be conducted to explore tradition and social realities existing in the Saraiki region so that regional social and cultural traditions may get a voice in international literary landscapes.


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