Fairy Tale as Myth/Myth as Fairy Tale cover art

Fairy Tale as Myth/Myth as Fairy Tale

Clark Lectures

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Fairy Tale as Myth/Myth as Fairy Tale

By: Jack Zipes
Narrated by: Steven Jay Cohen
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About this listen

This audiobook explores the historical rise of the literary fairy tale as a genre in the late 17th century. In his examinations of key classical fairy tales, Zipes traces their unique metamorphoses in history with stunning discoveries that reveal their ideological relationships to domination and oppression. Tales such as Beauty and the Beast, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and Rumplestiltskin have become part of our everyday culture and shapers of our identities.

In this lively work, Jack Zipes explores the historical rise of the literary fairy tale as a genre in the late 17th century and examines the ideological relationship of classic fairy tales to domination and oppression in Western society. The fairy tale received its most mythic articulation in America. Consequently Zipes sees Walt Disney's Snow White as an expression of American male individualism, film and literary interpretations of L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz as critiques of American myths, and Robert Bly's Iron John as a misunderstanding of folklore and traditional fairy tales. This book will change forever the way we look at the fairy tales of our youth.

©1994 The University Press of Kentucky (P)2015 Redwood Audiobooks Customs & Traditions Philosophy Social Sciences Magic Tradition Fantasy Fiction Classics Mythology

Critic reviews

"For many readers the fascination of these essays will lie...in the revelatory detail of his close comparative textual readings." ( Times Literary Supplement)
"Should be read by anyone who feels that our postindustrial culture has outgrown the need to express its desires and anxieties in the material of traditional narrative." ( Australian Folklore)
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I found this book incredibly useful and having it as an audio book was a great resource to me! I wish there were more such books available in this form.

Zipes is one of the leading figures on the study of fairytales and should definitely be on the reading list for anyone studying fairytales. Of particular use to me was the chapter on Rumblestiltskin, spinning, and how the change in the telling of these stories relates to ideas of female productivity pre to post industrialisation.

Thank you very much!

Incredibly Useful

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