Off with Their Heads!
Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood
Published on 24. October 1993
Book
Paperback/Softback
332 pages
978-0-691-00088-6 (ISBN)
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.
Reviews / Votes
Winner of the 1992 Book Prize in Literature, German Studies Association "As provocative and stimulating as her The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales, this book should give a salutary shock to everyone who brings children and tales together, convincing them that "every interpretation is a rewriting' and encouraging them "to identify what is transmitted in the stories we tell children.'"--Library JournalMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
30 illus.
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
534 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-00088-6 (9780691000886)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2021
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
€45.99
Available for download
Person
Maria Tatar is Professor of German Literature at Harvard University.
Content
List of IllustrationsPrefaceIRewritten by Adults: The Inscription of Children's Literature3II"Teaching Them a Lesson": The Pedagogy of Fear in Fairy Tales22IIIJust Desserts: Reward-and-Punishment Tales51IVWilhelm Grimm/Maurice Sendak: Dear Mili and the Art of Dying Happily Ever After70VDaughters of Eve: Fairy-Tale Heroines and Their Seven Sins94VITyranny at Home: "Catskin" and "Cinderella"120VIIBeauties and Beasts: From Blind Obedience to Love at First Sight140VIII"As Sweet as Love": Violence and the Fulfillment of Wishes163IXTable Matters: Cannibalism and Oral Greed190XTelling Differences: Parents vs. Children in "The Juniper Tree"212Epilogue: Reinvention through Intervention229Notes239Select Bibliography273Index289