
Off with Their Heads!
Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood
Maria M. Tatar(Author)
Princeton University Press
Published on 6. April 1992
Book
Hardback
332 pages
978-0-691-06943-2 (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 villains. In this 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. After examining how fairy tales were converted into children's literature, the author investigates the acculturation of heroines in such stories as "Cinderella" and "Beauty and the Beast", and concludes with meditations on violence, cannibalism and conflicts between parents and children. Since the cultural stories we read to children in their "formative years" have a powerful influence on their lives, Tatar emphasizes the importance of interrogating and reinterpreting these bedtime tales.
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 Journal *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Trade binding
Dimensions
Height: 254 mm
Width: 197 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-691-06943-2 (9780691069432)
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.