Grimm's Fairy Tales PDF

GE1904 GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES (A MUST READ) Before you read the stories written by the Grimm Brothers, here are some fun facts that are nice to know: The word “fairy tale” was created by a French writer Madame d’Aulnoy in the late 17 th century, but Charles Perrault’s contem...

GE1904 GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES (A MUST READ) Before you read the stories written by the Grimm Brothers, here are some fun facts that are nice to know: The word “fairy tale” was created by a French writer Madame d’Aulnoy in the late 17 th century, but Charles Perrault’s contemporary retellings of the old fairy tales were better known. The term “folklore” was first defined by English antiquarian William Thoms in his letter to The Athenaeum magazine in 1846. Some tales like Welsh Mabinogion, such in the 14th century, have a spiritual or religious function – which folklores are not used for. Real people, places, or events are not cited. Still, instead, stories start in “once upon a time…” which readers and audiences expect random magic, reward and revenge, typical random characters, and a happy ending. Fairy tales are written in plain and simple styles using mainly straightforward imagery. The fairy tales without or rarely using poetic or literary references and realism (Canton, 2016). BEFORE Oral tales based on Welsh stories are collected in the Mobinogion, the earliest prose c.1350-1410 literature of Britain. Tales of Mother Goose is a collection of rewritten and original stories were created by a 1697 French author named Charles Perrault. A popular collection of satirical folk series was published by the German author Johann Karl 1782-87 August Musaus. AFTER 1835-49 Finish folklore is celebrated in the epic poem the Kalevala by Elias Lonnrot. 1841 Peter Christen Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe published the Norwegian Folktales. English novelist Angela Carter wrote The Bloody Chamber to challenge the traditional 1979 folktale portrayals of women. The focus of the featured great book “Grimm’s Fairytale” is the folklore collections. These folklore collections are written into one written text; cultural traditions such as oral history, fairy tales, and popular briefs are compiled since the Middle Ages. According to James Canton (2016), the Brothers Grimm, engage on an academic project to identify and preserve the spirit of the people in recording fairy tales being told across their culture. This was an epic romantic venture: interest in folklore was inspired by a rise in nationalism and cultural pride, and the purpose of the Grimms’ collection was no different. Nor were they the only European scholars to undertake such an enterprise, and their peer group at university shared their enthusiasm for folk traditions. But the Grimms’ work, as reflected in their Children’s and Household Tales, represents the most magnificent body of stories collected in Europe and is the most widely translated and read. W H Auden declared Grimms’ tales “among the few common-property books upon which Western culture can be founded.” The methodology for gathering stories did not include sorties into the woods, as is often picturesquely believed. The Grimms’ sources generally came to them, and some stories were already written down, such as “The Juniper Tree,” sent to them by painter Philip Otto Runge. In their first edition, the Grimms wrote for a mainly adult audience. It was only after Edgar Taylor’s English translation of their work in 1823 was successful with children that they made revisions to sanitize the German stories. For example, their first version of “Rapunzel” openly referred to her pregnancy (outside marriage), but 03 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 1 of 4  GE1904 in the revised version, she simply fattens. Yet violence was not necessarily minimized. The French Cinderella, Cendrillon, in Charles Perrault’s tale, forgives her stepsisters and finds good husbands for them. But in the Grimms’ punitive version, Cinderella’s helper-birds blind the sisters by pecking out their eyes. Violence notwithstanding, the popularity of the Grimms’ collected tales has endured, and they have sustained multiple interpretations and rewrites in various media over the years. The romantic depiction of “Once upon a time” continues to manifest inextinguishable truths, which, along with the allure of a happy and harmonious ending, appeal across the generations. Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm Known as the Brothers Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859) were celebrated German academics, cultural researchers, linguists, and lexicographers. The oldest surviving sons of a family of six children, they were raised in Hanau, Hesse. Despite poverty following the death of their lawyer father, they were educated at the University of Marburg, thanks to a well-connected aunt. The Grimms are credited with developing an early methodology for collecting folk stories that are now the basis of folklore studies. They were also notable philologists (studying the language in written historical sources). Both brothers also worked on a monumental (32-volume) German dictionary, which was unfinished in their lifetimes. 03 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 2 of 4  GE1904 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (A MUST READ) Here are some facts about Pride and Prejudice that are nice to know: The early to mid-18th century saw the rise of the novel and, a little later, the development of Romanticism in literature. By the close of the 18th century, however, a new genre had emerged in England – the novel of manners, which moved away from the excess of emotions and flights of fancy common to Romanticism. Instead, it emphasized the beliefs, manners, and social structures of particular groups of people. These novels were often dominated by women – both as authors and as protagonists – and for this reason, were sometimes wrongly dismissed as trivial. Jane Austen’s novels are the prime examples of such literature, gently satirizing the social mores of the English country gentry, as well as poking fun at the overindulgent drama of Gothic Romanticism. Auten highlights the vulgarities and folies of the English upper classes: the importance of the rank, the stigma of the social inferiority, and the system of the patronage are played out via balls, visits, and society gossip. BEFORE English author, Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, is a story about a servant girl climbing the 1740 social ranks; it is considered to be an early novel of manners. AFTER Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, critiques Victorian class divisions and prejudice, as well as 1847 the constricting expectations faced by women. The duplicity and dishonesty of social life are satirized via the exploits of Becky Sharp in 1847-48 Vanity Fair, by English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray An American novel of manners, Edit Wharton’s The House of Mirth, reflects the social- 1905 economic, and moral constraints that are placed on women. In Pride and Prejudice, the reader follows the Bennet sisters in their quest for an eligible bachelor. For women, a good marriage was crucial for maintaining or improving one’s social status. The novel is told mainly through the eyes of its principal character, Elizabeth Bennet (Austen’s favorite among her heroines), a good and well- intentioned young woman. She is one of the five daughters of the intelligent but put-on Mr. Bennet, a country gentleman, and his pushy, vulgar wife; their marriage is a perfect example of how not to do it. Elizabeth meets the aristocratic Fitzwilliam Darcy, who is drawn to her despite himself; however, she finds his arrogant pride and his supercilious behavior offensive. He is contrasted with his equally wealthy but unaffected friend, Bingley, to takes a liking to Elizabeth’s older sister, Jane. Yet when the flighty younger sister, Lydia, scandalously elopes with the dashing officer George Wickham, threatened to disgrace the entire family, it is Darcy who unexpectedly steps in to help. Elizabeth’s pride, prejudice, and inexperience lead her to make errors to judgment (both Wickham and Darcy) that she must pay for, but through these trials, she grows into a mature adult. Darcy, similarly, has to grow out of his pride to prove he is a worthy match for her, ins spite of his higher social class. Indeed, through the use of subtle wit and irony, Austen makes clear that good breeding does not necessarily equate with good manners (although good manners may well be indicative of good morals). While the landscape of Pride and Prejudice might appear to be narrow, it nevertheless keenly probes the manners and morals of its day. Jane Austen The daughter of a relatively prosperous country person, Jane Austen was born in Stevenson rectory, Hampshire, England, in 1775, the seventh of eight children. As a child, she read voraciously, having access to her father’s library, which was uncommon for girls at the time. She started writing in her early teens, producing an early version of Pride and Prejudice, entitled First Impressions, between 1796 and 1797. In 1800 her father 03 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 3 of 4  GE1904 decided to retire, and the family moved to Bath; Jane was unhappy there. In 1809 she moved to Chawton, Hampshire, with her mother and sister, where she wrote daily. It was her observations of genteel life in Hampshire that furnished her novels. Despite writing a great deal about marriage, she never married herself, although she did receive a proposal. She died in 1817 at the age of 41. Reference Canton, James. (2016). The Literature Book. London: Dorling Kindersley Limited. 03 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 4 of 4