Fairy Tale as Myth/Myth as Fairy Tale

by Jack D. Zipes

" Explores the historical rise of the literary fairy tale as genre in the late seventeenth century. In his examinations of key classical fairy tales, Zipes traces their unique metamorphoses in history with stunning discoveries that reveal their ideological relationship 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 genre in the late seventeenth 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Fairy Tales, Mythology, Folklore, History, Research, Academic

208 pages, Hardcover

First published October 25, 1994

About the author

Jack David Zipes is a retired Professor of German at the University of Minnesota. He has published and lectured extensively on the subject of fairy tales, their linguistic roots, and argued that they have a "socialization function". According to Zipes, fairy tales "serve a meaningful social function, not just for compensation but for revelation: the worlds projected by the best of our fairy tales reveal the gaps between truth and falsehood in our immediate society." His arguments are avowedly based on the neo-Marxist critical theory of the Frankfurt School.

Zipes enjoys using droll titles for his works like Don't Bet on the Prince and The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Ridinghood.

He completed a PhD in comparative literature at Columbia University. Zipes taught at various institutions before heading German language studies at the University of Minnesota. He has retranslation of the complete fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.

Reviews

[ALLEN · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers us some of the culture's greatest fairy tales, discussed by one of academia's greatest scholars of the genre.

Table of Contents:
1. The Origins of the Fairy Tale
2. Rumplestiltskin and the Decline of Female Productivity (a more-or-less Marxist analysis)
3. Breaking the Disney Spell
4. Spreading Myths About Iron John
5. Oz As American Myth
6. The Contemporary American Fairy Tale

Walt Disney (both corporate head and the corporation he left us), towards both of which Zipes is typically disdainful:

Jack Zipes is not a Disney fan.

But my favorite chapter of all is the one that deals with THE WIZARD OF OZ: books, movies and sequels.

This highly accessible book would have rated five stars were it not hurtling headlong toward thirty years of age.

[Mary Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zipes addreses the idea that the myth is "higher" literature than the fairy tale, and provides an insightful discussion into the process of patriarchal revision that the fairy tale has been subjected to. Case in point: he tracks the Grimm Brothers recording and revising original Hessian fairy tales, and then tracks how Disney revised the Grimm version. Comparing the original tale with the one most well-known today, we see that the older tales are much wilder, more violent, and ultimately, feature much more autonomous and independent heroines. Zipes does a pretty brilliant job.

[Antony · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good critical analysis of the socio-political origins of Fairy Tales and their current attempts at mythologizing Western Patriarchal ideals.

[vivi]

jack zipes fucking gets it.

[Filip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed my time with this short collection of essays on fairy tales and myths as penned by Jack Zipes. Some were more interesting than others, especially the Beauty and the Beast one, and the Rumplestiltskin one. I recommend this to anyone and everyone interested in fairy tales and what they may say about society and ourselves.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent text by Prof Jack Zipes. I've come back to this book so many times now. Highly recommend!

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first three to four essays in this book are quite good. The last few are so-so. If you have read other work by Zipes, you can skip the chapter about Disney, for you have heard it before.

However, the book is worth reading simply for its discussion about Beauty and the Beast as well as the Rumpstilskien. Zipes does a wonderful and conniving job of tying the Grimms' version of the tale the advent of industrialization.

[Stefanie Lubkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

this set of 6 rather independent essays on fairy tales both classic and contemporary uses marxist and feminist critique to illuminate the social and historical meaning and use of fairy tale. It make a good counter to Bettlelheim's Freudian angle in The uses of Enchantment.

[Kris Babe · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone interested in fairy tales, this book is fine food for thought. Zipes is brilliant.

[Tori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zipes gets a bit redundant after a while...this is basically more of the same quasi-Marxist, typo-ridden fairy tale analysis...

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for college writing class Grimm & Co.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite what I was hoping for but oh well.

[Monique · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like fairy tales this is a good read. I enjoyed the approach the author takes comparing fairy tales with myth. Worth space on the shelf if you study fairy tales.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highly recommend the audiobook, as it feels like you're in a very passionate university lecture.

[Regan]

Meh. You can't do anything about contemporary fairy tale perception without including the OMG prolific Jack Zipes. But at some point, it's all the same stuff using different examples. Also, I get really worn out by repeated use of the concepts of utopia, commodification, and the bourgoise.

I'm just not a Marxist. Marxist approach gets old really fast. Meh.

No rating, read for thesis use.