Fairy Tales

Fairy Tales: A New History. By Ruth B. Bottigheimer. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2009. Pp. vii + 152, notes, works cited, index.)In Fairy Tales: A New History, Ruth Bottigheimer expands her recent research on fairytale origins, including her 2002 book Fairy Godfather: Straparola, Venice, and Fairy Tale Tradition and her presentations on literary origins of fairy tales at 2005 Congress of International Society for Folk Narrative Research and 2006 meeting of American Folklore Society. In each of these outlets, Bottigheimer challenges conventional folkloristic wisdom about oral tradition, of fairy tales, and role of print culture. Bottigheimer's work is as always provocative and interesting, yet although this latest book does not seem written for folklorists, its messages and methods-especially heavy use of dichotomies- definitely ought to concern us.In chapter 1, Why a New History of Fairy Tales?, Bottigheimer describes basic hypothesis of her work: that fairy tales should be defined not only by shared motifs, structures, and happy endings, but also by their overall narrative thrust, leading to her distinction between restoration tales and tales. In former, a royal protagonist falls into poverty and must regain his or her standing through magical assistance, whereas in latter, a poor protagonist gains wealth and a higher social standing through use of magic. The second important part of Bottigheimer's hypothesis is that rise tales are not only uniquely European, but also urban and fairly recent in their composition and transmission. Bottigheimer traces development of rise tales to one particular figure, Venetian writer Straparola, whose collection of fairy tales Pleasant Nights was first published in 1550s. Much of this information has already appeared in Bottigheimer's book Fairy Godfather, but it must be restated to make sense to Bottigheimer's intended audience. This is one of most contentious aspects of Bottigheimer's hypothesis, as other reviewers and discussants have noted; see Cristina Bacchilega (Review of Fairy Godfather, Western Folklore 66:383-5, 2007), Clizia Carminati (Review of Fairy Godfather, Marvels & Tales 18:317-20, 2004), Francisco Vaz da Silva (From Tartu to Milwaukee: The Genesis of a Fairy-Tale Debate, ISFNR Newsletter 2:20-1, 2007), and Jan Ziolkowski (The Rise and Fall of the''Rise Tale,' ISFNR Newsletter 2:21-2, 2007).Chapters 1, 4, and 5 of Fairy Tales: A New History are most saturated with discussions of literacy in sixteenth-century Venice and descriptions of how book must have played an inviolable role in fairy-tale evolution; chapters 2 and 3, describing German and French fairy-tale traditions respectively, are more empirically grounded in comparison of versions over time and space. Bottigheimer's demonstration of borrowings from Italian tradition by Grimms, Perrault, Mlle Lheritier, and others is illuminating, and exemplifies insights that close readings of classical texts, interwoven with snippets of authors' biographies, can yield.In other respects, however, Bottigheimer seems to be writing both for and about an idealized, imaginary public. This is same that Bottigheimer writes widely believes in fairy tales' oral composition and transmission (p. 7); according to her, oral origins and spread of fairy tales comprise the history that in English-speaking world knows (p. 28). This is a gross generalization on Bottigheimer's part, yet general public and everyone to whom she refers seem to be her intended audience for this book. It seems unclear why she would solely cite contentious work of Bruno Bettelheim and most recent, hotly debated memetics work of Jack Zipes in her first few pages. These are fairy-tale authors with whose work nonacademic would most likely be familiar, and they are easy targets for Bottigheimer to position and then discredit in order to justify her own interpretation of fairy tales

Art · Folklore · Folkloristics · History of literature · Literature · MAGIC (telescope) · Narrative · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Themes in Literature Analysis