GER 1791 Lecture 5: Lesson 5 - Violence and Bluebeard
23 Jan 2019
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
The folktales and fairy tales collected by the grimms both (symbolically) represent and conceal crimes towards and abuse of children. Main cast of characters often derived from nuclear family. Most fairy tales start in family setting before turning into supernatural setting. Popularity of fairy tales dealing with hero(ine) victimized by family. Violence, however, was often intensified, though usually only when scenes of suffering could be invested with a higher moral purpose. Moral lessons were added to increasingly more lurid depictions of punishment and death. Wilhelm grimm tended to intensify maternal malice. This led him to change the evil mother in a no. of tales to the evil step-mother (e. x. Nevertheless, their neglect still compares favorably to the malice of their wives. Hugely influential at the time, but his claims have been contested by contemporary scholarship. The child is an aggressor who deserves punishment; their story provides a lesson for unruly children.
