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No Due Date
Available from Oct 16 until Oct 20
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JK
Jessica Kmetz-Cutrone
AuthorTeacher
Oct 15 9:57pm
Edited Oct 15 10:05pm
9 Replies, 5 Unread
9 Replies, 5 Unread


Discussion Topic: Haase Guided ReadingHaase Guided Reading
Part 1: Guided Reading

Guided reading questions can help focus our attention and deepen our engagement with a text, particularly a difficult one. Read through the questions in the Google doc below before you sit down to read (or reread) the Haase essay. Then, after reading, spend some time jotting down your answers to each question and come to class on Friday prepared to discuss.

Guided Reading Questions for HaaseLinks to an external site.

Part 2: Reflection and Additional Discussion Questions

In the discussion thread below, please spend some time reflecting on your experience working through this essay with the guided reading questions. Did you find the questions helpful? Did having questions to guide you through the text change the critical reading strategies you used?

Please write 250-500 words. Conclude your post by posing 2-3 additional questions (not covered by the guided reading questions) that occurred to you while reading.


RH
Raveena Yasmin Hossein
Oct 18 9:22pm

Reply from Raveena Yasmin Hossein
When I first read Haase, it felt dense in compact. Once I re read it with the guided questions, I felt that I had a clearer direction as to what I was looking for and a way to understand the text on a deeper level. For instance question 8 in particular helped me understand the authors main point when discussing the loss of authenticity. I understood his main claim was about questioning originality, however it was when I was able to look at the passage through a more modern take. In addition to clarity, I also gained insight on the direction that I want to pursue my thesis analysis paper. By seeing how an author was able to develop his argumentative claim by using comparisons from known and well recognized authors, I believe that I can use the same methodology for my paper. 

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Maggie Zhang
Oct 18 5:26pm

Reply from Maggie Zhang
With guiding questions, I worked through this material more engagingly, going deeper into the meaning rather than remaining on the surface. The questions gave some focus, allowing me to pinpoint crucial topics such as Bruno Bettelheim's psychoanalytic readings of fairy tales and the implications of fairy tale ownership in larger scope. By focusing my attention on these specific areas, the questions enabled me to delve deeper into the text's main theme and analyze the societal implication of Bettelheim's ideas. Without the guided questions I could’ve missed out some nuanced criticisms, such as how Bettelheim's views reflect nineteenth-century European ideals rather than universal ones.

The guided questions also give me inspirations in reading strategies which is reading the text more actively rather than passively. With this strategy, I am able to be more focused on discovering the author's arguments and assessing the evidence supporting them. For instance, the question about the implications of ownership led me to consider the commercialization of fairy tales by corporations like Disney and how that affects both the perception and interpretation of these stories. The questions helped me stay engaged with the text and reflect on how each section connected to the larger critique of fairy tales as cultural tools.

Some questions I came up while I read are:

In what ways does the commercialization of fairy tales by companies like Disney influence cultural literacy and the way future generations view fairy tales?
How might modern retellings of fairy tales help reclaim these narratives for marginalized voices who were historically excluded from their creation and adaptation?
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BRANDON KENNEDY CORNEL YEE
Oct 18 5:15pm

Reply from BRANDON KENNEDY CORNEL YEE
As I read through and filled out the guided reading question, I found the questions quite helpful in guiding my focus on certain aspects of the text. Especially when reading big texts like these, it can be quite hard for me to comprehend and lose motivation especially with no particular goal in mind. The questions helped me to look more closely at Hasse's arguments, especially by breaking down his points into sections, such as his nationalistic, psychoanalytic, and individual ownership points of view. Having these questions shifted my typical reading strategy from a more general, skimming the text strategy, to a more in depth analytical strategy. Though fairly time consuming, having the questions guiding me through the essay helped my comprehension of the text more, as well as making me rethink how I read passages. Instead of passively reading, I was able to engage with the text more, as I was able to pinpoint certain areas of information that I ultimately used to answer the questions. The questions required me to pause more often, think more deeply, and reflect on what I had just read. I found myself having to reread certain sections to make sure that I thoroughly understood them before I was able to answer the questions. This tedious yet useful process allowed me to not only deepen my comprehension, but also made more critical of the text as I constantly assed how Hasse's ideas aligned with the questions. 

What does Haas mean by "individual ownership" and "collective ownership" of fairytales, and how do they compare/contrast with each other?

How did the rise of nationalism shape the interpretations and ownership of the fairy tales at this time?

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Jacqueline Phuc Nguyen
Oct 18 3:46pm

Reply from Jacqueline Phuc Nguyen
I found the questions helpful to a certain extent, at times they left me feeling stuck on the same sections for seemingly hours because I struggled figuring out how to answer them. My frustration took out a lot of my motivation to continue and I took more frequent breaks. However when I did understand, the questions allowed me to go more in depth with the passage, as well as engage with Hasse’s claims differently than during the first passthrough. They slowed me down to pay closer attention and guaranteed that I understood the material. It also held me accountable for what I was reading, answering them confirmed that I wasn’t skimming through the paragraphs or skipping lines. Typically, my normal strategy when reading consists of highlighting or jotting down key points of each paragraph; occasionally writing in the margins for a light analysis. However, with the guidance of the questions, I found myself doing more than just looking for the main ideas. I started connecting it with prior knowledge as well as elaborating my thought process. Overall, having questions to guide my reading, not only deepened my understanding but it encouraged me to elaborate on my thought process in a different perspective. 

 

How do other culture’s views and approach toward ownership contradict/ agree with Western beliefs? 
If money and competition weren’t involved, would fairytales more accurately evolve to our morals and teachings to this day? 
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Philip Ra
Oct 18 3:21pm

Reply from Philip Ra
I found the guided reading questions to be highly beneficial in deepening my understanding of Haase's essay. I was able to interact with the text on a deeper level by answering the questions both during my first reading and during my second reading. Question 7, which asked me to summarize Haase's case for the nationalistic and universal viewpoints of fairy tales, was one that particularly caught my attention. This made me go over the essay more than once to make sure I understood all he was saying, which improved my understanding of the main idea. 

I was able to close any gaps in my initial comprehension by going over the material again and answering the guided questions. I used a variety of critical reading methods, including underlining crucial words and phrases, emphasizing significant ideas, and making notes in my journal to provide an overview of each section. Although my usual focus is on summarizing information, the guided questions prompted me to draw connections between the ideas in Zipes's work, Haase's arguments, and my notes. I was able to conduct a more thorough analysis of the essay and discover connections between ideas thanks to this method.

In what ways do you think personal ownership of fairy tales can empower different perspectives in storytelling, particularly in today's multicultural society?

How might fairy tales be applied in various cultural contexts to question or compromise traditional narratives?

 

 

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Lacey Dilworth
Oct 18 10:40am

Reply from Lacey Dilworth
I was definitely able to develop a deeper understanding of the text while rereading the Haase essay using the guided questions. When reading independently, I tend to digest the passages at face value, and takeaway overarching key points. With the guiding questions, however, I found myself forced to compare the essay with other texts, and use outside knowledge to garner a more complete awareness of what Haase was saying. I especially liked the questions that involved Zipes and other outside sources, as making connections and comparisons between multiple texts led me to find deeper meaning in many passages. I think overall, the process of reforming the dense academic essay into easy to read responses made the text feel easier to follow and reflect on. In my first read through, although I had some notes, there wasn't a continuous stream of thought between them, and I think I missed some of the overall message that Haase was trying to convey. Question 7, the summary, most aligned with how I have been taking notes in the past, but I'm not sure if it leads to the deepest understanding. The questions that asked the "why" behind certain points, instead of just listing the points out, made me think in a more sophisticated way than just spitting back out the information I just read. Overall, I think breaking down a sizable reading into portions, and using questions that test not just if you retained the information, but if you can apply it to other sources, is a great tool that I'm hopeful to use in the future.

Q1: How do we differentiate between tales about the human condition and tales with nationalistic motives?

Q2: How can we reframe the fairy tales coined by Disney to better fit and educate our society in today's world?

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Amanda Chloe Sijder
Oct 18 1:08am

Reply from Amanda Chloe Sijder
I found the guided reading questions helpful because they furthered my understanding of the essay since I responded to the questions from my notes beforehand when I first read and reread the text. The question I found most helpful was question 3 because I had to reread a certain passage multiple times in order to find the answer and respond. I had totally missed the answer until I finally read closely, so rereading the essay expanded my knowledge. Rereading and answering the guided questions had filled many gaps that I had the first time reading the essay. My critical reading strategies that I have used is underlining important text, highlighting key words, and using post-it notes to summarize a paragraph or page in a brief sentence. Also, I write down notes in my journal that breaks each paragraph down into bullet points. The guided reading questions changed my critical reading strategies because I used my own observations to connect with my responses. Making connections between my observations and the guided reading questions is highly effective because I can link ideas, find gaps, and recall concepts. I linked many ideas from my notes, the guided reading questions, Zipes, and the essay. 

 

1. Were fairytales banned in German schools after WWII by the Allied forces because they were expressing political views, such as fascism and Nazism, and they were afraid these ideas would propagate German youth? 

2. Would the informants for literary wonder tale writers (Perrault and Grimms Brothers) be considered the 'folk' too?

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Asia Aguirre
Oct 17 4:53pm

Reply from Asia Aguirre
Reading the guided reading questions before re-reading Haase’s essay helped me understand it more and have a less surface level understanding of the text. The questions were helpful as I was able to read the text, underline, and annotate the main points and answers to the questions. With my first read of the essay it was a bit difficult for me to gather and fully understand the main points with my note taking because it was dense. However, with the guided questions it gave me a framework while reading where I was able to take time to make connections between the questions and what I was reading to answer them. The questions made me stay focused and alert to the text because I attentively read to find the answers. I always try to take notes when I read a text for the first time so these questions allowed me to have more condensed and concise notes. Whenever I typically take notes I write a summary and explain the main points so I can look back if I need to refresh my memory. Having guided questions allowed me to answer the question of what were the main points in this text which changed my usual strategy by discussing the text with other articles such as Zipes and having a more conversational like note taking. Moreover, this changed my strategy by helping me understand more difficult points and putting it into my own words instead of reading the text at a surface level and not being able to formulate full notes of the main points.

Why does Bettelheim’s understanding of fairy tales still have influence for teachers and children’s librarians despite its criticisms?
How can Disney’s fairy tales be criticized in a similar way to Bettelheim’s psychoanalytic views and what are examples?
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Melinda Xiaoyan Li
Oct 16 5:14pm

Reply from Melinda Xiaoyan Li
I found that the guided reading questions were particularly useful as I feel like I understood the text a lot more than I had during my first read-through of Haase’s essay. While reading Hasse’s essay the first time around, I highlighted ideas I thought were important and jumped out to me. I took notes on those ideas and formed somewhat of a summary outline of Haase’s essay in this manner.

The second time I read through Haase’s essay, I had read through the guided questions and kept them in mind as I read. As I read, I took the time to analyze each sentence more carefully so that I could find textual evidence to help me answer the questions. Additionally, the guided questions brought up questions that I did not consider when I first read through the essay. As I was reading through the essay, I highlighted ideas that I initially did not consider as important the first time around. In my process of combining my notes and highlighted ideas into answers, I spent more time reading and rereading to make sure I had enough of an understanding of Haase’s arguments to answer the questions. The guided questions that asked to look at external sources, such as Zipes’ “Spells of Enchantment” and Bruno Bettelheim’s Wikipedia page gave me more context into Haase’s arguments, helped corroborate my comprehension, ultimately building onto my understanding of the overall topic even more. 

Overall, having the questions to guide me though my thinking as I read through the essay caused me to mull over the text more and this process of gathering evidence to answer the guided questions allowed me to build a better understanding of what I read. 

Some questions that occurred to me while reading are:

What are examples of the Brothers Grimm’s tales that portray/emphasize “virulent anti-Semitism” as stated by Louis Snyder?

In what ways do fairy tales differ by culture? What are some fairy tale characteristics/elements that are more prominent in each culture’s versions of fairy tales?

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        Guided Reading Questions for Haase, "Yours, Mine, or Ours?"
The Revered Place of Folklore
1) Why do some people consider folklore "sacred"?  For these people, what features make folklore/fairy tales sacred?
2) What does Haase mean by the phrase "the fairy tale's status as communal property" (436)?
The Nationalistic View of Folklore
3) Look back to the essay "Spells of Enchantment" and what Zipes says about the aristocratic values that characterize 17th- and 18th-century French fairy tales.  Now why, according to Haase, would the Grimms and other early folklorists believe that folktales from the common people "would provide the German people with a magic mirror in which they could discern and thus reassert their national identity" (437)?
4) Haase gives three reasons why the nationalistic view of folklore is misguided at best and dangerous at worst.  What are they?  
1.
2.
3.
Bettelheim's Psychoanalytic Interpretations of Fairy Tales
5) Browse the Wikipedia entry on Bruno Bettelheim. How did he view fairy tales and what did he use them for?  How does Bettelheim's biography discredit the psychoanalytic approach to fairy tales?  
6) According to Haase, what's the intellectual objection against the psychoanalytic approach to fairy tales?  In other words, what research shows that fairy tales are not universally symbolic?
The Question of Ownership
7) According to Haase, what is the problem with the nationalistic and universal views of fairy tales?  Summarize his argument at the top of p. 443 in your own words to demonstrate your understanding.

8) According to Haase, what's wrong with private, corporate ownership of fairy tales, as exemplified by Disney?  (Hint: Imagine Cinderella, or Sleeping Beauty, or Snow White, or Beauty and the Beast, or any other traditional fairy tale that you're familiar with.  What images first appear in your mind?  How easy is it to imagine different images?)
Discovering Individual Ownership of Fairy Tales
9) Why does Haase value "individual ownership" of fairy tales, over "collective" ownership as exemplified by the nationalist, psychoanalytic, and capitalist approaches to fairy tales?  And why is individual ownership especially important for children?
10) How does Haase recommend that we help children "discover their individual ownership of fairy tales" (445)?  (Hint:  We're practicing both of these strategies in our class!)

the pdf for two questions: YOURS, MINE, OR OURS? PERRAULT, THE BROTHERS GRIMM, AND THE OWNERSHIP OF
FAIRY TALES
Author(s): Donald Haase
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Merveilles & contes, Vol. 7, No. 2 (December 1993), pp. 383-402
Published by: Wayne State University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41390373 .
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YOURS, MINE, OR OURS?
PERRAULT, THE BROTHERS GRIMM,
AND THE OWNERSHIP OF FAIRY TALES
Donald Haase
The Revered Place of Folklore
In 1944 W.H. Auden decreed that Grimms' fairy tales
are "among the few indispensable, common-property books
upon which Western culture can be founded. ... [IJt is
hardly too much to say that these tales rank next to the
Bible in importance" (1).
Auden was in one sense right. Like the Bible, fairy tales
- especially the classic tales of Charles Perrault and the
Brothers Grimm - hold a revered if not sacred place in modern Western culture. Often thought to reach back like sacred
works to "times past," to some ancient, pristine age in
which their original tellers spoke mythic words of revelation,
folk and fairy tales are endowed by many readers with unassailable moral and even spiritual authenticity.
Because they had their genesis in an oral tradition, we
are tempted to imaginae their original tellers as simple folk
endowed with infallible wisdom and, in some cases, divine
inspiration. As a consequence of that belief, tampering with
the classic texts of Perrault or the Brothers Grimm is considered by some to be tantamount to sacrilege, similar to
revising the text of Holy Scriptures. As one of my undergraduate students remarked in a journal he kept while
studying fairy tales in the winter term of 1990: "I am not a
deeply religious person. However, I have a vague feeling
that questioning the origin of fairy tales is somehow sacrilegious." Some traditionalists even go so far as to argue that
the common practice of replacing Sneewittchen , Grimms'
original German spelling of Snow White, with the more
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Donald Haase
modern orthographical form Schneewittchen constitutes
"monument desecration" (Bausinger 46).
When classic stories are changed unacceptable the
blame is often placed on the culture industry - publishers,
advertisers, merchandisers, and even pedagogues who have
capitalized on the mass appeal of the traditional tales and
emptied them of their original vigor and truth. Disney's
Americanized and romanticized fairy-tale movies, for example, have been severely criticized for trivializing and betraying the original themes, thus enfeebling an important cultural possession (Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment 210). As
the civilized entrepreneur and creator of the fairy tale as
consumer romance (Haase, "Gold Into Straw"), Disney is the
absolute antithesis of the mythic peasant or Ice Age storyteller from whom we have supposedly inherited this allegedly sacred possession.
While this religious or quasi-religious reverence is certainly appealing and even reassuring, it is dangerously misleading. As an antidote to it, consider two of the 24 theses
offered by the German writer Wolfdietrich Schnurre, in a
piece he aptly entitled "Heretical Thoughts on the Treasury
of Fairy Tales." In a sardonic letter to the long deceased
Brothers Grimm, Schnurre seeks to explain why he thinks
fairy tales have lost their value for us. "The primary guilt for
the decline of the fairy tale," he claims, "rests with those
who [originally] made them. They forgot to impress on them
the stamp of copyright" (23). In this case, not the culture
industry, but the folk themselves are held responsible for the
fairy tale's bankruptcy. Ironically, the fairy tale's status as
communal property is proposed as the very cause of its
neglect and demise. It is a fairy tale, Schnurre asserts, to
believe "that fairy tales are the property of the Volk - the
people. Property is cared for. The Vo/&," he asserts, "has
ruined fairy tales" (23).
384
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The Ownership of Fairy Tales
These statements are heretical to established views that
tell us not only why folktales are still relevant but to whom
they belong. However we might feel about the tales of the
Brothers Grimm or Perrault, Schnurre's provocative heresies
raise intriguing questions about the reception and cultural
ownership of fairy tales. Who are the folk, that anonymous
group we often view as the originators and owners of the
fairy tale? And if the tales do not belong to the folk, then to
whom do they belong? And, finally, why does the issue of
ownership matter at all?
The Nationalistic View of Folklore
The concept of "the folk" is a slippery one. To some, the
folk are an ethnic or national group sharing common traditions, lore, and social or cultural traits. In general parlance,
"the folk" are the common folk, the working or peasant
classes. But as the Italian folklorist Giuseppe Cocchiara has
suggested, the identity of the folk transcends classes and "is
the expression of a certain vision of life, certain attitudes of
the spirit, of thought, of culture, of custom, of civilization,
which appear with their own clearly delineated characteristics" (4). While Cocchiara's definition avoids the class bias
of earlier definitions, Alan Dundes excises the ethnic and
national emphasis by defining the folk as "аду group of
people whatsoever who share at least one common factor" (2).
However, for the Grimms and many early folklorists, it
was the so-called common people who best embodied a
nation's folk life. It was their lore - including their folktales
- that was to become the reservoir and model of national
character. As the product of the German folk, the tales were
thought to contain the scattered fragments of ancient Germanic myth, which - when collected - would provide the
German people with a magic mirror in which they could
discern and thus reassert their national identity. In this way,
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Donald H aase
Grimms' collection of folktales was conscripted into nationalistic service and became a political weapon in the
Grimms' intellectual resistance to the Napoleonic occupation
of their beloved Hessian homeland.
To define the folk in nationalistic terms establishes fairy
tales as national property. They are either yours, or they are
mine. Following - and, it must be emphasized, grossly exaggerating - the Grimms' nationalistic understanding of fairy
tales, many Germans were only too ready to exercise their
right of ownership by advocating the Grimms' tales as a
national primer, after 1871, for the newly unified nation. In
1899, for instance, Carl Franke gave this explanation of the
close link between Grimms' tales and the education of a
nation:
To the spirit of German schoolchildren the tales have become what mother's milk is for their bodies - the first nourishment for the spirit and the imagination. How German
[are] Snow White, Little Briar Rose, Little Red Cap, the
seven dwarfs! Through such genuine German diet must the
language and spirit of the child gradually become more and
more German. . . . (cited in Snyder 51)
Given the Grimms' precedent and given the need of every
new state to authenticate its self-image, we can understand
such remarks; just as we can understand the lamentable
exploitation of the Grimms' tales under National Socialism,
which points up all too clearly the dangers inherent in viewing fairy tales as the property of a single group or nation
(see Kamenetsky; Zipes, Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion 134-69).
But there is another, hidden danger in this nationalistic
view. Ironically, the abuse of the Grimms' tales by the culture industry of National Socialism has reinforced prejudice
against the Grimms' tales. So compelling was the German
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The Ownership of Fairy Tales
identification of Germanic folktales with national identity
that the Grimms' stories have very often been accepted as
belonging uniquely to the Germans. But instead of identifying favorable cultural traits in the tales, some readers have
discerned more ambiguous characteristics. In 1939, Vincent
Brun accused the Germans of perverting the fairy tale by
exploiting its rude primitive instincts to educate and not to
amuse children. By the end of World War II, however, the
German fairy tale had fallen into such disrepute that during
the Allied occupation of Germany fairy tales were viewed
with serious suspicion and banned from the public school
curriculum. Evidently, Auden's reclamation of the Grimms'
tales as common property in 1944 was not universally accepted; in 1947 T.J. Leonard let loose with his infamous
attack on German fairy tales, which he unequivocally condemned as relics of German barbarism and blamed for promoting German nationalism and sadistic behavior among
Germans. The reverberations of such attacks on Germanic
folktales and German national character can still be felt. In
1985, Siegfried Heyer published an abridged German translation of Leonard's attack, and Jörg Becker, in response,
reflected on the enduring image of the "ugly German." That
the alleged connection between German national character
and fairy tales should occupy Becker forty years after the
war is not surprising given that the Germans, as well as
their former enemies, have kept this essentially postwar
issue alive.
In 1978, Louis Snyder repeated the thesis he first put
forth in the 1950s that the Grimms' tales, having played a
role in the development of modern German nationalism,
emphasize "such social characteristics as respect for order,
belief in the desirability of obedience, subservience to authority, respect for the leader and the hero, veneration of
courage and the military spirit, acceptance without protest
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Donald Haase
of cruelty, violence, and atrocity, fear of and hatred for the
outsider, and virulent anti-Semitism" (51). Readers like
Snyder clearly relinquish title to the tales and deed them
back to their owners. The implicit nationalism of the message is clear: these tales are yours (German), not mine
(American).
Differentiating between tales belonging to different countries, and thus differentiating between the countries themselves, has become standard practice. In his study of the
French folktale during the Old Regime, the historian Robert
Darnton has insisted on the unique characteristics of the
French folktale that distinguish it from its German counterpart. Darnton summarizes the differences in this way:
Where the French tales tend to be realistic, earthy, bawdy,
and comical, the German [tales] veer off toward the supernatural, the poetic, the exotic, and the violent. Of course,
cultural differences cannot be reduced to a formula -
French craftiness versus German cruelty - but the comparisons make it possible to identify the peculiar inflection that
the French gave to their stories, and their way of telling
stories provides clues about their way of viewing the world.
(50-51)
Although Darnton tries to avoid stereotyping national character by adding a disclaimer and by referring instead to differing world views, in the final analysis his implicit notion of
fairy tales as culturally defined property makes this difficult.
However, he is at least aware of the danger of idealizing the
national ethos. In pointing to the similarity between the tales
of French peasants and those of Perrault, Darnton says that
both groups of "tales communicated traits, values, attitudes,
and a way of construing the world that was peculiarly
French. To insist upon their Frenchness," he notes, "is not
to fall into romantic rhapsodizing about national spirit, but
яяя
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The Ownership of Fairy Tales
rather to recognize the existence of distinct cultural styles,
which set off the French . . . from other peoples identified
at the time as German, Italian, and English" (63). Perhaps
it is easy for Darnton to avoid rhapsodizing, because he is
not French. That is, the tales he discusses are "theirs," not
his.
Although the French are not immune to praising the
unique nature of their national fairy tales, they seem to be
less dependent on the tales for the codification of their selfimage than are the Germans. France lacked - indeed, did
not need - strong nationalistic voices such as the Brothers
Grimm, who set the German precedent for folktale worship.
Moreover, because the French enjoyed a strong literary
heritage, they were perhaps more likely to find models of the
national ethos in their classical canon than in popular folk
literature. After all, unlike the Grimms' tales, Perraulťs
stories are usually considered not so much examples of the
folk culture as part of the elevated literary tradition of the
Old Regime. So whereas Robert Darnton might find the
French popular tale characterized by the earthy and bawdy,
Paul Hazard praises Perraulťs fairy tales for their expression
of such typically French characteristics as logic, wit, and
refined femininity (121-24). Fernand Baldensperger, not
without irony, has even observed that Perraulťs fairies are
charming Cartesian fairies (cited in Hazard 122).
The pride the French take in their tales rarely gets more
impassioned than this. Perhaps this has something to do
with the influential essay on Perrault written by SainteBeuve in 1851, in which he stressed not only the naivete
and simplicity, but also the universal appeal of the French
stories (273).
Such a view draws on another interpretation of the folk
that does not rely on national or ethnic identity and consequently proposes an alternative ownership for the fairy tale.
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Donald Haase
This view of the folk is informed by a universalizing tendency that completely disregards social, historical, and cultural
factors. It is the view espoused in particular by psychoanalytic, archetypal, and anthroposophical-spiritualist (Waldorf
school) readers of fairy tales. It is best summed up in this
amazingly wrongheaded passage taken from the book Fairy
Tales and Children by psychologist Carl-Heinz Mallet:
Fairy Tales are popular poetry, for they originated and
developed among the people [the folk]. They were born in
fusty spinning rooms. Simple people told them to simple
people. No one else was interested in these "old wives'
tales." No superior authority, whether profane or ecclesiastic, exerted any influence. Fairy tales developed outside the
great world, beyond the centers of political and cultural
power. They absorbed nothing from these areas, no historical events, no political facts, no cultural trends. They remained free of the moral views, behavioral standards, and
manners of the various epochs. . . . Human beings per se
are the focal point of fairy tales, and people are pretty
much alike no matter when or where they have lived. (38)
What a striking contrast to the opinions discussed earlier in
this chapter. Here the folk constitute not a national group
bound together by a common culture, but an ill-defined
population of idyllic innocents whose sole characteristic is
simplicity. Rousseau is responsible for this model. But both
this mythical peasant and the ensuing notion of a fairy tale
untouched by its social or historical context are ridiculous.
Yet these are the very premises upon which very influential
and popular theories of the fairy tale have been built. Their
unfortunate success lies in their reassuring appeal to our
humanity, to the soothing promise that both human beings
and values transcend time and space. In other words, as
vessels of purportedly universal human truths, fairy tales
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The Ownership of Fairy Tales
belong to us all. The classic example of this view is Bruno
Bettelheim, whose popular psychoanalytic interpretations of
fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm and Perrault have been
widely and enthusiasstically embraced.
Bettelheim 5 Psychoanalytical Interpretations of Fairy Tales
From Bettelheim's psychoanalytic perspective, fairy tales
address "essential human problems" and "have great psychological meaning" ( The Uses of Enchantment 17). Through
fairy tales, Bettelheim argues, both children and adults can
find their way through life's existential dilemmas. Bettelheim
can come to these conclusions because he assumes that fairy
tales transcend the specific time and place of their origin
and give us insight into "manifold truths . . . which can
guide our lives; . . . truth as valid today as it was once upon
a time" (310). Thus, fairy tales, whether German or French,
for example, would seem to belong to us all, not simply by
virtue of our sharing a common Western culture, but because the fairy tale's transcendent nature addresses our
common humanity. However, Bettelheim's point of view is
problematic because what he believes to be universal truths
ultimately turn out to be the values of nineteenth-century
Europe.
The repressive moralizing inherent in Bettelheim's readings of fairy tales has been solidly criticized before, but 1
mention the issue again here because his understanding of
fairy tales remains influential, especially among teachers
and children's librarians, who often rely on his work (see
Bettelheim, "Children and Fairy Tales", and Flatter). Jack
Zipes' criticism of what he calls Bettelheim's "Use and
Abuse of Folk and Fairy Tales with Children," in particular,
deserves reading or re-reading in light of the recent, sobering allegations by one of Bettelheim's former patients at the
Orthogenic School that the author of The Uses of Enchant -
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Donald Haase
ment was an authoritarian who physically and emotionally
abused children in his care (Pekow; see also Zipes, The
Brothers Grimm 110-34). The values that Bettelheim views
as timeless and common to us all frequently turn out to be
those of the authoritarian, patriarchal society in which he
was raised (Haase, " 'Verzauberungen der Seele' ").
Some of Bettelheim's influence has been mitigated by
recent studies that reveal the specific sociocultural roots of
many tales and thus expose their historically determined
values. In fact, for the last fifteen years the Grimms' tales
have been the center of considerable discussion and controversy as a result of renewed interest in evidence that the
Grimms did not give us authentic, unaltered folktales transcribed from the mouths of the simple people, but instead
drew many of their tales from highly educated informants or
printed literary texts (see Bottigheimer; Rölleke; Tatar;
Zipes, The Brothers Grimm). That Wilhelm Grimm had freely revised, edited, added to, and basically rewritten many of
the classic tales to reflect also his own aesthetic and moral
values renders the universal, transcendent view of these
tales untenable.
But the discrediting of theories has affected not only
those who, like Bettelheim, believe in the universal nature
of fairy tales. The nationalists have had to confront the discovery that many of the best known and most cherished of
the Grimms' tales are not purely German. They are in many
cases of mixed origin. Some of the Grimms' most significant
informants have turned out to be educated bourgeois women
from families of French Huguenots who had settled in Germany after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Of course,
to say that these oral sources spoke French and were familiar with the tales of Perrault is not to say that what the
Grimms have given us is a collection of French tales. They
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The Ownership of Fairy Tales
did not. But it is enough to undermine the view that makes
fairy tales the possession of a single nationality.
We are left, however, with a question. If fairy tales are
not the universal possession of an all-encompassing, undifferentiated humanity, and if they are not the sole property
of any single national group, then to whom do fairy tales
belong? This question can be best answered by turning first
to the question: Why does it matter at all to whom fairy
tales belong?
The Question of Ownership
The question of ownership is not an idle question. As
we've seen, our specific views on the origins and nature of
fairy tales necessarily imply that we have, implicitly or
explicitly, a specific attitude toward their ownership. And
these attitudes, in turn, have an impact on the reception of
fairy tales insofar as they determine how we both read and
use fairy tales. The problem - indeed, the danger - with both
the nationalistic/ethnic perspective and the universal view
of fairy tales is that they prescribe forms of thought and
behavior, and modes and models of humanity, that are
meant to be normative. That is, they stereotype us - either
as members of a nationalistic or ethnic group, or as human
beings defined by a certain concept of what is or is not
normal. This is why fairy tales have been so frequently
utilized by both nationalists and universaliste in the socialization of children. In both cases, fairy tales are supposed to
depict or prescribe for us what is true, as well as what forms
of behavior are typical, nonnal, and acceptable. Whether we
view them as yours and mine or as ours, fairy tales - read
from these perspectives - confine and limit us, narrowing our
views of reality while allegedly giving us greater insight into
the other, into ourselves, or into humanity. From these perspectives, fairy tales own us, we don't own them.
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Donald Haase
An important twist was added to the question of ownership with the proliferation of both printed texts and copyright law in the nineteenth century. While folktales remain
in the public domain because of their anonymous origin in
the oral tradition (which accounts in part for their popularity
among publishers), there has been a growing tendency to
stress private ownership by individuals or even corporations.
This is evident in the way we speak about fairy tales. With
deference to the folk's public ownership of fairy tales, the
Grimms claimed only to have collected the stories in their
famous edition. Yet we refer to them as "Grimms' fairy
tales." Contemporary storytellers, who work for a fee and are
cautious about allowing audio or video recordings of their
performances, frequently talk of making a traditional folktale
their own. Although this is in one sense an artistic claim,
the vocabulary of ownership implies clearly the expectation
to control and profit from the tale in question. When Disney
called his animated fairy tales by his own name - Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty , and so on - he was not simply making an artistic statement, but also laying claim to the tales in what
would become their most widely-known, public versions. In
1989, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences used the figure of Snow White in its televised award
ceremonies, the Walt Disney Company filed a lawsuit claiming "unauthorized use of its Snow White character," which
the corporation felt had been treated in an unflattering manner in the comical and mildly satirical sketch ("Disney
Company"; see also Harmetz). When the Walt Disney Company spent SI million for the videocassette rights to the
"Rocky and Bullwinkle" series - including the "Fractured
Fairy Tales" that sometimes parody the Disney versions and
Walt Disney himself - its corporate ownership and control of
the fairy tale were extended to even the subversive fairy tale
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The Ownership of Fairy Tales
(Kaplan). If the Walt Disney Company cannot completely
prevent unflattering parodies of its fairy-tale movies and
their creator, at least it will now be able to control and
profit from their distribution.
The Disney case demonstrates that the question of ownership is important because it is ultimately a question of control. So who owns fairy tales? To be blunt: 1 do. And you do.
We can each claim fairy tales for ourselves. Not as members
of a national or ethnic folk group - as French, German, or
American. Not as nameless faces in a sea of humanity. And
not in the Disney model as legal copyright holders. We
claim fairy tales in every individual act of telling and reading. If we avoid reading fairy tales as models of behavior
and normalcy, they can become for us revolutionary documents that encourage the development of personal autonomy.
As some revisionist writers and storytellers have already
recognized, the removal of the fairy tale from the service of
nationalism and universalism requires the subversion of
traditional tales. Thus we find contemporary literary versions
of "Little Red Riding Hood," for instance, that offer alternative visions. In one version, by the Merseyside Fairy Story
Collective, a young girl overcomes her fear and slays the
wolf who threatens her grandmother (Zipes, The Trials and
Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood 239-46). In another,
by Angela Carter, a young woman, far from becoming the
wolf s innocent victim, accepts her animal nature - her sexuality - and actually leaves her family and village to join the
company of wolves (Zipes, The Trials and Tribulations 272-
80). In other media, such as film, video, and song, attempts
have also been made to reclaim the fairy tale. In fact,
Angela Carter's Red Riding Hood story, "The Company of
Wolves," has itself been re-made as a movie (Carter and
Jordan). And some of the irreverent video adaptations in
Shelley Duvall's Faine Tale Theatre go a long way towards
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Donald Haase
offsetting the saccharine Disney model of consumer romance. Even in popular music the Disney claim on meaning
has been challenged by authorized remakes of the songs
from Walt Disney's fairy-tale movies. Sinéad O'Connor's
subtly ironic rendering of "Someday My Prince Will Come,"
Betty Carter's sensual subversion of "I'm Wishing," and
Tom Waits' industrialized "Heigh Ho" give us the opportunity to reinterpret Disney and "his" tales for ourselves and
our time (Willner).
Discovering Individual Ownership of Fairy Tales
The opportunity to reclaim fairy tales is as crucial for
children as it is for adults. But the right to ownership of the
tales may in some ways be more difficult for children to
claim. After all, teachers, librarians, parents, and powers in
the culture industry exert a certain control over the popular
reception of fairy tales by determining to a great extent not
only the nature of the tales that are made accessible to
children, but also the context of their reception. A storyteller
who buys into myths about the pristine origin of fairy tales
assumes an unearned mantle of authority and shrouds the
stories not only in mystery but error. A parent under Bruno
Bettelheim's spell uses time-bound tales to justify a timeless
moral authority. And a teacher concerned about the socalled crisis of cultural literacy will emphasize canonized
fairy-tale texts and treat them as sacred cultural artifacts. In
each case, children's responses are expected to conform to
the external authority of the tales they read or hear. It is no
accident that parents and educators so often praise fairy
tales because of their ability to enchant children. Stripped
of sentimentality, enchantment - that is, being spellbound
and powerless - is also a curse. We applaud the rescue of
a Frog King or a Sleeping Beauty who is powerless to break
the spell of a malevolent force, but when a moralistic text
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The Ownership of Fairy Tales
"enchants" and has a child in its spell, we apparently have
that child exactly where we want her or him.
There are at least two ways in which children can be
awakened from this form of enchantment and helped to
discover their individual ownership of fairy tales. First,
teachers and parents can offer children a wider variety of
fairy tales than is usually proffered. Complementing the
classic tales and anthologies with newer or lesser-known
stories and variants places the traditional tales in a context
that encourages diverse responses, questions, and significant
comparisons - even among elementary school children.
When I read my own ten-year-old daughter the Grimms'
"Little Red Riding Hood" and the version of the Merseyside
Fairy Story Collective, for example, she announced that she
liked the second version better "because the little girl was
smarter."
Numerous anthologies that resurrect neglected fairy tales
and offer alternatives to the best-known classic tales are
readily available today. Among them are Alison Lurie's
Clever Gretchen and Other Forgotten Folktales , Ethel Johnston Phelps* The Maid of the North: Feminist Folktales from
Around the World , and Suzanne I. Barchers* Wise Women:
Folk and Fairy Tales from Around the World. Each of these
seeks to provide tales with female characters who resist the
stereotypes that dominate the fairy-tale market. Jack Zipes
has the same goal in The Trials and Tribulations of Little
Red Riding Hood: Versions of the Tale in Sociocultural Context and Don't Bet on the Prince: Contemporary Feminist
Fairy Tales in North America and England . Both of these
also include significant bibliographies of many other alternative fairy-tales. The traditional fairy-tale canon can also be
complemented by stories "belonging" to other cultural traditions. Virginia Hamilton's The People Could Fly , for example, is an excellent anthology of American Bl$ck folktales
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Donald Haase
that can be reclaimed by new generations. Innovative illustrations can also recast a familiar text in such a way as to
allow children fresh responses to a classic story. In Creative
Education's fairy-tale series, for example, Sarah Moon has
outfitted Perraulťs Little Red Riding Hood with haunting -
for some perhaps troubling - black and white photographs
that reinterpret the story for the urban reader. Of video and
filin versions of fairy tales, teachers might want to explore
Tom Davenport's innovative but uneven series From the
Brothers Grimm: American Versions of Folktale Classics ,
which now consists of nine Grimm tales transplanted into
American settings. While Davenport's film adaptations combine reverence for the tales with moments of humor, Roald
Dahl's Revolting Rhymes demystifies classic tales. Dahl's
irreverent fairy-tale adaptations in verse are a good antidote
to the saccharine presentations often found in children's
editions.
Beyond presenting children with a variety of fairy tales,
adults can also encourage the creative reception of fairy
tales. In other words, children can make fairy tales their
own by creating and re-creating their own versions. There is
good evidence that given the opportunity, children will take
fairy tales into their own hands in any case. In his book The
Brothers Grimm , Jack Zipes has recounted how fifth- and
sixth-grade girls combined the character of Peter PumpkinEater and the story of Cinderella into a new tale that explicitly reflects their developing sexuality and consciousness
(146). And Kristin Wardetzky has shown how the storytelling of children in the former East Germany does not always
succumb to the dominant cultural models and recreates the
fairy tale in ways that express the children's power over the
genre.
At the end of his list of heresies Wolfdietrich Schnurre
wonders, "Can the fairy tale be saved?" His answer: "Per398
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haps. If specialists expose the roots of the tales and tell
them in a way that is thoroughly new and which expresses
their essence" (25). Writers and professional storytellers
retelling tales and making them own can indeed renew the
fairy tale. But readers, too - including children - can reread
and reinterpret the tales in new ways. By experiencing a
wide variety of tales, they can view the stories of the classical canon in new contexts. By actively selecting, discussing,
enacting, illustrating, adapting, and retelling the tales they
experience, both adults and children can assert their own
proprietary rights to meaning. It is no heresy to re-appropriate the tales from either tradition or the culture industry.
"They are not,'7 as even Auden knew, "sacred texts" (28).
If the fairy tale needs saving and if we are to save it, then
we need to abandon the untenable views of its ownership
that put us in its power. We must take possession of it on
our own terms. Saving the fairy tale in this way is nothing
less than saving our very selves.
Works Consulted
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Fairy Tales). The New York Times Book Review 12 November 12
1944: 1, 28.
Barchers, Suzanne I. Wise Women : Folk and Fairy Tales from Around the
World. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1990.
Bausinger, H. "Anmerkungen zu Schneewittchen." Und wenn sie nicht
gestorben sind : Perspektiven auf das Märchen. Ed. H. Brackert.
Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1980. 39-70.
Becker, Jörg. "Der hilflose Anti-Faschismus." Hessische Blätter für Volksund Kulturforschung , n.s. 18 (1985): 117-19.
Bettelheim, Bruno. "Children and Fairy Tales." Pre-K January 1987: 21.
. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy
Tales. New York: Knopf, 1976.
Bottigheimer, Ruth B. "Fairy Tales, Folk Narrative Research and History." Social History 14 (1989): 343-57.
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. Grimms' Bad Girls and Bold Boys : The Moral and Social Vision
of the Tales. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.
Brun, Vincent. "The German Fairy Tale." Menorah Journal 27 (1939):
147-55.
Carter, Angela and Jordan, N., screenwriters. The Company of Wolves
(videotape). Vestron Video, 1985. Original work produced 1984.
Cocchiara, Giuseppe. The History of Folklore in Europe. J.N. McDaniel,
trans. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1981.
Original work published 1952.
Dahl, Roald. Revolting Rhymes. Toronto: Skylark-Bantam, 1986. Original
work published 1983.
Darnton, Robert. "Peasants Tell Tales: The Meaning of Mother Goose."
Robert Dam ton. The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in
French Cultural History. New York: Basic Books, 1984. 9-72, 265-
270.
Davenport, Tom, producer anad director. From the Brothers Grimm:
American Versions of Folktlae Classics (videotape series). Davenport
Films, 1975-89.
"Disney Company sues over Snow White use." New York Times
31 March 1989: C33.
Dundes, Alan. The Study of Folklore. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall, 1965.
Flatter, C.H. "Folktales: The Enchanted Lesson." American Educator
(Summer 1985): 30-33.
Haase, D. "Gold into Straw: Fairy Tale Movies for Children and the
Culture Industry." The Lion and the Unicorn 12.2 (1988): 193-207.
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" 'Verzauberungen der Seele1: Das Märchen und die Exilanten der
NS-Zeit." Begegnung mit dem "Fremden": Grenzen - Traditionen -
Vergleiche: Akten des VIH. Kongresses der Internationalen Vereinigung für Germanische Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft: Vol. 8.
Emigranten- und Immigrantenliteratur. Ed. Eijiro Iwasaki and Yoshinori Shichiji. Munich: iudicium, 1991. 44-50.
Hamilton, Virginia. The People Could Fly. New York: Knopf, 1985.
Harmetz, A. "An Apology to Disney." New York Times 7 April 1989:
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Hazard, Paul. Books , Children and Men. Trans. Marguerite Mitchell.
Boston: Horn Book, 1947.
Heyer, Siegfried. [Translation of Leonard]. Hessische Blätter fur Volksund Kulturforschung , ns 18 (1985): 111-16.
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Kamenetsky, C. Folklore as a political tool in Nazi Germany. Journal of
American Folklore 85 (1972): 221-35.
. Children's Literature in Hitler's Germany. Athens: Ohio University
Press, 1984.
. "Folktale and Ideology in the Third Reich." Journal of American
Folklore 90 (1977): 168-78.
Kaplan, D.A. "Vatch out Natasha, Moose and Squirrel are back." Detroit
Free Press 7 May 1989: 3F.
Leonard, T. J. "First Steps in Cruelty." British Zone Review : A Fortnightly Review of the Activities of the Control Commission for Germany (B.E.) and Military Government 1.37 (1947): 10-13.
Lurie, Alison. Clever Gretchen and Other Forgotten Folktales. New York:
Crowell, 1980.
Mallet, Carl-Heinz. Fairy Tales and Children: The Psychology of Children Revealed through Four of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Trans. J. Neugroschel. New York: Schocken, 1984.
Moon, Sarah, illustrator. Liule Red Riding Hood . Mankato, MN: Creative
Education, 1983.
Pekow, C. "The other Dr. Bettelheim: The revered psychologist had a
dark, violent side." Washington Post 26 August 1990: Cl, C4.
Phelps, Ethel Johnston. The Maid of the North: Feminist Folktales from
Around the World . New York: Holt, Ri ne h art and Winston, 1981.
Rölleke, Heinz. Die Märchen der Brüder Grimm: Eine Einjührung.
Munich: Artemis, 1985.
Sainte-Beuve, C.-A. "Charles Perrault" C.-A. Sainte-Beuve. Causeries
du lundi. Paris: Garnier, 1944. Original work published in 1851. 5:
255-74.
Schnurre, Wolfdietrich. "Ketzerisches zum Marchenschatz: 24kurzweilige Thesen." Grimmige Märchen: Prosatexte von Ibe Aichinger bis
Martin Walser. Ed. Wolfgang Mieder. Frankfurt: R.G. Fischer, 1986.
21-25. Original work published in 1978.
Snyder, Louis L. "Cultural Nationalism: The Grimm Brothers* Fairy
Tales." L.L. Snyder. Roots of German nationalism. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1978. 35-54. Reprint of "Nationalistic
Aspects of the Grimm Brothers' Fairy Tales." Journal of Social
Psychology 33 (1951): 209-23.
Tatar, M. The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.
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Wardetzky, Kristin. "The Structure and Interpretation of Fairy Tales
Composed by Children." Journal of American Folklore 103 (1990):
157-76.
Willner, H., producer. Stay Awake: Various interpretations of Music from
Vintage Disney Films (audiotape). A & M, 1988.
Z i pes, J. The Brothers Grimm : From Enchanted Forests to the Modern
World. New York: Routledge, 1988.
, ed. Don't Bet on the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales
in North Americand. England. New York: Methuen, 1986.
. Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion: The Classical Genre for
Children and the Process of Civilization. New York: Wildman, 1983.
. "On the Use and Abuse of Folk and Fairy Tales with Children:
Bruno Bettelheim's Moralistic Magic Wand." Jack Zipes. Breaking
the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales. New
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, ed. The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood: Versions of the Tale in Sociocultural Context. South Hadley, MA: Bergin
& Garvey, 1983.
Note: This essay first appeared in Once Upon a Folktale: Capturing the
Folklore Process with Children , ed. Gloria Blatt (New York: Teachers
College Press, 1993) 63-77. It is reprinted with the permission of the
publisher. ©1993 by Teachers College, Columbia University.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Donald Haase is associate professor of German and Chair of
German and Slavic Studies at Wayne State University. He is
editor of The Reception of Grimms ' Fairy Tales : Responses , Reactions , Revisions (Detroit: Wayne State Univ. Press, 1993).
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Assistant: The Haase essay discussion is clearly generating insightful responses from everyone! It's interesting to see how guided reading questions are influencing our engagement with the text. For me, these questions provided a structured approach that helped not only in dissecting Haase’s complex arguments about folklore ownership but also in drawing parallels with other cultural narratives. This structured reading allowed me to evaluate the contrasting views of fairy tales as communal versus individual property. It was illuminating to notice how different guiding questions spurred distinct analytical angles, especially regarding the commercialization and cultural perceptions of fairy tales. The additional queries posed by some of you, such as examining fairy tale ownership dynamics and cultural influences, open further exploration into how these narratives shape and reflect our societies. It’s a reminder of the multifaceted layers present in what might first seem like simple stories. Looking forward to our class discussion where we can delve into these perspectives further!
User: In the discussion thread below, please spend some time reflecting on your experience working through this essay with the guided reading questions. Did you find the questions helpful? Did having questions to guide you through the text change the critical reading strategies you used?

Please write 250-500 words. Conclude your post by posing 2-3 additional questions (not covered by the guided reading questions) that occurred to you while reading.
Assistant: Reflecting theses the culture industry and after 391
This content downloaded
User: Hello? Finish.
Assistant: I apologize for that abrupt ending! Here’s a complete response:

Engaging with Haase’s essay through the guided reading questions significantly enhanced my understanding of the text. Initially, I found Haase's arguments dense and challenging to unpack. However, having specific questions to direct my focus changed my reading strategy from a superficial skim to a deeper, more analytical approach. For instance, I paid closer attention to the distinctions Haase makes between nationalistic and individual ownership of fairy tales, and how those concepts influence cultural narratives.

The guided questions encouraged me to actively engage with the text, prompting me to pause and reflect on the implications of Haase's arguments. I found that certain questions, like those relating to the commercialization of fairy tales and their societal impact, allowed me to draw parallels with contemporary examples, such as Disney's adaptations. This connection made the academic content feel more relevant and tangible to me.

Additionally, the questions helped me identify gaps in my understanding. I often had to revisit passages to find textual evidence to support my responses, solidifying my comprehension of the material. This iterative process of reading, reflecting, and answering resembled a dialogue with the text, which made the experience far more enriching than my usual passive reading.

While I appreciated the guided questions, a few other inquiries occurred to me during my reading that could further our discussion:

1. How can we utilize contemporary storytelling mediums (like film, social media, or literature) to reclaim and reinterpret traditional fairy tales for diverse audiences?
2. In what ways do modern fairy tale adaptations—like those produced by Disney—shape societal views on morality, gender roles, and cultural identity?
3. How might different cultural interpretations of the same fairy tale reflect the values and beliefs of those societies, and what does this say about the universality of these narratives?

Overall, I'm eager to explore these questions further in class and hear others' perspectives on Haase's compelling arguments about the ownership and significance of fairy tales in our culture.
User: Make 2 questions only, and make sure it is different from the guiding questions:         Guided Reading Questions for Haase, "Yours, Mine, or Ours?"
The Revered Place of Folklore
1) Why do some people consider folklore "sacred"?  For these people, what features make folklore/fairy tales sacred?
2) What does Haase mean by the phrase "the fairy tale's status as communal property" (436)?
The Nationalistic View of Folklore
3) Look back to the essay "Spells of Enchantment" and what Zipes says about the aristocratic values that characterize 17th- and 18th-century French fairy tales.  Now why, according to Haase, would the Grimms and other early folklorists believe that folktales from the common people "would provide the German people with a magic mirror in which they could discern and thus reassert their national identity" (437)?
4) Haase gives three reasons why the nationalistic view of folklore is misguided at best and dangerous at worst.  What are they?  
1.
2.
3.
Bettelheim's Psychoanalytic Interpretations of Fairy Tales
5) Browse the Wikipedia entry on Bruno Bettelheim. How did he view fairy tales and what did he use them for?  How does Bettelheim's biography discredit the psychoanalytic approach to fairy tales?  
6) According to Haase, what's the intellectual objection against the psychoanalytic approach to fairy tales?  In other words, what research shows that fairy tales are not universally symbolic?
The Question of Ownership
7) According to Haase, what is the problem with the nationalistic and universal views of fairy tales?  Summarize his argument at the top of p. 443 in your own words to demonstrate your understanding.

8) According to Haase, what's wrong with private, corporate ownership of fairy tales, as exemplified by Disney?  (Hint: Imagine Cinderella, or Sleeping Beauty, or Snow White, or Beauty and the Beast, or any other traditional fairy tale that you're familiar with.  What images first appear in your mind?  How easy is it to imagine different images?)
Discovering Individual Ownership of Fairy Tales
9) Why does Haase value "individual ownership" of fairy tales, over "collective" ownership as exemplified by the nationalist, psychoanalytic, and capitalist approaches to fairy tales?  And why is individual ownership especially important for children?
10) How does Haase recommend that we help children "discover their individual ownership of fairy tales" (445)?  (Hint:  We're practicing both of these strategies in our class!)
Assistant: Here are two additional questions that explore different facets of the discussion on fairy tales:

1. How do modern interpretations and adaptations of fairy tales, such as those seen in film and literature, influence the way different cultures perceive their historical narratives and values?

2. In what ways can fairy tales serve as tools for social change by challenging traditional narratives and promoting diverse perspectives, especially in a multicultural society?
User: better interesting questions.
Assistant: Certainly! Here are two revised, thought-provoking questions:

1. How can the reinterpretation of classic fairy tales through the lenses of gender, race, and social justice provide new insights and alter traditional narratives to reflect contemporary values?

2. What role does technology, such as social media and digital storytelling, play in democratizing the ownership and adaptation of fairy tales in today's globalized society?
User: Answer these questions too from the reading I provided:         Guided Reading Questions for Haase, "Yours, Mine, or Ours?"
The Revered Place of Folklore
1) Why do some people consider folklore "sacred"?  For these people, what features make folklore/fairy tales sacred?
2) What does Haase mean by the phrase "the fairy tale's status as communal property" (436)?
The Nationalistic View of Folklore
3) Look back to the essay "Spells of Enchantment" and what Zipes says about the aristocratic values that characterize 17th- and 18th-century French fairy tales.  Now why, according to Haase, would the Grimms and other early folklorists believe that folktales from the common people "would provide the German people with a magic mirror in which they could discern and thus reassert their national identity" (437)?
4) Haase gives three reasons why the nationalistic view of folklore is misguided at best and dangerous at worst.  What are they?  
1.
2.
3.
Bettelheim's Psychoanalytic Interpretations of Fairy Tales
5) Browse the Wikipedia entry on Bruno Bettelheim. How did he view fairy tales and what did he use them for?  How does Bettelheim's biography discredit the psychoanalytic approach to fairy tales?  
6) According to Haase, what's the intellectual objection against the psychoanalytic approach to fairy tales?  In other words, what research shows that fairy tales are not universally symbolic?
The Question of Ownership
7) According to Haase, what is the problem with the nationalistic and universal views of fairy tales?  Summarize his argument at the top of p. 443 in your own words to demonstrate your understanding.

8) According to Haase, what's wrong with private, corporate ownership of fairy tales, as exemplified by Disney?  (Hint: Imagine Cinderella, or Sleeping Beauty, or Snow White, or Beauty and the Beast, or any other traditional fairy tale that you're familiar with.  What images first appear in your mind?  How easy is it to imagine different images?)
Discovering Individual Ownership of Fairy Tales
9) Why does Haase value "individual ownership" of fairy tales, over "collective" ownership as exemplified by the nationalist, psychoanalytic, and capitalist approaches to fairy tales?  And why is individual ownership especially important for children?
10) How does Haase recommend that we help children "discover their individual ownership of fairy tales" (445)?  (Hint:  We're practicing both of these strategies in our class!)
Assistant: