America's Cinderella

This paper examines two sets of medieval English narratives describing encounters with ghosts, those by William of Newburgh and those in a manuscript from Byland Abbey. Both combine theological elements with non-religious features, some of which can be linked to pre-Christian practices and others to later folklore. But neither the theology nor the folklore is uniform. Furthermore, it is not possible to assign theological attitudes solely to the clergy and/or an educated e´lite, and “folkloric” ideas solely to an underclass. These texts display an ongoing medieval debate in which neither clerics nor the laity spoke with a single voice.

Repentant soul or walking corpse? Debatable apparitions in medieval England

The Importance of History Underlying this collection of papers is a belief in the value of history in helping us to achieve a reasonably full understanding of current trends of development in what we might call society’s “knowledge apparatus” and in the institutional arrangements to which libraries and information services are central. Such a historically based understanding presents a richer, more considered context for planning for the future than would otherwise be possible. I am intrigued by the paradox that history is only in part about the past. History provides us with a way to think about the present and the future. Because we can never know it directly, it is actually constituted and reconstituted by what we bring to it from our ever-changing presents. It offers the opportunity to question both simplistic descriptions and quick and easy explanations of what seems to be happening, what seems to be the case in the present. It also offers the opportunity from the ever-changing perspective of the present to go back to reassess what seems to have happened, what seems to have been the case in the past and how it has infl uenced the present. It is this dialectical process that keeps history as a discipline always unfi nished and alive. The idea that we learn from the past seems to me powerful in its implications, but it is not easy to grasp how we learn or what is actually learned. I suspect that what is most important in what we learn from the past is not

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/1633/Rayward.pdf

When and Why Is a Pioneer: History and Heritage in Library and Information Science

This essay explains why it is important to explore and to apply theories from the sciences and social sciences, such as biology, memetics, evolutionary psychology, and cultural anthropology, in order to grasp why tales from oral tradition are transformed and stick with us as memes. I have already discussed this topic in my book, Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre (2006), and here I endeavor to elaborate some of my theses in more detail, and, I hope, with greater clarity. I use the classical version of the Grimms' "The Frog King" as an example of how a discourse about mating has been disseminated memetically and how this particular fairy tale enables us to grasp the mating strategies that different cultures have developed over several centuries. Folk and fairy tales are part of a civilizing process in all societies and evolve according to basic natural and cultural human needs and dispositions. "The Frog King," more often referred to as "The Frog Prince," provides an interesting case study of how people are attracted to and employ this tale to comment on the strategies of mating.

/pdf/what-makes-a-repulsive-frog-so-appealing-memetics-and-fairy-4exu770wx6.pdf

What Makes a Repulsive Frog So Appealing: Memetics and Fairy Tales

[Y]ou were destined to marry a savage wild beast. - Apuleius In many a folktale and fairy tale, women encounter monstrous creatures. Hairy wolves and bears, slimy snakes and frogs, or even ogres partake of the heroines' confrontations with the - male - Other. Following Bruno Bettelheim, psychoanalytical analyses generally posit that beasts function as veiled symbols representing sexuality that children must initially experience as disgusting before they reach maturity and discover its beauty In contrast to such views, Jack Zipes argues that children's instinctual drives are "conditioned and largely determined through interaction and interplay with the social environment" (Fairy Tales 32-33). As a consequence, fairy tales are inevitably shaped by the historical period in which they are published and must be viewed through a sociopolitical lens. Indeed, many historians and literary critics envisage fairy tales as documents marked by social and economic conditions. As Marina Warner argues, fairy tales are permeated with "evidence of conditions from past social and economic arrangements" (xix). For Betsy Hearne, each new version reflects, in addition, "new variations of culture and creativity" (I).1 Zipes's exploration of the changes made to the tales convincingly brings to light how social pressures and norms, which may vary with time, weigh on fairy tales. His analysis of Perrault's, the Brothers Grimm's, or Hans Christian Andersen's literary fairy tales underlines how the revisions of oral folktales through the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries are fueled by social and cultural references. Thus, hints at bourgeois mores and manners transfigure the discourse of the folktales in order to suit and to strengthen the rising power of the bourgeoisie. Moreover, such revised tales impose standards for sexual and social conduct that hinge on "inhibiting forms of socialization" (Zipes, Fairy Tales 33). In Zipes's view, throughout the centuries, competition and wealth become keywords, and patriarchal interests increasingly orchestrate the tales, stressing male domination and feminine subjection. Zipes's interpretation of fairy tales is invaluable to any reader or scholar examining Victorian fairy tales. Unlike in France or Germany - and with the possible exceptions of tales by Charles Perrault and Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy - fairy tales were not generally approved and accepted in England before the beginning of the nineteenth century, especially for children.2 Despite the fact that the classical fairy tales by Perrault had been translated into English in 1729, it was not before the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century that chapbook versions of Perrault's tales appeared in a format designed to appeal to children. In 1823 and 1826, selections from the Brothers Grimm's fairy tales were translated into English by Edgar Taylor and illustrated by George Cruikshank. Andersen's Wonderful Stories for Children, published in England in 1846 and translated by Mary Howitt, because of their overt Christian principles and their suffering (and often mutilated) characters, paved the way for a wider acceptance of fairy tales as suitable literature for children (see Zipes, Victorian xvii-xviii). Interestingly, just as fairy tales were making their way into the nursery, they very quickly became a means to question social, political, and cultural issues. Indeed, though mid-Victorian fairy tales undoubtedly represented middle-class settings, protagonists, and codes of conduct, some of them also debunked the bourgeois ideology. Not all literary fairy tales were subversive, however, and many of them seemed to both affirm and denounce the fairy tale's patriarchal discourse, especially when written - or rewritten - by women. In fact, in order to challenge traditional roles, women had to work within cultural paradigms. As shall be seen, the significant aspect of most of them is the transformation and adaptation of the classical fairy tales to the social and cultural environment of mid- Victorian England. …

/pdf/beautiful-maidens-hideous-suitors-victorian-fairy-tales-and-3x1z9d0l4q.pdf

Beautiful Maidens, Hideous Suitors: Victorian Fairy Tales and the Process of Civilization

More English Fairy Tales

The first compilation of the full first-edition texts of the classic fairy tale collections by Joseph Jacobs, with Jacobs' original prefaces and annotations. In these two classic collections, first published in 1890 and 1894, Joseph Jacobs combined folklore, children's literature, and the eclectic scholarship of the Victorian era to create a storehouse of tales that inhabited the imaginations of children and adults for generations. Here readers first met Tom Tit Tot, Molly Whuppie, and Jack the Giant-Killer, and first read the stories of the Three Little Pigs, the Three Bears, and Henny-Penny. Jacobs' daring collections challenged conventional thinking about the meaning of "folk," the individual artistry behind folktales, and the boundaries between folklore and literature, anticipating modern developments in folklore studies. His original editions of these 87 classic tales, along with the original illustrations, are reprinted in this new volume, offering readers an unsurpassed understanding of the development of the classic fairy tale in late Victorian England. Reprints Jacobs' original versions of these 87 classic tales exactly as they were first published more than a century ago Illustrated with the original block prints by John Batten

English fairy tales and more English fairy tales

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More English Fairy Tales

English fairy tales and more English fairy tales