CCBC-Net Archives
Re: Where Have All the Folktales Gone?
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Richard Pearson <pearsoncrz_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:42:53 -0400 (EDT)
body{font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size: argin:0px} ://skype_ff_toolbar_win/content/injection_nh_graph.css" type="text/css" r el="stylesheet" ef="chrome://skype_ff_toolbar_win/content/skypeplugin_dropdownmenu.css" t ype="text/css" rel="stylesheet" "-- I know many children are n o longer reading fairy tales or folktales at home. It's amazing how f ew of them know Mother Goose when they come to school. "
Perhaps thi s is in part because most of the western folk and fairy tales tended to rei nforce patriarchal archetypes and divide mother figures into evil witches a nd sacrificial (often dead) "good" mothers? I'm not talking about the moder n re-tellings, of course, like Munsch's Paper Bag Princess, or Napoli's The Magic Circle, or Shannon Hale's Goose Girl, or Yolen's Dove Isabeau (love that story). I was surprised to read Jan's comment that the big publishers are not interested in seeing more of those.
But I'm not surprised t hat parents are no longer reading either Grimm's or Perraults's collections or the Disneyfied versions of those tales, or the Mother Goose rhymes whic h have some dark themes and reflect another period in western culture, a pe riod when children were whipped and starved and sold as indentured laborers .
Claudia
Received on Wed 17 Mar 2010 01:42:53 PM CDT
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:42:53 -0400 (EDT)
body{font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size: argin:0px} ://skype_ff_toolbar_win/content/injection_nh_graph.css" type="text/css" r el="stylesheet" ef="chrome://skype_ff_toolbar_win/content/skypeplugin_dropdownmenu.css" t ype="text/css" rel="stylesheet" "-- I know many children are n o longer reading fairy tales or folktales at home. It's amazing how f ew of them know Mother Goose when they come to school. "
Perhaps thi s is in part because most of the western folk and fairy tales tended to rei nforce patriarchal archetypes and divide mother figures into evil witches a nd sacrificial (often dead) "good" mothers? I'm not talking about the moder n re-tellings, of course, like Munsch's Paper Bag Princess, or Napoli's The Magic Circle, or Shannon Hale's Goose Girl, or Yolen's Dove Isabeau (love that story). I was surprised to read Jan's comment that the big publishers are not interested in seeing more of those.
But I'm not surprised t hat parents are no longer reading either Grimm's or Perraults's collections or the Disneyfied versions of those tales, or the Mother Goose rhymes whic h have some dark themes and reflect another period in western culture, a pe riod when children were whipped and starved and sold as indentured laborers .
Claudia
Received on Wed 17 Mar 2010 01:42:53 PM CDT
