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Re: Where Have All the Folktales Gone?
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From: Susan Daugherty <susaninaruba_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:10:42 -0700 (PDT)
Thank you to everyone who is defending the folktale. Carole said exactly what I've been thinking throughout this discussion. My 30+ years of lib rarianship, working with children from 3-14, have shown me that folktales s hould not be neglected when we are educating people about children's litera ture. Teachers and many librarians need educating along with the childre n. Everyone who dismisses them as not PC needs to educate him or herself by reading at least some of the huge body of literature on the worth and mean ing of folktales. Bettelheim's The uses of enchantment: the meaning and importance of fairy tales is just one of the many ways of looking at them. Jack Zipes has a different point of view. I was lucky to study with a brilliant folklorist named Bengt Holbek who taught at the University of W isconsin one summer and wrote a seminal work titled The Interpretation of F airy Tales. There are loads of other
books and articles that you could study for a lifetime. Some may not be aware that there are folklore de partments in universities, though sadly not as many as there should be, and funding for them has decreased, but intelligent people see this area as a fruitful one for study.
Children do find folktales riveting. These stories have lasted for hundr eds, maybe thousands, of years for a reason. Once you start looking at a country's folklore, just from the versions you should be able to find in a ny decent public library, you will be astounded at the parallels among cult ures, the variety of taletypes, and unstereotypical messages that are there to be found. Some of my favorites are the marvelous stories retold by V erna Aardema from African originals, but there are so many great collection s and picture book versions that it seems pointless to start listing them. If you don't know them, get to the best library you can
and start reading.
The whole story of the way the Grimm Brothers shaped their tales according to their own ideas of what was proper is a fascinating one. Don't condem n them; learn about it. Each age handles literature in its own way. (We are doing our own bowdlerizing in our own way currently!)
Help children be open to this field of study. Wonder and enjoy!
Susan
Susan Daugherty, Middle School Librarian TASIS-England Coldharbour Lane Thorpe, Surrey TW20 8TE UK
Received on Fri 19 Mar 2010 06:10:42 PM CDT
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:10:42 -0700 (PDT)
Thank you to everyone who is defending the folktale. Carole said exactly what I've been thinking throughout this discussion. My 30+ years of lib rarianship, working with children from 3-14, have shown me that folktales s hould not be neglected when we are educating people about children's litera ture. Teachers and many librarians need educating along with the childre n. Everyone who dismisses them as not PC needs to educate him or herself by reading at least some of the huge body of literature on the worth and mean ing of folktales. Bettelheim's The uses of enchantment: the meaning and importance of fairy tales is just one of the many ways of looking at them. Jack Zipes has a different point of view. I was lucky to study with a brilliant folklorist named Bengt Holbek who taught at the University of W isconsin one summer and wrote a seminal work titled The Interpretation of F airy Tales. There are loads of other
books and articles that you could study for a lifetime. Some may not be aware that there are folklore de partments in universities, though sadly not as many as there should be, and funding for them has decreased, but intelligent people see this area as a fruitful one for study.
Children do find folktales riveting. These stories have lasted for hundr eds, maybe thousands, of years for a reason. Once you start looking at a country's folklore, just from the versions you should be able to find in a ny decent public library, you will be astounded at the parallels among cult ures, the variety of taletypes, and unstereotypical messages that are there to be found. Some of my favorites are the marvelous stories retold by V erna Aardema from African originals, but there are so many great collection s and picture book versions that it seems pointless to start listing them. If you don't know them, get to the best library you can
and start reading.
The whole story of the way the Grimm Brothers shaped their tales according to their own ideas of what was proper is a fascinating one. Don't condem n them; learn about it. Each age handles literature in its own way. (We are doing our own bowdlerizing in our own way currently!)
Help children be open to this field of study. Wonder and enjoy!
Susan
Susan Daugherty, Middle School Librarian TASIS-England Coldharbour Lane Thorpe, Surrey TW20 8TE UK
Received on Fri 19 Mar 2010 06:10:42 PM CDT
