Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales

by Jack Zipes

0 ratings • 0 reviews • 1 shelved
Book cover for Breaking the Magic Spell

Bookhype may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. Full disclosure.

This revised, expanded, and updated edition of the 1979 landmark Breaking the Magic Spell examines the enduring power of fairy tales and the ways they invade our subjective world. In seven provocative essays, Zipes discusses the importance of investigating oral folk tales in their socio-political context and traces their evolution into literary fairy tales, a metamorphosis that often diminished the ideology of the original narrative. Zipes also looks at how folk tales influence our popular beliefs and the ways they have been exploited by a corporate media network intent on regulating the mystical elements of the stories. He examines a range of authors, including the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, Ernst Bloch, Tolkien, Bettelheim, and J.K. Rowling to demonstrate the continuing symbiotic relationship between folklore and literature.
  • ISBN10 0813190304
  • ISBN13 9780813190303
  • Publish Date 5 July 2002
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint The University Press of Kentucky
  • Format Paperback
  • Pages 304
  • Language English