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Fairy Tales are NOT for Children Dark Romanticism American Gothic - Macabre The Brothers Grimm
Fairy Tales are NOT for Children
Dark RomanticismAmerican Gothic - Macabre
The Brothers Grimm
appreciation of the beauties of nature
emotion over reason and of the senses over intellect
a turning in upon the self and a heightened examination of human personality and its moods and mental potentialities
a preoccupation with the genius, the hero, and the exceptional figure in general, and a focus on his passions and inner struggles.
an emphasis upon imagination as a gateway to transcendent experience and spiritual truth
interest in folk culture, national and ethnic cultural origins, and the medieval era
and a predilection for the exotic, the remote, the mysterious, the weird, the occult, the monstrous, the diseased, and even the satanic.
A review of the characteristic attitudes of Romanticism
The Romantics studied history and turned back to the Middle Ages for themes and settings.
The trend toward the irrational and the supernatural was an important component of English and German romantic literature.
How do German Fairy Tales fit into American Literature?
Rooted in the German movement called Sturm und Drang -- ("Storm and Stress")
For some Romantic writers, the imagination led to the threshold of the unknown—the shadowy region where the fantastic, the demonic and the insane reside.
When the Gothic's saw the individual, they saw the potential of evil.
Gothic writers were peering into the darkness at the dark side of human nature and the supernatural.
The Gothic and Romanticism
The Gothic Tradition was firmly established in Europe before American writers had made names for themselves.
By the 19th century, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathanial Hawthorne, Washington Irving, and Herman Melville were using the Gothic elements in their writing.
Gothic Movement in American Romanticism
At the ages of 13 and 14, Jacob and Wilhelm move to Kassel.
Both attend the University of Marburg, at the ages of 17 and 19.
Studied law because it was expected, not because they wanted to.
How They Started
Being of lower social status because of the death of their father, they were not treated equally.
They were disqualified from admission because of their social standing and had to request dispensation to study law.
The brothers were excluded even from tuition aid.
Although their poverty kept them from student activities or university social life, their outsider status worked in their favor and they pursued their studies with extra vigor.[
Their Stories
The Grimm brothers were said to have loved a good story.
Inspired by their law professor, Friedrich von Savigny, who awakened in them an interest in history and philology(study of history and development of languages)
The brothers turned to studying medieval German literature.
Began to collect folktales in the early 1800’s.
Their Stories
Although the brothers gained a reputation for collecting tales from peasants, many tales came from middle-class or aristocratic acquaintances.
Wilhelm's wife and her family, with their nursery maid, told the brothers some of the more well-known tales
Others were collected from a German Baron and his circle of friends.
While, several of the storytellers were of Huguenot (French) ancestry.
Their Stories
Publish first collection in 1812.
Contains 86 folktales.
Two years later, a second volume is published.
Adds 70 more folktales.
In another two years, two volumes of Deutsche Sagen is published.
More About Their Stories
CinderellaSnow WhiteLittle Red Riding HoodRapunzelRumpelstiltskinHansel and GretelSleeping Beauty
Some Of The Most Popular Stories
Disneymore “kid
friendly”stayed true to the
spoken legends.
More morbid and grim (pun intended).
Violent themes . . .
Disney VS Grimm'sEveryone knows the classic stories, but some of the stories differ drastically, while others only
slightly.
Grimm's
Doves peck out the eyes of Cinderella's Stepsisters
Briar Rose’s (sleeping beauty) suitors bleed to death outside of her castle
The Queen in “Snow White” is forced to wear red-hot iron slippers on and dance until her death
In “The Juniper Tree” a mother decapitates her son, chops up his body, and feeds it to her husband in a stew
In “Hansel and Gretel” the witch is thrown into her own stove and is baked alive
Violent Themes
Leave behind the best collection of German fairy tales and folk legends of the time.
a fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, as tale no. 101.[
The main character of the German version is a soldier.
The Americanized version of the story is set in rural Virginia after the Civil War with the main character being a desperate ex-Confederate soldier.
The tale is a spin of the German Faust Legend. (We will talk about this later)
Bearskin
Washington Irving (1783-1859) First American writer to achieve an international reputation.
Washington Irving
America's first international literary celebrity was born in New York City.
The eleventh child in a close-knit family.
After writing satirical sketches and essays for his brothers' newspapers for some years, Irving captured the nation's attention with the fictitious A History of New York, supposedly written by a curious old gentleman named Diedrich Knickerbocker.
Washington Irving
In May 1815, Irving left the country for what would be a seventeen-year stay in Europe, where he worked first as an importer in Liverpool, then as an attaché (ambassador) to the American legation in Spain, and finally as secretary to the American legation in London.
While living in Europe, Irving, studied European folklore, including Faust and the Brothers Grimm.
This research influenced his writing greatly.
He like other romantic writers felt that folklore contained the secret and primitive dreams of the people and also intriguing elements of the supernatural.
His diverse works range from The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1828) and The Alhambra (1832), both written during his stay in Spain, to A Tour of the Prairies (1835) and The Adventures of Captain Bonneville U.S.A. (1837), studies of the American West written on his return from Europe, to a five-volume life of George Washington and the famous short story The Devil and Tom Walker taken from Tales of a Traveler.
Washington Irving
Two of his best-known stories are “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” both appearing in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1819-1820).
These stories and others like them provided American legends and helped shape an American folklore.
Washington Irving
Washington Irving
After returning to the U.S., Irving retired at the age of 50.
He settled on Sunnyside, his estate on the bank of the Hudson River
Continued writing including his biographies of Columbus and Washington.
Achievements1. Irving is the first belletrist* in American literature, writing for pleasure at a time when writing was practical and for useful purposes.
2. He is the first American literary humorist.
3. He has written the first modern short stories.
4. He is the first to write history and biography as entertainment.
5. He introduced nonfiction prose as a literary genre.
belles-lettres - writings that are valued for their elegance and aesthetic qualities rather than for any human interest or moral or instructive content
Narrative MethodIrving’s stories are known for:
Recasting German folk tales or Spanish legends into Dutch colonial settings
picturesque color
human richness
polished style
detailed description
satire
The Devil and Tom Walker
By
Washington Irving
The Devil and Tom Walker
Setting: Set in New England area near Boston in the early eighteenth century (1700s).
A narrator relates a story he has heard about a local man’s dealings with the devil.
The narrator never claims that the stories are true, only that they are widely believed.
According to local legend, a treasure is buried in a dark grove on an inlet outside of Boston.
The Devil and Tom Walker
It is said that Kidd the Pirate left the treasure under a gigantic tree and the devil himself “presided at the hiding of the money, and took it under his guardianship.”
Since the pirate Kidd was sent back to England to be hanged, no one has disturbed the treasure or challenged the devil’s right to it.
Definitions
FOLK TALES – stories passed down by word of mouth among the common people of a particular culture that teach a lesson or express a general truth about life; events are unrealistic and characters are stereotyped
SATIRE – Literature that exposes in order to ridicule the vices or follies of people or societies.
Satire in the Tall Tale
The main object of Washington Irving’s satire is greedy people, especially those whose wealth is ill-gotten or gained through the bad luck of others.
Irving pokes fun at this type of person through his exaggerated characterization of Tom and his wife.
The Devil and Tom Walker – Style
Allegory Many folktales are allegories Teach a moral lessonIn allegories, characters and actions are
symbolic of larger conditions of human nature.
The character of Old Scratch personifies evil or temptation.
Tom Walker, an unscrupulous money-lender, makes a pact with the devil and only later professes religious beliefs.
Through these actions, Tom represents hypocrisy, which Irving shows will be punished.
The Devil and Tom Walker – Style
Point of View
Narrated by Geoffrey Crayon, a fictional character created by Irving.
The first person narration adds to the feeling the reader has of being told a story in the oral tradition.
The Devil and Tom Walker: ThemesGreed is one of the most important themes of “The Devil and Tom Walker.” Making a deal with the Devil—For what price?
Hypocrisy is the act of preaching a certain belief, religion or way of life, but not, in fact, holding these same virtues oneself. This is evident throughout the story.
Moral Corruption: Though Tom Walker is presented as an individual who has always been morally corrupt, the action of “The Devil and Tom Walker” presents how moral corruption breeds more moral corruption, escalating to the greatest corruption of all, a pact with the devil.
Irving Took the European literaryThemes we discussed earlier, and gave them American settings:
In The Devil and Tom Walker, Irving used Germany’s Faust Legend as the basis for the work.
• The historical Georg Faust is a shadowy character, probably lived c. 1480 – 1538.
• Faust seems to have been an astrologer and alchemist of ill-repute.
Faust was a Renaissance Man, one active in all branches of arts and sciences; however, Faust seems to have been more of a swindler than a real scientist.
• The Faust Legend is a conglomeration of this “character” and earlier medieval accounts of wizards and sorcerers.
• The Faust Legend arose – about 70 years later – as a loose collection of stories associated with Faust passed down through Oral Tradition.
• The one defining element of all versions of the legend is the Pact with the Devil.• An ancient idea, found in a number of
classical and medieval works.• Faust fascinated Renaissance
audiences because his pact called into question the great advances of the age – humanism, science, art, and philosophy.
• Later versions of Faust legend appeared throughout Europe and America.
• Every generation presents its own version of the Faust legend, based upon their own aspirations, desires and fears.
Modern versions of Faust do not usually punish Faust for seeking forbidden knowledge and experience.
Typically it is a tale about a man who sells his soul to the devil for earthly benefits.
Each retelling involves a person who trades his soul for experience, knowledge, or treasure.
Endings vary with the protagonist either,
Doomed to failure, or
Redeemed by virtues
