Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales
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University of Kentucky UKnowledge Folklore Anthropology 7-5-2002 Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales Jack Zipes Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Zipes, Jack, "Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales" (2002). Folklore. 15. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_folklore/15 Breaking the Magic Spell Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Copyright O 1979 by Jack Zipes Published 2002 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. - Editorial and Sales Ofices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Zipes, Jack Breaking the magic spell. 1. Tales, European-History and criticism. 2. Literature and society. I. Title ISBN-10: 0-8131-9030-4 (paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-9030-3 This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of America. I Member of the Association of d American University Presses For my Mother and Father Contents Preface to 2002 Edition ix Preface to 1979 Edition xi Acknowledgments xiv Introductory Fairy Tales xv 1. Once There Was a Time: An Introduction to the History and Ideology of Folk and Fairy Tales 1 2. Might Makes Right-The Politics of Folk and Fairy Tales 23 3. The Revolutionary Rise of the Romantic Fairy Tale in Germany 47 4. The Instrumentalization of Fantasy: Fairy Tales, the Culture Industry and Mass media 104 5. The Utopian Function of Fairy Tales and Fantasy: Ernst Bloch the Marxist and J.R.R. Tolkien the Catholic 146 6. On the Use and Abuse of Folk and Fairy Tales with Children: Bruno Bettelheim's Moralistic Magic Wand 179 7. The Radical Morality of Rats, Fairies, Wizards and Ogres: Taking Children's Literature Seriously 206 Notes 233 Bibliography 253 Index 271 Preface to the 2002 Edition In revising the essays in this collection, first published in 1979, I was surprised to find how "radical" they still are. Over twenty years have passed since I wrote these articles under the influence of the student and anti-war movement of the late 1960s and 1970s, the resurgence of interest in Marxism, and my own study of the Frankfurt School, in particular the works of Herbert Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Jiirgen Habermas, coupled with the unusual philo- sophical works of Ernst Bloch. One would have thought that, since then, the political approach that I took would have become pass6 and surpassed by more sophisticated and moderate studies of folk and fairy tales. To a certain extent, this is true. Since 1979 there has been an abundant production of multi-faceted approaches to the oral and literary tradition of fairy tales. However, despite some superb femi- nist analyses and social criticism, there has been a strange avoidance to discuss social class, ideological conflicts, and the false assump- tions of numerous psychological approaches in a frank and straight- forward manner-one of the purposes in the original publication of this book. I still maintain that literature and art cannot be fully understood without considering the socio-political-cultural context in which they are produced. In addition, the political nature of economics and tech- nology is important to take into account. The forms, shapes, and mes- sages of folk and fairy tales are determined by the conflicts in cultural fields of production in the public sphere. One of them is the culture industry that I discuss at various points throughout this book. Though conditions of production have changed immensely since I wrote most of my essays, the culture industry continues to be a determining fac- tor in the transmission of folk and fairy tales, and with the advent of globalization and the formation of large media conglomerates, the culture industry has accumulated even more power in shaping art forms and their transmission. As long as there are conflicts and different Preface to the 2002 Edition voices and interests articulated within cultural fields, there will al- ways be hope that folk and fairy tales may provide counsel and moral learning to expose the crazed drive for power that many individual politicians, corporate leaders, governments, church leaders, and petty tyrants evince and to pierce the hypocrisy of their moral stances. In this regard, the intention of "breaking the magic spell" is to do away with the mystique and charisma that pervade our lives so that we can grasp the deceptive and arbitrary uses of enchantment and entertain- ment. Though I may at times overstate my political arguments, I still maintain that this radical approach-to get at the root of things-is not practiced enough in our day and age, and if anything, I may not be thorough and lucid enough in some of the essays to indicate what a radical theory would mean for folk and fairy tales. Certainly, I did not mean to elaborate a systematic theory when I originally wrote the essays, but I did hope to lay the groundwork for much of the work that I have completed since writing this book. All of the essays in this book have been fully revised and updated as much as possible. In many instances I have corrected or changed my opinions and have expanded my interpretations. The essay on Bettelheim contains a new prologue, and the final essay on "The Radi- cal Morality of Rats, Fairies, Wizards, and Ogres: Taking Children's Literature Seriously" is completely new and written expressly for this book. In dealing with Harry Potter and Shrek, the hero and the anti- hero of fairy tales, I emphasize the moral nature and political divide in the production of popular culture for young people. The culture industry constantly seeks to cast magic spells over viewers and read- ers so that they cannot see and read the truth. It is not for me or any- one to say what truth is, but certainly lies and falsehoods can be exposed by breaking magic spells, wherever they pose as good and truthful. Preface to the 1979 Edition Our lives are framed by folk and fairy tales, but in the framework we never fill in the meaning of the tales for ourselves. It remains illusive just as our own history remains illusive. From birth to death we hear and imbibe the lore of folk and fairy tales and sense that they can help us reach our destiny. They know and tell us that we want to become kings and queens, ontologically speaking to become masters of our own realms, in touch with the projects of our lives and the self-projec- tions, to stand upright as makers of history. Folk and fairy tales illu- minate the way. They anticipate the millennium. They ferret out deep-rooted wishes, needs, and wants and demonstrate how they all can be realized. In this regard folk and fairy tales present a challenge, for within the tales lies the hope of self-transformation and a better world. Yet folk and fairy tales can be deceptive. They can lead us on a wild-goose chase and toy with our imagination if we do not learn about their history and how to evaluate their emancipatory potential. For example, what we generally refer to as a fairy tale is quite often a folk tale which has its roots in the experience and fantasy of primitive peoples who cultivated the tale in an oral tradition. And it was this oral tradition which engendered the literary fairy tale which has as- sumed a variety of distinct and unique forms since the late Middle Ages. To grasp the socio-historical forces which played a vast role in the transition of the oral folk tale to the literary fairy tale is crucial for understanding why both genres persist in mass-mediated forms of the culture industry today and why their "magic" still attracts us. The essays collected in this volume move forward historically to reflect upon present viewpoints on folk and fairy tales. Though they were all conceived independently to treat specific problems and are self-contained, they share a common concern in the evolution of the folk tale as fairy tale and often overlap. The first essay "Once There Was a Time: An Introduction to the History and Ideology of Folk and Preface to the 1979 Edition Fairy Tales" sets forth my general ideas and terms elaborated in more detail by the studies which follow. "Might Makes Right-The Poli- tics of Folk and Fairy Tales" expands upon the socio-historical rea- sons for the transition of the folk tale to the fairy tale and focuses on the underlying power struggles which constitute the themes of the tales. "The Revolutionary Rise of the Romantic Fairy Tale in Ger- many" continues this discussion on a higher theoretical level and seeks to relate the innovative aesthetics of the fairy tale to the changing conditions and spirit of the times.