Fairy Tales and Political Socialization
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FAIRY TALES AND POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION by Mehrdad Faiz Samadzadeh A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Curriculum, Teaching & Leadership University of Toronto Ontario Institute for Studies in Education © Copyright by Mehrdad Faiz Samadzadeh 2018 FAIRY TALES AND POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION Mehrdad Faiz Samadzadeh Doctor of Philosophy Department of Curriculum, Teaching & Leadership Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto 2018 Abstract The concept of childhood is one of the many facets of modernity that entered Western consciousness in the seventeenth century. It emanated from the historical mutations of the post-Renaissance era that set in motion what Norbert Elias calls the civilizing process, one that spawned a repressive mode of socialization in tandem with the cultural and ideological hegemony of the new power elite. Accordingly, childhood became a metaphor for oppression targeting not only children, but also women, the underclass, the social outcast, and the colonized as they all were deemed “incompletely human”. From mid-nineteenth century on, however, childhood began to evince a liberating potential in tandem with the changing direction of modern Western civilization. This ushered in an alternative concept of childhood inspired by the shared characteristics between the medieval and modern child that finds expression in the works of distinguished literary figures of the Victorian era. What followed was an entire movement towards the recognition of children’s rights and status that set the context for the growing interest in childhood as a subject of historical inquiry in the twentieth century. This conceptual vicissitude of childhood is central to the present thesis which I pursue in relation to the literary genre of fairy tale. Such an approach is based on the interplay ii of childhood and the fairy tale as they both changed character in accordance with the historical transformations of the period. While the fairy tale was instrumental in the social construction of childhood, the latter on its part played an equally crucial role in altering the narrative structure of the fairy tale. Viewed so, the story of childhood is closely intertwined with the fairy tale, and both with modernity as it changed its focus with the changing direction of the civilizing process. The liberating potential of modernity emerges when a broad spectrum of the marginalized, including children begin to assert themselves and gain recognition as independent subjects of historical inquiry. iii Acknowledgement The writing of this dissertation was a long journey the completion of which would not have been possible without the support of a number of committed individuals. First and foremost, I would like to express my special gratitude to Professor David Levine for his invaluable guidance, scholarly inputs and constant and unwavering support and encouragement. I consider myself fortunate to have had him as my thesis supervisor. I am also grateful to other members of my thesis committee: Professor Emeritus Dieter Misgeld, Professor Harold Troper, Professor Emeritus Michael Levin, and Professor Emeritus David Booth, who all read the dissertation and made insightful suggestions. My special thanks also goes to Professor David Churchill and Professor Grace Feuerverger who, as external and internal appraisers respectively, thoroughly read my dissertation and made constructive comments which have inspired me to expand my research horizon. Professor Antoinette Gagne, Associate Chair, and Professor Terry Louisy, Coordinator, Graduate Programs, Department of Curriculum, and leadership at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, provided administrative and moral support for which I am very grateful. I am also grateful to Professor. Madhavan K. Palat, formerly of the Jawaharlal Nehru University and the present editor of the Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru as well as Professor Ruth B. Bottigheimer, Research Professor in the department of Cultural Analysis and Theory at Stony Brook University State, New York. Both kindly read an earlier draft of this dissertation and offered expert advice and informed suggestions. I would also like to express my gratitude to my friend Dr. Hormoz Khakpour and Professor Lissa Paul of Brock University for their critical comments and views. I must also thank Professor Emeritus Randall McLeod of English department, University of Toronto at Mississauga for giving me useful tips and techniques which considerably improved my writing style. As such, I like to thank Mindy Thuna, my work supervisor at University of Toronto Library, who was very supportive of my research work. Similarly, I like to thank my colleague Amanda Wagner of the Information Commons, University of Toronto Library, for helping me greatly with formatting the dissertation in accordance with the School of Graduate Studies guidelines. I would also like to thank my friends Dr. Noori Saidi, Forough Khorasani, Geoff Langridge, and Iran Langridge for their good wishes and encouraging words. Finally, I feel a deep sense of gratitude for my family, my wife Soheila Nikzadeh, my daughter Mahsa Samadzadeh, my step-daughter Pegah Kavianpour, my daughter in-law Noran Fishir, and my son Mehrtash Samadzadeh, who all inspired and encouraged me in every possible way throughout this long journey. v Table of Contents Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................ iv Introduction ........................................................................................................................1 Chapter I: The Child as a Historical Subject ................................................................11 Chapter II: The Review of Literature on Childhood ...................................................43 Chapter III: From Folk Tales to Fairy Tales ................................................................81 Introduction to Part II ...................................................................................................132 Chapter IV: The Changing Character of Fairy Tales from Straparola to Perrault .....................................................................................136 Chapter V: The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm and the Political Socialization of Children in the Age of Nationalism .........................177 Chapter VI: The Escape from Innocence: Contradictions of Modern Childhood ..233 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................270 Epilogue ..........................................................................................................................278 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................295 vi Introduction The fairy tale and childhood are both independent subjects of historical inquiry which came into their own in the course of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries respectively. Whereas the fairy tale was established with the Brother Grimms’ Children’s and Household Tales (1856), childhood was academically recognized with the publication of Philippe Ariès’ provocative book, Centuries of Childhood (1962). Ever since, numerous studies have appeared on the two subjects, ranging from psychoanalytical to historical. What is not fully explored, however, is the interplay of childhood and the fairy tale in a manner both consistent with and opposed to the imperatives of modern discipline. This is evident in the changing concepts of childhood in Western society in different phases of modernity. While until the late nineteenth century the literary construction of childhood for the most part reflected a repressive culture and ideology subservient to the power elite1, thereafter it acquired a liberating potential to redeem not only children but also women, the underclass, the unlettered, and the colonized, just as it had earlier been used as a discourse of domination against the same categories of people. It is at this historical juncture that the medieval and modern concepts of childhood are juxtaposed to present an alternative philosophical view of humanity in keeping with the emancipatory message of modernity. These are the themes I intend to pursue in this thesis. In doing so, I choose Norbert Elias’ seminal work, The Civilizing Process as my theoretical framework. The choice has to do with the overarching nature of his socio-historical approach, which provides a comprehensive account of the epochal changes in Modern Europe. Childhood 1. There were of course oppositions to this repressive view of childhood as evident in some eighteen century children’s literature concerning educational practices. For example, Mary Wollstonecraft, a staunch advocate of women’s rights, projected a more liberal view of childhood in her Original Stories: From Real Life; With Conversations, Calculated to Regulate the Affections, and Form the Mind to Truth and Goodness (Dublin: printed for J. Jones, No. 111, Grafton-Street, opposite the College, 1792). Relying on her personal experience with real children, she advanced an alternative educational model that tallied with her portrayal of children as having rights and responsibilities to think and to know. 1 2 is a cultural manifestation of these changes that was emblematic of diverse forms of social differentiation. Neither the Marxian theory of class nor the