Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University World Languages and Cultures Theses Department of World Languages and Cultures 7-23-2009 Sleeping Beauty and Her Many Relatives Dorothy Jeanine Kemptner Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/mcl_theses Part of the Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons Recommended Citation Kemptner, Dorothy Jeanine, "Sleeping Beauty and Her Many Relatives." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2009. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/mcl_theses/8 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of World Languages and Cultures at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in World Languages and Cultures Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. SLEEPING BEAUTY AND HER MANY RELATIVES by DOROTHY J. KEMPTNER Under the Direction of Robin Huff ABSTRACT The Grimm Brothers’ Little Briar-Rose is a beloved fairytale, which is more commonly known as Sleeping Beauty. What began as a Volksmärchen, is now a world famous and beloved Kunstmärchen. The Brothers collected and adapted the tale, incorporating their own literary style, helping to develop a literary Germanic cultural history. In this thesis I analyze how the tale evolves from the original oral tale to the literary story, and how various perspectives of culture and authors, with particular audiences in mind, adapt their versions. Historical background of the Grimms and their influences, an analysis of how the story was revised by the Grimms in the 1812 and 1857 editions, how American children’s versions compare to the Grimms’ version and how Jane Yolen’s version of Sleeping Beauty meets the structural and cultural expectations of the Grimms’ tale are examined.