Book description
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.
"Zipes ably demonstrates that moral, political, religious,
and other ideologies have shaped these apparently innocent
narratives." -- Lore and Language
