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.
