Grimm...America...& Cinderella --Krystal Sweitzer

I am a bit at a loss for where to start my blog this week! I look forward to a time where I can study what the Grimm Brothers uncovered for Germany and how their assiduous folk tale research and field work has been modified for consumers in the United States (Disney) and the transformation that occurred from the original grisly, and largely haunting stories, to the “softer” fairy tales we all hear growing up (“happily ever after” seems indicative of that American Dream our country was founded upon).  Many of us watched Disney movies religiously when we were younger (Little Mermaid was my top pick), much as I imagine children were told stories in Germany after the Grimm’s published their collected tales, and of course, as they have been told to children for centuries. (I imagine some of you in this class have a much better grasp of the history of telling children’s tales before a child goes to sleep! What an interesting field of study!)  The effect of the Grimm’s research (along with Lachmann and the many individuals dedicated to locating, defining, and presenting “authenticity” for Germany) is still apparent in the United States and Bendix remarks: “Neither folk materials nor authenticity could be contained within this particular niche, but this nineteenth-century German academic model continues to be invoked as a viable approach to ascertain authenticity.  In the United States the model found a following within a nascent academic interest in the study of folklore” (67).  Clearly the German model was the blueprint for how the United States took on the difficult task of creating and publishing just what authentic America should be, and how one should go about locating it.  I find it so interesting to see just how the idea of what “America” should look, feel, taste, smell, and sound like incredibly important!  Bendix also makes an interesting note about the exact moment when an academic core sought to physically locate that search for authenticity: “Reconstruction after the American Civil War was not only a matter of passing constitution amendments or of rebuilding war-ravaged cities, but a matter of finding a new American identity.  Escaping back into the English past was one possibility, though this luxury was probably most congenial to New England.  The South was a more difficult heritage, with a far too recent fratricidal conflict to permit it to be a model for the United States.  Instead, it was to the West, to the unexplored frontier, that politicians, adventurers, and academics looked” (119).

We’ve talked about this in class already, how the West became our “medieval, romantic fantasy” of exploration, pushing boundaries, and defining that tough “rough and ready” American that many grew up associating with how a country “should” be.  Wouldn’t it have been interesting if we hadn’t found a physical location to confine our identity to? It seems that in locating and deciding that “the great American West” should be our source for identity, we put ourselves into a box (contained by the colonies, Canada, Mexico, and the Pacific Ocean).  I wonder if we wouldn’t have a different idea of what being American is if we had looked at our identity as a limitless entity and not one physically confined to a particular locality!

And now, for a bit of a change of thought, I’ve linked some useful sites on the History of the Grimm Brothers as well as a site that has some (rough) presentations of their translated stories.  Further, I’ve linked a NY Times book review on “Cinderella Ate My Daughter” which looks at what possible negative effects result from that all too familiar “Princess” state.  An interesting perspective and certainly one that works at how young girls define their “authentic, inner selves” based on external influences.

Phew! A lot of topics! I cannot wait for the class discussion!


http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm.html


http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/folklinks.html


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/books/review/Paul-t.html