Fairy Tales Revisted

Abstract

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are known as the gatherers and editors of tales collected in Nursery Tales for Children, or Kinder‐ und Hausmärchen. These tales were originally collected by the brothers as part of a mission to reassert German nationalism, not solely as a collection of bedtime stories for children, but also as a way for the adults reading them to understand their identity as Germans. What they created was a blueprint for how fairy tales would be retold and passed down, and made familiar to us even today through television and film. As is characteristic of fairy tales, today’s versions reflect problems relevant to our culture like incorporating feminism, the disparity of wealth, and so on, while maintaining widely recognized aspects of the Grimm’s “original” tales. Though we have tried to repackage fairy tales for children, by emphasizing the morals within the stories, the fairy tale genre today still contains material designated for adults rather than children: violent retribution and sexual connotations, complex societal overhaul, and a longing for the past and the beauty and freedom of youth