How have the fairy tales of different cultures changed over the centuries? What do they tell us about our fears and hopes?
In a work that spans 2,500 years these ambitious questions are addressed by over 50 experts, each contributing their overview of a theme applied to a period in history. With the help of a broad range of case material they illustrate broad trends and nuances of the fairy tale in Western culture from antiquity to the present. Individual volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole, and to make it as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the choice of reading about a specific period in one of the volumes, or following a theme across history by reading the relevant chapter in each of the six.
The six volumes cover: 1 – Antiquity (500 BCE to 800 CE); 2 – Medieval Age (800 to 1450); 3 – The Age of the Marvelous (1450 to 1650); 4 – The Long Eighteenth Century (1650 to 1800); 5 – The Long Nineteenth Century (1800 to 1920); 6 – The Modern Age (1920 to the present).
Themes (and chapter titles) are: Forms of the Marvelous; Adaptation; Gender and Sexuality; Humans and Non-Humans; Monsters and the Monstrous; Spaces; Socialization; and Power.
Table of Contents
Volume 1: A Cultural History of Fairy Tales in Antiquity
Edited by Debbie Felton, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA
Volume 2: A Cultural History of Fairy Tales in the Middle Ages
Edited by Susan Aronstein, University of Wyoming, USA
Volume 3: A Cultural History of Fairy Tales in the Age of the Marvelous
Edited by Suzanne Magnanini, University of Colorado, USA
Volume 4: A Cultural History of Fairy Tales in the Long Eighteenth Century
Edited by Anne E. Duggan, Wayne State University, USA
Volume 5: A Cultural History of Fairy Tales in the Long Nineteenth Century
Edited by Naomi Wood, Kansas State University, USA
Volume 6: A Cultural History of Fairy Tales in the Modern Age
Edited by Andrew Teverson, Kingston University, UK