Marvels and Tales 

Abstract: The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography Based on the system of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson By Hans-Jorg Uther FF Communications no 284 Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 2004 Three volumes: 619 pp, 536 pp, 285 pp The concept of a "tale type" arises in human experience When people apply their innate capacity for abstracting to their experience of hearing a story in different words or with different features, they invent a concept of sameness In folkloristic scholarship, the concept enabled anti-romantic Finnish scholars, beginning in the 1880s, to apply scientific methods, treat every recurrent plot as an entity, and establish to their satisfaction that each tale originated with a single author (monogenesis) and spread from a single point of origin (diffusion) When the American Stith Thompson took up the Finn Antti Aarne's Verzeichnis der Marchentypen (1910) and translated and enlarged it into The Types of the Folktale (1928, 1961), the catalog became indispensable to scholars tracking versions and variants of "The Animal Languages," "The Bremen Town Musicians," "Cinderella," and all the other hundreds of recurrent plots, now labeled and classified The type concept was a territorial claim for scientific folkloristics: it asserted that the folktale, or marchen, was something existing in the world, and to study it would connect the natural and the human sciences While the historic-geographic method underwent criticisms, the type concept it engendered survived Its catalog too was criticized on major grounds which Hans-Jorg Uther succinctly summarizes (1:7-8) as a prelude to his masterly improvement on Aarne and Thompson (AT) Now Uther has brought the catalog up to date His admirable work, already nicknamed ATU, transforms the folktale catalog into "an effective tool that permits international tale types to be located quickly" (1:8) So it brings in a new era Those who used the predecessor will have no difficulty rinding their way around the revision They will note the contributions made by co-workers Sabine Dinslage, Sigrid Fahrmann, and Gudrun Schwibbe and will be grateful for Christine Goldberg's vetting of the translations They will marvel at the speed with which the team, aided by the resources of the Enzyklopadie des Marchens, have brought forward the project They will cheer its improvements, beginning with its logical four-pan division-animal tales, tales of magic, religious tales, realistic tales-to replace the illogical divisions of AT Type numbers have been regularized, hence are easier to use "Irregular" types have been eliminated Tale descriptions, titles, and interconnections have been rationalized, to the relief of readers who found AT insufficiently informative and too narrow in focus A typical entry summarizes the tale's general shape, gives facts "about the tale's age, place of origin, the extent of its tradition, or other distinctive features" (13), and lists the most important bibliographical sources; these appear in the excellent appendix Then, upholding the original historic-geographic hypothesis that each tale must have its own life history, the author shows "the geographic spread of the tale type" by listing the many published catalogs of types and motifs, and also numerous versions supplied from the files of the Enzyklopadie des Marchens …

Abstract: The essay discusses the ontological, structural, and epistemological differences between fairy tales and fantasy literature, two genres often treated together in critical works. Using contemporary theories of the fantastic, it is argued that unlike fairy tales, with their origin in archaic thought, fantasy literature is firmly anchored in twentieth-century science and philosophy, especially the postmodern concepts of uncertainty, intersubjectivity, heterotopia, and heteroglossia. The characteristic features of postmodern fantasy literature are illustrated by the works of Diana Wynne Jones, Philip Pullman, Susan Cooper, and Russell Hoban.

Abstract: It is hardly a revelation that animals are prominent in folk- and fairy tales Appearing as protagonists, helpers, or antagonists, the Ugly Duckling, Puss in Boots, and Little Red Riding Hood's wolf, among so many other animals, are central to what we understand these genres to be But however commonplace, animals pose nothing short of an interpretive challenge, especially in the wake of emerging critical interest in what is called "animal studies"1 Most often, folkand fairy-tale animals are presumed to have metaphorical meanings that exceed their existence as natural beings in a world shared with humans That is, they are understood to be anthropomorphic or symbolic representations that have relatively little to do with animals per se and much more with humans Of course, such interpretations have undeniable merit: in storytelling traditions the world over, fictional animals are made to figure human virtues, vices, foibles, and dilemmas, providing a mirror image all the more faithful because it reflects a purportedly nonhuman appearance2 It would seem, then, that the animal disappears before the human But this never entirely happens, I would argue, not only because folk- and fairy-tale animals almost always retain distinctive traits of their nonhuman beings (eg, the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood has the infamous coat of hair and big ears, eyes, and teeth in addition to the ability to reason and speak as a man), but also because animals - no matter how anthropomorphic - always pose an existential problem for humans As Other, animals enable humans in fairy tales to define themselves by both comparison and contrast The wolf may personify a male seducer (or any number of other human character types), but he is also quite simply a wolf, whose animal being puts into relief Little Red Riding Hood's status as a victimized gjrl Reminding us that wolves are also wolves, animal studies aim to bring attention to the discourses shaping our relation to animals as well as to the specificity of animals themselves This emergent field is motivated by both ecological and philosophical concerns On the one hand, it is a response to environmental degradation and its consequences for all animal life, nonhuman and human On the other (but the two are certainly linked), this field is an extension of the postmodern critique of the (human) subject, exposing the myth of self-knowledge and self-mastery elaborated by Enlightenment rationalism by underscoring how human and nonhuman animals all share an "embodied finitude" (Wolfe 570) In short, animal studies is a response to the prevailing assumption in our modern and postmodern world that humans are apart from and above nonhuman beings; that we are radically different from them; that humans possess reason, language, and any number of other traits unknown to nonhuman animals By blurring the boundaries between human and animal, this field aims to redefine our ethical responsibility not only toward animals but also toward other humans What we assume about animals and humans, how we speak about them, and how we act toward them are all concerned by critical work that puts animals in new light Ethical questions like these are also at the heart of folk- and fairy tales, of course Indeed, the fact that questions about how humans should think of, speak about, and act toward animals recur so often in these genres underscores uieir relevance for the new critical interest in animals and animality Over and beyond the cultural and symbolic significance long noted by anthropologists and folklorists, folk- and fairy-tale animals reveal a wide range of perspectives on relations between humans and nonhumans, especially because of the often unique representation given to animals More often than not, animals are characters in their own right and are given supernatural or nonempirical traits, all die while retaining characteristics that identify them as such (eg, appearance or behavior) But one of the most significant ways folk- and fairy tales broach the representation of animals and animality is through the frequent motif of metamorphosis (animal to human, human to animal, etc …

Abstract: Following the premiere of Walt Disney's first full-length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937, dir William Cottrell and David Hand), New York Times film critic Frank S Nugent hailed the film as "significant cinematically as D W Griffith's Birth oj a Nation" ("One Touch of Disney" 5) Indeed, for a picture that was labeled "Disney's folly" because of the costs the studio had to defend, Disney's version of the fairy tale of the lost princess and seven little men became the highest grossing film of 1938, earning more than $5 million in the first year of its release (Nugent, "This Disney Whirl" 5) Disney was awarded a special Oscar for Snow White in 1938, a true testament to its high level of popularity and critical acclaimDisney's connection to the fairy-tale world is now well established, with the studio receiving similar levels of acclaim for their productions of Cinderella (1950, dir Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske), The Little Mermaid (1989, dir John Clements and Ron Musker), Beauty and the Beast (1991, dir Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise), and their latest installment, Tangled (2010, dir Nathan Greno and Byron Howard), a loose retelling of the Grimms' version of "Rapunzel" However, despite its many accolades, scholars have struggled with Disney's adaptation of classical fairy talesBecause of the seemingly innocent nature of Disney animation and its subsequent association with childhood through fairy tales and because of Disney's prominent position within the paradigm of popular culture, scholars have identified Disney films as somehow worthy of special treatment In their analytical work From Mouse to Mermaid, Elizabeth Bell, Lynda Haas, and Laura Sells highlight the challenges faced by those wanting to engage in analysis of Disney films They argue that "legal institutions, film theorists, cultural critics and loyal audiences all guard the borders of Disney film as 'off limits' to critical enterprise" (3) Steven Watts identifies this tension as a conflict between popularity and critical reception He argues that "Disney's enormous popularity has contributed to dismissal in critical circles Commercial success has been viewed in inverse proportion to cultural significance" (84) The problem with Disney seems to be the paradoxical underlying notion that populist sentiment cannot be viewed in unison with cultural importance As such, many of the current works on Disney are deductive in nature, analyzing any Disney animated production in exclusive, not inclusive, termsHowever, the tide seems to be turning in favor of constructive scholarship on Disney Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan's recent analysis of the later animated productions of Disney introduces a new notion for animation scholars to consider They argue, "We must not just ask questions about Disney, we must ask questions about the questions we ask about Disney" (3) As our society changes sociologically, economically, and politically, the terms of critical engagement with these texts must also necessarily changeDouglas Brode was one of the first Disney scholars to examine Disney animation in a positive light and to take these terms of engagement into consideration In his work From Walt to Woodstock: How Disney Created the Counterculture, Brode highlights an illuminating fact The evolution of ideology in Disney animation in the 1930s and 1940s was crucial to the formation of a radicalized value system that played a key part in the youth revolution of the 1960s (Brode, Walt 6) The importance of Brode's scholarship lies in recognizing the underlying importance of the values transmitted through Disney animation and their far-reaching consequences In his later work Multiculturalism and the Mouse: Race and Sex in Disney Entertainment Brode puts the live-action and animated films of Disney under analysis and argues how these features and shorts actually helped to foster tolerance of diversity in American society …

Abstract: Good Girls and Wicked Witches: Women in Disney's Feature Animation. By Amy M. Davis. Eastleigh, UK: John Libbey, 2006. Distributed by Indiana University Press in the United States. 274 pp. The title of this book is somewhat misleading. It seems to indicate that Amy Davis will provide some kind oi feminist reading of how women are portrayed in Walt Disney Studios animated films. On the contrary, her study, based on a PhD dissertation at the University of Ulster, is a polite and sober rationalization of the sexism in the Disney Studios' use of women in its organization and for the manner in which the studio, now a major corporation, has consistently produced films that disregard the actual living conditions of women and that reinforce the patronizing manner in which females have been treated in Western societies. Indeed, Davis's positivist study of the diverse ways that females have always been put into their "Disney prescribed" places, whether in film or in the corporation, rationalizes the Disney ideology and aesthetic to such an extent that the book's real title should be How Good Girls and Wicked Witches Can Come to Terms with Poor Misunderstood Walt and His Boys. The book is organized into six chapters that cover the film as cultural mirror; a brief history of animation; the early life of Walt Disney and the Disney Studio, 1901-1937; Disney films, 1937-1967, the "Classic Years"; Disney films, 1967-1988, the "Middle Era"; Disney films, 1989-2005, the "Eisner Era." There are also four helpful appendixes: a list of Disney's full-length animated feature films; synopses of selected Disney films; a bibliography; and a filmography Davis's major thesis is "to correct the perception of how women are represented in Disney's animated features, and secondly, to begin a dialogue - based on this analysis - about how these representations function within American society and popular culture. Because this analysis of Disney's animated feature films contradicts to some degree many popular conceptions of Disney films as a group, the findings it presents in its analysis will hopefully counteract the impressions that these films are so thoroughly sexist by offering a more balanced look at depictions of femininity in Disney films" (235). The difficulty, however, is that Davis's "findings," based mainly on descriptive and positivist analysis, only reconfirm that the images of women in almost all the films that she discusses tend to present stereotypical women. Davis sets up standard binary categories of morality, physical beauty, and behavior to describe certain types of women and their actions, and she uses quantitative measures to discuss the values placed on the appearances of women and how they are depicted in the Disney films. Her early chapters that deal with animation and the history of the Disney Studios rely heavily on Steven Watt's The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life and most of the conventional biographies and studies of Walt Disney's life and work. Thus her work is repetitive of commonly known facts. She does not cite or discuss the more critical and theoretical works of animation such as Alan Cholodenko's The Illusion of Life: Essays on Animation, Donald Crafton's Before Mickey: The Animated Film, 1 898-1 928, Shamus Culhane's Animation: From Script to Screen. There is very little theoretical discussion of the problematic aspect of film adaptation and how technology is used to maximize a male gaze. The important period of 19231924 and the production of fairy-tale films are given short shrift. Nor does she analyze the very important fairy-tale and fable adaptations of SiUy Symphonies in the early 1930s to grasp the evolution of gender portrayal in the Disney films: how Disney and his artists adapted fairy tales in regard to their sources, and why and how the films encompassed the gender roles into a general political ideology that tended to gloss over social contradictions and to celebrate elitist ruling groups and male power in almost all the animated features from the original Walt Disney productions through the Eisner period. …