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Author
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Comment
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gnome
Unregistered User
(8/29/05 4:24 am)
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gore in fairytales
hello, I'm trying to research into the theme of the extreme gore evident in fairytales, especially when directed towards women and/or children. I know the stories of Bluebeard and Little Red Riding Hood, which particularly interest me, but was just wondering if anyone knew of any leads that might help?
Thank you for your help!
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Writerpatrick
Registered User
(8/29/05 9:52 am)
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Re: gore in fairytales
Are you really asking about gore or are you asking about violence? The actual amount of gore often depends upon the storyteller.
"Bluebeard/The Robber Bride" is probably the most violent. I know "The Twin Brothers" involves decapitation. "The Singing Bone" has a musical instrument made from the bone (or bones) of a corpse. Violence is a common theme and it would probably be best to scan through the stories.
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catja1
Registered User
(8/29/05 7:26 pm)
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Re: gore in fairytales
Try Maria Tatar's book The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales; she discusses the violence of the stories in a great deal of depth.
Too, it's important to remember that what WE consider gory and too-violent isn't necessarily what the Grimms' (and others) informants may have considered "too gory." There wasn't a whole lot of cushioning against death and violence in the early nineteenth century, and in fact, such cushioning was likely to be considered undesirable (depending on one's social class, religious beliefs, education, etc.). The Fairchild Family, an early children's book that was extremely famous throughout the nineteenth century, features a father dragging his kids to see a corpse rotting on a gibbet; the children have been squabbling a lot, and dad takes the opportunity to preach that the corpse, when alive, quarrelled with his brother, and LOOK WHAT HAPPENED.
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gnome
Unregistered User
(8/30/05 6:55 am)
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in reply
thanks very much!
Yeah it was violence rather than gore I am looking at I guess, especially how it affects women/children in the tales, and also how it is developed through literary history.
Thanks again!
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