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Off with Their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood | 
 enlarge | Author: Maria Tatar
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $24.94
You Save: $5.01 (17%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 213552
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 332
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 0.8
ISBN: 0691000883
Dewey Decimal Number: 809
EAN: 9780691000886
ASIN: 0691000883
Publication Date: October 4, 1993
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
When Hansel and Gretel try to eat the witch's gingerbread house in the woods, are they indulging their "uncontrolled cravings" and "destructive desires" or are they simply responding normally to the hunger pangs they feel after being abandoned by their parents? Challenging Bruno Bettelheim and other critics who read fairy tales as enactments of children's untamed urges, Maria Tatar argues that it is time to stop casting the children as villians. In this provocative book she explores how adults mistreat children, focusing on adults not only as hostile characters in fairy tales themselves but also as real people who use frightening stories to discipline young listeners.
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| Customer Reviews:
A stellar resource October 24, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Tatar's text discusses readers as an "interpretive community" of individuals who are responsible for distilling meaning from stories independently but within a cultural framework. She points to an agenda of socialization and acculturization in children's literature, and notes that the values meant to be conveyed have shifted over the centuries. Though some of the language follows the challenging tone of literary criticism, on the whole this is a very readable text filled with invaluable insights.
Of particular interest is a chapter devoted to the study of fairy tale heroines, in which Tatar asserts that the characters' roles were meant to groom them for marriage and subservience. The text is well-researched, well-written and thoroughly considered. Though it displays a clear feminist bias, the observations stemming from that bias help to make this book of particular use to anyone interested in exploring the use of fairy tales as a form of indoctrination for young girls, as well as the villainization of women in fairy tales.
Fantastic resource! June 15, 2006
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
As a graduate student, I was introduced to Tatar by a professor in a Fairy Tales class. This book was VITAL to all of our discussions and papers. Plus, it is simply an interesting read!! A MUST BUY!!!!!
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