91桃色

When Hansel and Gretel try to eat the witch’s gingerbread house in the woods, are they indulging their 鈥渦ncontrolled cravings鈥� and 鈥渄estructive desires鈥� 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.

Awards and Recognition

• Winner of the 1992 Book Prize in Literature, German Studies Association