From Folk & Fairy Tales
Out at a local used bookstore the other day, I came across a university course reader, Folk & Fairy Tales (3rd ed), edited by Martin Hallett and Barbara Karasek. From the introduction:
The distinguished American critic Leslie Fielder once observed that children's books introduce all the plots used in adult works and that adult responses are frequently based on forgotten or dimly remembered works from childhood. This is particularly true of fairy tales, which, in providing much of our earliest literary and imaginative experience, have surely exerted an enormous influence over us. [Our goal]...is to draw attention not only to the fascination inherent in the tales themselves, but also to the insights of some critics who have demonstrated, from a variety of perspectives--literary, psychological, and historical--that fairy tales have a complexity belied by their humble origins.
How true do you think it is that our childhood reading influences our adulthood reading?
The distinguished American critic Leslie Fielder once observed that children's books introduce all the plots used in adult works and that adult responses are frequently based on forgotten or dimly remembered works from childhood. This is particularly true of fairy tales, which, in providing much of our earliest literary and imaginative experience, have surely exerted an enormous influence over us. [Our goal]...is to draw attention not only to the fascination inherent in the tales themselves, but also to the insights of some critics who have demonstrated, from a variety of perspectives--literary, psychological, and historical--that fairy tales have a complexity belied by their humble origins.
How true do you think it is that our childhood reading influences our adulthood reading?