After the Grimms’ died, writers used fairy tales to critique the society they were in. They weren’t bound to creating a unified German nation, and they weren’t bound by a sense of transmitting cultural heritage.
Post-Grimm Tale Categories
(According to Zipes)
- Social Satire
- Utopian
- Pedagogical
- Feminist
- Comic Parody
- Spiritual
Readings
“3 Wishes” (Schwitters)
- Moral: be happy from within
- Good dude, not Nazi
- Avant-Garde artist
“The Seventh Dwarf” (Hessel)
- Fled the Nazis, caught, died in internment camp
- Being tossed aside - allegory for being Jew in Germany
“Fairy Tale about Technology” (Döblin)
“Sleeping Beauty” (Künert)
- Couldn’t go to school because of his Jewish mother
- “Evil hedge” === Berlin wall
“Rumpelstiltskin” (Künzler)
- Wrote a ton of books
- Refuse the system that oppresses you
“Hans my Hedgehog” (Janosch)
- Retells the story of Hans the hedgehog, but now he’s not a silly hedgehog