← Back to discovery

Breaking the magic spell

Jack David Zipes

1979201 pagesabout 3–5 hours
1979
first published
  • 1979Heinemann · 201 pages · ENGISBN 9780435829858
  • 1979University of Texas Press · 201 pages · ENGISBN 9780292707252
  • 1984Methuen · 201 pages · ENGISBN 9780416010015
  • 1995Routledge · 201 pages · ENGISBN 9780415907194
  • 2002University Press of Kentucky · 278 pages · ENGISBN 9780813190303

"In seven provocative essays, Zipes discusses the importance of investigating oral folk tales in their socio-political context and traces their evolution into literary fairy tales, a metamorphosis that often diminished the ideology of the original narrative. Zipes also looks at how folk tales influence our popular beliefs and the ways they have been exploited by a corporate media network intent on regulating the mystical elements of the stories. He examines a range of authors, including the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, Ernst Bloch, Tolkien, Bettelheim, and J.K. Rowling to demonstrate the continuing symbolic relationship between folklore and literature." -- book cover

How it reads

ComplexityLayered

Worth knowing

Written forAll ages

When and where

Reading situationRead aloud
How do you feel?