Russian 0090: Russian Fairy Tales

Questions for Rowe and Bottigheimer Readings

Karen Rowe: "The Female Voice in Folklore and Fairy Tales"

1. What does it mean when Rowe writes that that the "fairy tale ... is a female art" (p. 71)? What are the signs of this femaleness?
2. As a "female art," what function does the fairy tale fulfill, according to Rowe? What are the "two levels" (p. 57) on which a fairy tale operates?
3. Rowe uses the term "two-fold legacy" to describe the origin, development, and distribution of fairy tales. What is this legacy and what does it have to do with "appropriation"?

Ruth Bottigheimer: "Silenced Women in the Grimms' Tales: The 'Fit' Between Fairy Tales and Society in Their Historical Context"

1. What happened to the ancient German belief in "women's inherent power over nature expressed through words" (p. 119) in literary production, both folk and canonical, in nineteenth-century Germany? What social values caused this?
2. On what levels does silence appear in the Grimms' tales (p. 118-119, 125)? What is the difference between male and female silence?
3. What role does "appropriation," to use Rowe's term, play in the use of indirect and direct speech in the Grimms' tales?
4. According to Bottigheimer, what is the significance in the Grimms' tales of the distribution of verbs that introduce a character's speech ("to say," "to ask," "to answer," "to cry")?

Developed by John Kachur.