University of Algiers 02 Course: Literature

Faculty of Foreign Languages Teacher in charge: Dr Z.Yousfi

Department of English Groups: 06 (2nd year)
Academic year: 2020/2021

Brothers Grimm’s Fairy Tales

Extreme Escapism and Exotic Exile

Literature 5.0 Brothers Grimm’s Fairy Tales: Extreme Escapism and Exotic Exile - 2nd year English
Group 06 - Dr. Z. YOUSFI
 Brothers Grimm’s Fairy Tales

The term Fairy Tales was coined by the French author Madame D’Aulnoy in the late
17th century.

Due to the great interest in the unconventional protagonist, affinity with nature,
alienation and escapism by the end of the 18th century and early 19th century, an
appetite for fairy tales emerged allowing new exotic settings for extreme exile.

Fairy tales offered an extreme type of exile and escapism that can be simplistically
illustrated via their a-historical setting indicated via the use of “Once Upon A Time”
which refers to an ancient unspecific & undefined time, or the use of “in a land far
away or not far away” which refers to an unspecific far exotic place.

Fairy tales lack the aesthetic poetic and prosaic style due to their oral origins which
rely on straightforward plain style.

Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales are known to be the famous collection of folk tales
collected by the German brothers Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, published in the
early 19th century. The collection includes different tales from our childhood such as
Cinderella, Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, Snow white, Little Red Riding Hood, etc.

In their first edition, the Grimms’ tales targeted a mainly adult audience. The tales
were widely popular, translated, and successful with children, hence revisions were
made later on to sanitize the tales and make them suitable for the young audience.

For example, the first version of “Rapunzel” openly referred to her pregnancy (outside
marriage) which is not included in the known version of the tale. In an early version of
Cinderella, Cinderella does not forgive her stepsisters but gets helper birds to blind the
sisters by pecking out their eyes!

The Brothers Grimm, like many folklorists since, embarked on a scholarly project to
identify and preserve the spirit of the people by recording the fairy tales being told
across their culture. This was an epic romantic venture that offered exotic escapism
and an extreme imaginary exile.

Literature 5.0 Brothers Grimm’s Fairy Tales: Extreme Escapism and Exotic Exile - 2nd year English
Group 06 - Dr. Z. YOUSFI
 Archetypal/ Stock Characters in Folklore/ Fairy Tales

Literature 5.0 Brothers Grimm’s Fairy Tales: Extreme Escapism and Exotic Exile - 2nd year English
Group 06 - Dr. Z. YOUSFI