The Americanization of the Grimms' Fairy Tales: The Many Fortunes of Persecuted Snow White
Thursday, September 27, 2012 @ 6:00pm
Event Info
Admission
Venue
150 North Michigan Avenue
Suite 200
Chicago,
IL
60601
Presenter
Goethe-Institut
312-263-0472
Americans (if not most people in the world) tend to view the Grimms' tales in all their forms—books, films, theater and popular culture—as American. Translated and adapted first by British writers, the Grimms' tales were changed into entertaining and moral tales for children during the course of the nineteenth century. There were no great signs of Americanization. At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, American writers, illustrators, playwrights, and filmmakers began to experiment with the tales and radically transform them into American stories, whether produced for young or old. Any allusion to Germanic qualities or characteristics of the Grimms' tales was minimal. Essentially, any credit to the Grimms and their original designs and intentions were more or less effaced. Nevertheless, the Grimms' tales did become a kind of exotic brand that connoted fairy tale, and fairy tale was associated with children's culture. The most significant American adaptation of a Grimm tale was Walt Disney's animated film, Snow White, in 1937. Other Grimms' tales were also fully Americanized and altered according to American "global" norms and standards.







