The Enchanted Boot: Italian Fairy Tales and Their Tellers

This collection of Italian tales in English explores the rich and sophisticated tradition of fairy tales in Renaissance Italy, which predates the Grimms and includes hundreds of tales. The authors investigate the intersections between elite and popular cultures, oral and literary narratives, and how fairy tales express collective identities and individual sensibilities. The fairy tale in its Italian incarnations provides a powerful vehicle for expressing cultural aspirations and anxieties and imagining different ways of narrating shared futures.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 448 pages
Publication date: 01 November 2022
Publisher: Wayne State University Press

This extensive collection of Italian tales in English encourages a reevaluation of the fairy-tale canon in the context of some of the most intriguing material that has frequently been excluded from it. In the United States, we tend to associate fairy tales with children and are most familiar with the stories of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Disney. However, the first literary fairy tales emerged in Renaissance Italy, long before the Grimms, and a rich and sophisticated tradition had already developed, encompassing hundreds of tales, many of which are now considered classics. The authors featured in this volume have, throughout centuries, explored and questioned the intersections between elite and popular cultures, oral and literary narratives, and the ways in which fairy tales have been and continue to be rewritten as expressions of both collective identities and individual sensibilities. The fairy tale in its Italian incarnations provides a striking example of how this genre is a powerful vehicle for expressing cultural aspirations and anxieties, as well as for envisioning different ways of narrating shared futures.

The fairy tale in its Italian incarnations offers a remarkable illustration of how this genre is capable of conveying cultural aspirations and anxieties, as well as for imagining alternative narratives of shared futures. The authors featured in this volume have, throughout centuries, investigated and questioned the intersections between elite and popular cultures, oral and literary narratives, and the ways in which fairy tales have been and continue to be rewritten as expressions of both collective identities and individual sensibilities. The fairy tale in its Italian incarnations provides a striking example of how this genre is a powerful vehicle for expressing cultural aspirations and anxieties, as well as for envisioning different ways of narrating shared futures.

The fairy tale in its Italian incarnations offers a remarkable illustration of how this genre is capable of conveying cultural aspirations and anxieties, as well as for imagining alternative narratives of shared futures. The authors featured in this volume have, throughout centuries, investigated and questioned the intersections between elite and popular cultures, oral and literary narratives, and the ways in which fairy tales have been and continue to be rewritten as expressions of both collective identities and individual sensibilities. The fairy tale in its Italian incarnations provides a striking example of how this genre is a powerful vehicle for expressing cultural aspirations and anxieties, as well as for envisioning different ways of narrating shared futures.

Weight: 730g
Dimension: 152 x 229 x 35 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780814334751