Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


CrossThesisRevised.pdf (509.44 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Formulas for Cultural Success: Behavioral Prescriptions in Early American Translations of Perrault's Classic Fairy Tales

Cross, Megan E
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1394725886

Abstract Details

2014, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, History.
In 1697, Charles Perrault published a volume of seven fairy tales, which continue to be widely read in the present day: “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper” “Puss in Boots,” “Bluebeard,” “Riquet and the Tuft,” “The Fairy,” and “The Little Thumbling.” What did early Americans make of these fairy tales? Beginning in the late eighteenth century, American presses began publishing American editions of these fairy tales, indicating their cross-cultural appeal. In my close reading and analysis of the American versions against the French originals, I pay special attention to the behavioral prescriptions and moral ideals embedded in these stories. I argue that by publishing these tales without changes, Americans accepted and endorsed European cultural norms and assumptions. This suggests that, despite political rhetoric about the United States creating itself anew, many American agreed with the formulas for cultural success as expressed in Charles Perrault’s original French fairy tales. Further, the cultural binaries not only were adopted by Americans without change, but these values clearly illuminate characteristics of American exceptionalism that was so important to early Americans during the revolutionary era. Historical scholarship has largely ignored the significance of using fairy tales to analyze culture. Scholars of early modern literature focus primarily on the psychological interpretations of each tale. While a number of scholars have compared French and German fairy tales, none have compared French fairy tales to their American versions, and none have studied these seven tales in their comparative historical contexts. I have identified four binaries which run through the tales and provide a formula for cultural success: beauty and ugliness; obedience and disobedience; knowledge and ignorance; goodness and wickedness. Further, I am examining each tale in the context of another language, culture, and historical era. I have found that the exportation and translation of the fairy tale did not change the basic narrative or the embedded prescriptions and ideals. The publication of these fairy tales show that Americans absorbed the cultural binaries and prescriptions that were embedded within the tales. Thus, from reading these tales, I argue that early Americans praised the traits of beauty, obedience to a benevolent authority (and disobedience to tyranny), intelligence, and goodness and therefore were hoping to pass these traits onto their younger generations.
Ruth Herndon (Advisor)
Thomas Barden (Committee Member)
89 p.
American History; Folklore; History
Fairy tales; American Exceptionalism; Behavioral Prescriptions; Charles Perrault; Cultural History; Interdisciplinary History; early American history

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Cross, M. E. (2014). Formulas for Cultural Success: Behavioral Prescriptions in Early American Translations of Perrault's Classic Fairy Tales [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1394725886

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Cross, Megan. Formulas for Cultural Success: Behavioral Prescriptions in Early American Translations of Perrault's Classic Fairy Tales. 2014. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1394725886.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Cross, Megan. "Formulas for Cultural Success: Behavioral Prescriptions in Early American Translations of Perrault's Classic Fairy Tales." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1394725886

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1394725886
1,397
© 2014, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12