Channeling Wonder


Book Description

Scholars of cultural studies, fairy-tale studies, folklore, and television studies will enjoy this first-of-its-kind volume.




Wonder Walkers


Book Description

A Caldecott Honor winner! Micha Archer's gorgeous, detailed collages give readers a fresh outlook on the splendors of nature. When two curious kids embark on a "wonder walk," they let their imaginations soar as they look at the world in a whole new light. They have thought-provoking questions for everything they see: Is the sun the world's light bulb? Is dirt the world's skin? Are rivers the earth's veins? Is the wind the world breathing? I wonder . . . Young readers will wonder too, as they ponder these gorgeous pages and make all kinds of new connections. What a wonderful world indeed!




Grimm Realities


Book Description

Through its six-season run, television's Grimm used the extraordinary to illuminate the complexity of the ordinary. Drawing on the Brothers Grimm folklore, the series crafted an enchanted present to illuminate social and ethical challenges facing Western--in particular American--culture at the beginning of the 21st century. This collection of new essays explores Grimm's critique of identity and justice in the modern world contexts of race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, environmentalism, genre and heroism, with a focus on the show's disruptive adaptation of fairy tales and reinterpretation of the police procedural in a fantasy landscape.




Tainted Blood?


Book Description

This is no ordinary memoir. With amazing clarity, wit, and charm, retired Professor Baacke skillfully illustrates what life was like in Nazi Germany. From her own first hand experience, she shows the problems and hardships all German citizens experienced. The author and her twin brother entered the Hitler Youth at age 12, unaware that they were part Jewish--and were kicked out in 1938. After beng drafted to the Reich Labor Service for Women followed by the War Auxiliary Service for a total of twelve months she served as a 'staff helper' in a Luftwaffen Lazarett in East Prussia. In January 1945, she escaped the approaching Red Army with most of the patients. It was the Steuben's second and last rescue mission before she was torpedoed by a Russian submarine and sunk. Of the 5.200 people on board, mostly women and children, wounded soldiers and refugees, 4.500 drowned. After moving with the injured soldiers to different cities in search of a permanent place, they settled in Wittingen, a small town between Celle and Hanover. Here they experienced the peaceful take-over by the American Army on Friday, April l3th, 1945, almost a month before the end of the war. She shares not only her own personal and often horrific experiences but also those of family and friends. We see what a German soldier's life was like, through the letters and stories of her twin brother fighting at the Russian front. We learn about her father, a lawyer, who cleverly managed to get out of the Nazi party. Professor Baacke candidly depicts the terrorizing air raids with fire, phosphorus and explosive bombs. She also describes vividly the brain-injured and mutilated soldiers in her hospital. Yet this book is notdepressing. She has interwoven stories of amazing strength, courage, and even joy. Lastly, she has inserted facts of recent history to paint for us an accurarate picture of the critical decades between 1923 and 1945. The reader walks away from this book with a deeper understanding of what life was like in Germany during the Nazi Regime. Reading this book empowers the readers to feel that they, too, can endure life's challenges and emerge unscathed in spirit.




Cross-Cultural Influences between Japanese and American Pop Cultures


Book Description

This collection features examinations of popular culture, including manga, music, film, cosplay, and literature, among other topics. Using interdisciplinary sources and analyses, this collection adds to the global discussion and relevancy of Japanese popular culture. This collection serves to highlight the work of multidisciplinary scholars who offer fresh perspectives of ongoing cross-cultural and cyclical influences that are commonly found between the US and Japan. Notably, this collection considers the relationships that have influenced Japanese popular culture, and how this has, in turn, influenced the Western world.




A Cultural History of Fairy Tales in the Modern Age


Book Description

How have fairy tales from around the world changed over the centuries? What do they tell us about different cultures and societies? Drawing together contributions from an international range of scholars in history, literature, and cultural studies, this volume uniquely examines creative applications of fairy tales in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It explores how the fairy tale has become a genre that flourishes on film, on TV, and in digital media, as well as in the older technologies of print, performance, and the visual arts. An essential resource for researchers, scholars and students of literature, history, the visual arts and cultural studies, this book explores such themes and topics as: forms of the marvelous, adaptation, gender and sexuality, humans and non-humans, monsters and the monstrous, spaces, socialization, and power. A Cultural History of Fairy Tales (6-volume set) A Cultural History of Fairy Tales in Antiquity is also available as a part of a 6-volume set, A Cultural History of Fairy Tales, tracing fairy tales from antiquity to the present day, available in print, or within a fully-searchable digital library accessible through institutions by annual subscription or on perpetual access (see www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com). Individual volumes for academics and researchers interested in specific historical periods are also available digitally via www.bloomsburycollections.com.




The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales


Book Description

In over 1,000 entries, this acclaimed Companion covers all aspects of the Western fairy tale tradition, from medieval to modern, under the guidance of Professor Jack Zipes. It provides an authoritative reference source for this complex and captivating genre, exploring the tales themselves, the writers who wrote and reworked them, and the artists who illustrated them. It also covers numerous related topics such as the fairy tale and film, television, art, opera, ballet, the oral tradition, music, advertising, cartoons, fantasy literature, feminism, and stamps. First published in 2000, 130 new entries have been added to account for recent developments in the field, including J. K. Rowling and Suzanne Collins, and new articles on topics such as cognitive criticism and fairy tales, digital fairy tales, fairy tale blogs and websites, and pornography and fairy tales. The remaining entries have been revised and updated in consultation with expert contributors. This second edition contains beautifully designed feature articles highlighting countries with a strong fairy tale tradition, covering: Britain and Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, North America and Canada, Portugal, Scandinavian countries, Slavic and Baltic countries, and Spain. It also includes an informative and engaging introduction by the editor, which sets the subject in its historical and literary context. A detailed and updated bibliography provides information about background literature and further reading material. In addition, the A to Z entries are accompanied by over 60 beautiful and carefully selected black and white illustrations. Already renowned in its field, the second edition of this unique work is an essential companion for anyone interested in fairy tales in literature, film, and art; and for anyone who values the tradition of storytelling.




Folktales and Fairy Tales [4 volumes]


Book Description

Encyclopedic in its coverage, this one-of-a-kind reference is ideal for students, scholars, and others who need reliable, up-to-date information on folk and fairy tales, past and present. Folktales and fairy tales have long played an important role in cultures around the world. They pass customs and lore from generation to generation, provide insights into the peoples who created them, and offer inspiration to creative artists working in media that now include television, film, manga, photography, and computer games. This second, expanded edition of an award-winning reference will help students and teachers as well as storytellers, writers, and creative artists delve into this enchanting world and keep pace with its past and its many new facets. Alphabetically organized and global in scope, the work is the only multivolume reference in English to offer encyclopedic coverage of this subject matter. The four-volume collection covers national, cultural, regional, and linguistic traditions from around the world as well as motifs, themes, characters, and tale types. Writers and illustrators are included as are filmmakers and composers—and, of course, the tales themselves. The expert entries within volumes 1 through 3 are based on the latest research and developments while the contents of volume 4 comprises tales and texts. While most books either present readers with tales from certain countries or cultures or with thematic entries, this encyclopedia stands alone in that it does both, making it a truly unique, one-stop resource.




Fairy-Tale TV


Book Description

This concise and accessible critical introduction examines the world of popular fairy-tale television, tracing how fairy tales and their social and cultural implications manifest within series, television events, anthologies, and episodes, and as freestanding motifs. Providing a model of televisual analysis, Rudy and Greenhill emphasize that fairy-tale longevity in general, and particularly on TV, results from malleability—morphing from extremely complex narratives to the simple quotation of a name (like Cinderella) or phrase (like "happily ever after")—as well as its perennial value as a form that is good to think with. The global reach and popularity of fairy tales is reflected in the book’s selection of diverse examples from genres such as political, lifestyle, reality, and science fiction TV. With a select mediagraphy, discussion questions, and detailed bibliography for further study, this book is an ideal guide for students and scholars of television studies, popular culture, and media studies, as well as dedicated fairy-tale fans.




Marvel's Collapsing Universe


Book Description

In his first non-fiction book, this prolific author takes an amateur fan's look at the science and silliness of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and tries to understand how their meteoric success of the 2008-2019 era could have seemingly soured so dramatically as they moved into Phase 4 and beyond. Are things really as bad as they seem? Are the cracks in the Marvel edifice something new, or have they been there all along, but willingly overlooked by audiences who were dazzled by the sprawling, unprecedented spectacle that Marvel initially unleashed on the eager cinematic world? Is this juggernaut really heading for a cliff, and if so, how can it be turned around? The answers may surprise you or they may be the same things you've been thinking all along! Now Updated for Deadpool & Wolverine