Old Tales and New Truths


Book Description

This guidebook to the Bright-Shadow World develops three closely related issues. The first is the position that fairytales and folktales are of value today because they encourage the growth of capabilities important in our postmodern world. Each of us, like the fairytale hero, sets out on his/her own quests, seeks his/her own identity, faces his/her own dilemmas with few resources but wit, imagination, and a certain power of improvisation. King develops the implications of this situation for such common fairytale problems as learning to read the world productively; navigating various kinds of "edges;" exploiting power sources; developing highly personal moral commitments; problem solving; and data collecting. The second concern of this book is with the development of a system for analyzing narrative structure. The formula offered here involves an examination of interactions among actors, physical settings, lines of force, and power sources as a narrative moves toward its denouement. This system facilitates the classifying, and contrasting of narratives, and illuminates the structure of both narrative and lived experience. Finally, this book is concerned with myth-making or world-making processes. It is shown that traditional narrative actually points to and delineates another dimension of existence (here called "the Bright-Shadow World") that operates by rules of its own and may be penetrated by individuals from our ordinary world. Inferences about the Bright-Shadow World drawn from traditional narrative are described and evaluated.




The Truth about Stories


Book Description

Winner of the 2003 Trillium Book Award "Stories are wondrous things," award-winning author and scholar Thomas King declares in his 2003 CBC Massey Lectures. "And they are dangerous." Beginning with a traditional Native oral story, King weaves his way through literature and history, religion and politics, popular culture and social protest, gracefully elucidating North America's relationship with its Native peoples. Native culture has deep ties to storytelling, and yet no other North American culture has been the subject of more erroneous stories. The Indian of fact, as King says, bears little resemblance to the literary Indian, the dying Indian, the construct so powerfully and often destructively projected by White North America. With keen perception and wit, King illustrates that stories are the key to, and only hope for, human understanding. He compels us to listen well.




Kissing the Witch


Book Description

Thirteen tales are unspun from the deeply familiar, and woven anew into a collection of fairy tales that wind back through time. Acclaimed Irish author Emma Donoghue reveals heroines young and old in unexpected alliances--sometimes treacherous, sometimes erotic, but always courageous. Told with luminous voices that shimmer with sensuality and truth, these age-old characters shed their antiquated cloaks to travel a seductive new landscape, radiantly transformed.Cinderella forsakes the handsome prince and runs off with the fairy godmother; Beauty discovers the Beast behind the mask is not so very different from the face she sees in the mirror; Snow White is awakened from slumber by the bittersweet fruit of an unnamed desire. Acclaimed writer Emma Donoghue spins new tales out of old in a magical web of thirteen interconnected stories about power and transformation and choosing one's own path in the world. In these fairy tales, women young and old tell their own stories of love and hate, honor and revenge, passion and deception. Using the intricate patterns and oral rhythms of traditional fairy tales, Emma Donoghue wraps age-old characters in a dazzling new skin. 2000 List of Popular Paperbacks for YA




Old Truths and New Clichés


Book Description

A collection of eighteen essays that represent Singer's fullest treatment of topics he engaged with throughout his life. Most of the selected essays were originally published in Yiddish or delivered as lectures but have never been published in English before




The Truth about Old People


Book Description

Children's Book of the Week in The TelegraphA very funny and lovable picture book tribute to grandparents and older people.When you're small, everybody bigger than you seems really old. But does being older have to mean being boring, or slow, or quiet? NO! Elina Ellis' wonderful illustrations reveal that the age you are makes no difference to how amazing you can be.From the winner of the Macmillan Prize for Illustration 2017, The Truth About Old People is an instant favourite with children and grown-ups that tackles ageism without being preachy. Elina has a great talent for characterful illustration: you'll feel like you've known this family all your life.




Because I Said So!


Book Description

Draws on medical case histories, scientific findings, and personal research by the author to separate myth from fact and debunk a vast array of parental edicts.




The God of the Fairy Tale


Book Description

What Treasures Are Hidden in the Enchanted Woods? More than just bedtime traditions, more than simple children’s literature, the most enduring stories are echoes of the greatest of all stories, the Gospel. God of the Fairy Tale is a collection of spiritual reflections on the truths found in classic fairy tales, truths that point us to the ultimate Truth about God, redemption, and ourselves. Delving into twenty classic folk and fairy tales, God of the Fairy Tale leads us into the mystical landscape of elves, goblins, and talking animals to reveal the jewels of truth that hide inside these most simple of stories. Through the fables of Snow White, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and many others, we discover a perspective not unlike that of the Bible–a world of people trying to be something more, questing to do good in a realm fraught with evil, where a turn of the tables leaves the strong defeated and the weak victorious. Each tale is presented along with a meditation on the spiritual and theological themes present. God of the Fairy Tale will warm your heart with a world of characters, creatures, and circumstances that spin an entertaining yarn and affirm the most essential Christian worldviews.




Folk and Fairy Tales


Book Description

Just about everyone is familiar with folk and fairy tales. Children learn about them from parents, teachers, and other adults, while researchers study these tales at colleges and universities. At the same time, folk and fairy tales are inseparable from everyday life and popular culture. Movies, music, art, and literature offer imaginative retellings and interpretations of fairy and folk tales. But despite the pervasiveness of this folklore type, most people have only a vague understanding of these tales. This reference is a convenient introduction to folk and fairy tales for students and general readers. Written by a leading authority, this handbook offers a broad examination of folk and fairy tales as a folklore type. It looks at tales from around the world and from diverse cultures. The volume defines and classifies folk and fairy tales and analyzes a number of examples. It studies the varied manifestations of fairy and folk tales in literature and culture and reviews critical and scholarly approaches to this folklore genre. The volume also includes a glossary and extensive list of works for further reading.




Folktales Retold


Book Description

Folktales and fairy tales are living stories; as part of the oral tradition, they change and evolve as they are retold from generation to generation. In the last thirty years, however, revision has become an art form of its own, with tales intentionally revised to achieve humorous effect, send political messages, add different cultural or regional elements, try out new narrative voices, and more. These revisions take all forms, from short stories to novel-length narratives to poems, plays, musicals, films and advertisements. The resulting tales paint the tales from myriad perspectives, using the broad palette of human creativity. This study examines folktale revisions from many angles, drawing on examples primarily from revisions of Western European traditional tales, such as those of the Grimm Brothers and Charles Perrault. Also discussed are new folktales that combine traditional storylines with commentary on modern life. The conclusion considers how revisionists poke fun at and struggle to understand stories that sometimes made little sense to start with.







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