Why So Grim?

Mark Looney

Professor Jenny

Honors English 102

19 March 2014

Why So Grim?

Abstract:

            I chose the topic of finding out why the Grimm brothers wrote such dark fairy tales. I enjoy the Grimm brothers’ versions over the Disney versions of the fairy tales that everyone hears as children, and Professor Jenny helped me decide to find out why the Grimm Brothers’ version is so much different than the happy, child-friendly Disney or Perrault version. I looked to see if it was because of the death of their father and grandfather, if they wanted to appeal to a certain audience, or if that was the writing style of that time period. In order to find out about the answer to my research question, I got two books from the library and found 5 sources online and 4 of the 5 were academic sources. In my research, I found that there are many possible answers to my question, which are that they wrote in this dark way because they experienced tragedy in their life, the writing style was dark during that time period, or they were influenced by the ideas of Johann Gottfried Herder. I would say that they just wanted to appeal to a certain audience. I was unable to come to a definite decision because there was not enough evidence that made one possibility stand out amongst the rest. Also, I believe that Americans like the Grimms’ fairy tales because they are used to seeing violence on television every day.

1) I would start researching much earlier, so that you make sure that you have narrowed down all the possible sources that you want to look at. Also, researching earlier will give you a chance organize your sources better, which will help you in the long run.

2) Here is a list of sources that I used on my researched paper. I would recommend looking at them if you have a topic that has anything to do with the Grimm brothers.

Works Cited

"Brothers Grimm." March 18, 2014 2014.Web. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_Grimm>.

Byram, Katra A. "Fairy Tales in the Modern(Ist) World: Gerhart Hauptmann’s Bahnwärter Thiel and Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach’sDas Gemeindekind." The German Quarterly 86.2 (2013): 141-59. Print.

Heald, David. "Realism in Medieval in German Literature." German Life and Letters 21.4 (June 30, 1968): 335-44. Print.

Robert, Marthe, and Wylie L. Powell. "The Grimm Brothers." Yale French Studies 43 (1969): 44-56. Print.

Sheehan, James J. German History 1770-1866. Eds. Lord Bullock and Sir William Deakin. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Print.

Tatar, Maria. "Sex and Violence." The Hard Facts of the Grimm's Fairy Tales. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987. 3-38. Print.

Tokofsky, Peter. "The Brothers Grimm and their Critics: Folktales and the Quest for Meaning Save Reference." German Studies Review. Ed. Christa Kamanetsky. 3rd ed. 16 Vol. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, October 1993. 542-543. Print.