This book explores the interplay of childhood and the fairy tale as they both changed character in accordance with the historical transformations of the mid-nineteenth century. While the fairy tale was instrumental in the social construction of childhood, the latter for its part played an equally crucial role in altering the narrative structure of the fairy tale. So viewed, the story of childhood is closely intertwined with the fairy tale, and both with modernity as it changed its focus with the changing direction of the civilizing process. The liberating potential of modernity emerges when a broad spectrum of the marginalized, including children, begin to assert themselves and gain recognition as independent subjects of historical inquiry.

This incisive entry in the Classical Presences series explores the afterlife and influence of Apuleius' tale of Cupid and Psyche in European literature and art from 1650 to the present.

It wasn’t so long ago that the fairy tale was comfortably settled as an established and respectable part of children’s literature. Since the fairy tale has always been a mirror of its times, however, we should not be surprised that in the latter part of the twentieth century it turned dark and ambiguous; its categorical distinction between good and evil was increasingly at odds with the times. Yet whatever changes the fairy tale may have undergone, its cultural popularity has never been greater. Fairy Tales in Popular Culture sets out to show how the tale has been adapted to meet the needs of the contemporary world; how writers, film-makers, artists, and other communicators have found in its universality an ideal vehicle for speaking to the here-and-now; and how social media have created a participatory culture that has re-invented the fairy tale. A selection of recent retellings show how the tale is being recalibrated for the contemporary world, first through the word and then through the image. In addition to the introductions that precede each section, the anthology provides a selection of critical pieces that offer lively insight into various aspects of the fairy tale as popular culture.

The myths and legends of the Fair Folk are the oldest in Britain and our Fairy lore is unique to this island. Meetings with Faery are well recorded. Humans have always been aware of a form of life called Fairy, but how exactly do we meet these beings? What is their physical form and nature, and how and where do they live? Here is a deep analysis of the traditional knowledge of the nature of Fairies, and their importance to us, combined with an examination of our interaction with Faery.

Picturing home examines the depiction of domestic life in British feature films made and released in the 1940s. It explores how pictorial representations of home onscreen in this period re-imagined modes of address that had been used during the interwar years to promote ideas about domestic modernity. Picturing home provides a close analysis of domestic life as constructed in eight films, contextualising them in relation to a broader, offscreen culture surrounding the suburban home, including magazines, advertisements, furniture catalogues and displays at the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition. In doing so, it offers a new reading of British 1940s films, which demonstrates how they trod a delicate path balancing prewar and postwar, traditional and modern, private and public concerns.

George MacDonald’s Victorian fairy tales transformed the genre of fantasy. His work also shaped the next generation of both children’s literature and modernism: C.S. Lewis regarded MacDonald as a major influence, and writers as diverse as G.K Chesterton and W.H. Auden acknowledged his significance. His best known story for children, The Princess and the Goblin, tells the story of a lonely child princess and her friend, a brave miner boy, in their battle with subterranean monsters. Along with The Princess and the Goblin, this edition includes four other major fairy stories by MacDonald, as well as a selection of historical documents on the works’ composition and reception, Victorian fairy tales, and MacDonald’s literary criticism.

This study addresses 19th-century European art along with the forces that informed it. After introducing historical events and cultural and artistic trends from about 1760 that would exert their influence well into the new century, Petra ten-Doesschate Chu discusses the advent of modernism and its many interpretations. She considers the changing relationship between artist and audience, evolving attitudes towards the depiction of nature, and the confrontation of European artists with non-Western art due to expanding trade and travel. understanding of the art, as do sidebars that focus on specific works, techniques or historical circumstances. Although painting and sculpture are central in her narrative, Chu also covers a broad scope of visual culture, including architecture, decorative arts, photography and graphic design. A timeline, glossary and bibliography, listing not only books but also films related to the period, complete the volume.