Social Tales

Posted 06/18/01

Originally published in the June 10, 2001, issue of Dartmouth Life

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, fairy tales were more than just animated stories that spawned movies and plastic fast-food toys.

"Fairy tales originally were adult literature, and they often served polemic purposes," says Nancy Canepa, an Associate Professor of French and Italian who has a special interest in the fanciful stories. "They were a way for storytellers to comment on their society or culture in a way that often allowed greater freedom than writing in a more realistic genre."

A scholar of 16th and 17th century Italian literature, Canepa recently won the prestigious Howard R. Marraro Prize from the Modern Language Association for her book From Court to Forest: Giambattista Basile's Lo cunto de li cunti and the Birth of the Literary Fairy Tale. The book is a critical and historical study of Western Europe's first comprehensive collection of literary fairy tales.

Literary fairy tales -- those that were authored as opposed to just being shared orally -- date back to 16th century Italy. As the commercial heart of western Europe, Italy was also the center of cultural exchange, and folk tales from all over the world were exchanged there, along with ideas.

Canepa's interest in the time period led her to write her doctoral dissertation on Giambattista Basile, the author who set the foundation for modern fairy tales. The Brothers Grimm, known for their extensive collection of tales, did not come on to the scene until the early 1800s.

"In grad school I'd done a lot of work with noncanonical and anti-canonical authors who challenged the high literary tradition, and Basile was among them. His work is one of the masterpieces of the 17th century, but he is not well-known," she said.

Although laced with magic, fairy tales generally feature characters going through problems to which most people can relate -- from sibling rivalry to coming of age, Canepa says. In fact, modern therapists sometimes use the stories to help abused children sort through problems that would be difficult to face in more straightforward ways, she says.

"The problems people encounter in fairy tales are universal, but it's not quite true that the stories themselves are. There are usually very culturally specific elements of the stories," she said.

Because they were intended for adult audiences, early fairy tales, like those by Basile, tend to be much more colorful than the sanitized versions told today. Canepa says the students in her comparative literature classes on fairy tales are often shocked by the original tales.

"The myths we have about fairy tales are really contradicted by Basile. The stories are very often earthy and ribald, and, in some cases, sexually explicit," says Canepa.

Fairy tales evolved into children's literature in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. One of the first tales written for children was Madame Beaumont's "Beauty and the Beast." Beaumont, a governess, wrote the story to soothe the fears of young girls who dreaded arranged marriages, according to Canepa.

Canepa received an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and completed her doctorate at Yale. She came to Dartmouth in 1989 after living and teaching in Italy. She currently is working on two major translation projects: the 200-page 19th-century novel Pinocchio and Basile's Tale of Tales. Her other scholarly projects include a book about evolving literary genres in the 17th century and writing a cultural history of the Italian fairy tale.

Far from dying, the fairy tale genre continues to be renewed in every generation, says Canepa. Works by Lewis Carroll, Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens offer 19th century examples, while young adult novels by Jane Yolen, stories by Angela Carter, poetry by Anne Sexton and the novels of Gregory Maguire, among others, demonstrate 20th and 21st century forms of fairy tales.

To those who would consider fairy tales light literary fare, Canepa offers a few thoughts.

"The fairy tale has existed for thousands of years, both in oral and literary forms, and it's still a very vital genre for children and adults. Obviously there is something in the content and literary structure of fairy tales that appeals to authors and readers. Why should we study in concentrated academic fashion other genres, such as the epic or the novel, and not the fairy tale?" she says.

See also: "Professor of Italian lauded for book on the birth of modern fairy tales"