Grimm's fairy tales

Professor McGlathery's study is the first to survey scholarly criticism of Grimms' Fairy Tales from its publication to the present. It reveals the changing perception of fairy tales, from the initial assumption that they were descended from ancient sources, and the consequent interest in the genre's origin and evidence for ancient ritualistic practice, to the study of the fairy tale as a literary genre, distinct from other types of popular narrative; ideological critics are seen to pursue the meaning of the tales, and folklorists to examine cultural sources and story-telling as performance art.