Sussex Centr e for Folk lor e, Fairy tales a nd Fa ntasy Newsletter Aug/Sept 2013
Inside this Issue
Grimm Girls: Picturing the ‘Princess’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 A review of ISFNR 2013. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Fairies, Elves and Goblins: The Old Stories . . . . . . . . . . 6 Harry Potter and the Millennials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Brighton & Hove City Reads Festival. . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Black dogs and fairies mutually exclusive?. . . . . . . . . . . 9 Eleven ways to enter the Underworld. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Neil Gaiman and Philip Pullman podcast . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Map of American folklore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Gramarye 3 on sale now. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
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Grimm Girls: Picturing the ‘Princess’ 23 November 2013 - 12 January 2014
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HIS EXHIBITION WILL feature the illustrations of six familiar and much-loved fairy-tales – ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, ‘Cinderella’, ‘Snow White’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Rapunzel’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’ – from collections by Grimm, Perrault and others. As well as framed pictures, there will also be first edition books and other artefacts of various illustrators, among them Arthur Rackham, Charles Robinson, Mervyn Peake and Mabel Lucie Attwell. ‘Grimm Girls: Picturing the “Princess”’ is curated by Dr Anne Anderson, a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Chichester, in association with the University’s Department of English & Creative Writing and the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy. Dr Anderson and leading fantasy and fairy-tale experts Terri Windling, Maria Nikolajeva and Jack Zipes will give presentations on the art of illustrating fairy-tales at a one-day symposium to be held at the University of Chichester on Monday 25 November. This event is open to the public.
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A View from Vilnius A review of the 16th Congress of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research 2013
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ITHUANIA WAS THE last pagan stronghold in Europe and as a result it was ravaged by the Crusaders and, later on in this pillage time-line, by the Nazis, the KGB and almost everyone else. As a response, the inhabitants’ spirit has been to keep this small place full of remarkable character, as winding streets loop out from the university to small museums and ancient forests, never far from odd and quirky-looking buildings.
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The 16th Congress of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research 2013 brought together, at the end of a long academic year, a broad range of voices to share experiences of folklore. Exchanging insights with Vilmos Voight and jokes with Mehri Bagheri, or listening to the late night crooning of Charles Pigott, a Glasgow researcher of Andean folk tunes, were some of my favourite experiences of the symposium. Perhaps my most private moment was being moved to tears by the poetry of Simon Lichman, whose account of The Harrowing spoke to my heart, and so the trip was worth making to hear his reading alone. Meanwhile the President gamefully marshalled this very mixed bag of presenters from session to conference jolly, and the organisers took a lot of trouble to provide entertainment. The runaway hit of the symposium was very likely Vladamir Hafstein, working the crowd dexterously with his musical extracts in one of the Plenary addresses, ‘The Condor’s Flight: Storytelling in the United Nations’.
My own spot was at the top of a hall decorated with images of wolves and huntsmen, and the informality of the open window and view of the passage below, as well as the variety of questions from the room, worked for me. Emirati oral poetry and the sounds of a Bedouin grandmother lulled the listeners, generating interest in the cosmopolitan, veteran audience. Later I struck out to discover a variety of interesting eateries, and I would go back to this small Baltic oasis in a flash, but perhaps not in the winter months. Thus the University of Chichester was represented in this celebration of unity and diversity and, as the next meeting of ISFNR is to be in Ankara, perhaps we may all meet up again for round 17. The full programme of the Congress can be found here.
by Elizabeth Rainey
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Faeries, Elves and Goblins: The Old Stories
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OSALIND KERVEN’S NEW book, Faeries, Elves and Goblins: The Old Stories (ISBN: 9781907892479), has recently been published by the National Trust. It’s described as ‘a definitive collection of 25 ancient tales from all over the UK and Ireland. Traditional beliefs about the faery tribes are brought alive with historical records of supposed sightings, 17th-century and even AngloSaxon spells, quotes from the Middle Ages and Victorian ballads; and extensive notes giving the background to each story and related versions. With beautiful illustrations by vintage artists such as Arthur Rackham, this is a cross-over book to enchant both adults and children and a great way to keep our narrative heritage alive.’ Find out more at http://workingwithmythsandfairytales.blogspot. co.uk/2013_06_02_archive.html
Harry Potter and the Millennials
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SURVEY OF college students at the University of Vermont suggests that the Harry Potter series has made the ‘millennial generation’ (19822002) more open to diversity; politically tolerant; less authoritarian; less likely to support the use of deadly force or torture; more politically active; and more likely to have a negative view of the Bush administration.
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The majority of the 1,100 students surveyed were the same age as the characters in the series (about 11) when the first book was released in 1997. Political
science professor Antony Gierzynski found that readers of the whole series felt statistically ‘warmer’ towards people with a history of discrimination in the US than the rest of the sample. The finding that Potter fans participate more in political activities than nonfans ‘perhaps reflects the story’s lesson on the need to act, and efficacy of doing something to fight what is “wrong” in the world,’ posits Gierzynski, who used political socialisation theory and the effects of learning to determine a set of 10 hypotheses. While Gierzynski acknowledges correlation does not prove causation, he writes that ‘there is abundant evidence that Harry Potter fans are different from nonfans on the very subjects that were covered in the lessons of the series’. When asked about the politics and message in Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling explained: ‘I wanted Harry to leave our world and find exactly the same problems in the wizarding world. So you have the intent to impose a hierarchy, you have bigotry, and this notion of purity, which is this great fallacy, but it crops up all over the world. ... So yeah that follows a parallel [to Nazism]. It wasn’t really exclusively that. I think you can see in the Ministry even before it’s taken over, there are parallels to regimes we all know and love.’1 She also said, ‘You should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth.’2 For more on the University of Vermont survey, go here. 1 http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2007/10/20/j-k-rowlingat-carnegie-hall-reveals-dumbledore-is-gay-neville-marrieshannah-abbott-and-scores-more 2 Ibid.
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Brighton and Hove City Reads Festival UK Exclusive: Terry Pratchett and Friends Sun 29 Sept 2 p.m., Brighton Dome, from £15 Expect conversation, excellent hats, readings as well as film excerpts from adaptations. A little bird tells me that one of the guests might be Jacqueline Simpson, the Sussex Centre’s Visiting Professor of Folklore!
Guards! Guards! Live (includes supper) Fri 13 Sept, 7 p.m., Marquee, Hove Lawns £24 (including supper) An interactive live reading from Stephen Briggs’ stage adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s Guards! Guards!
Scales and Terrifying Tales Sat 14 Sept, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., Jubilee Children’s Library, FREE Join artists to create the terrifying scales for a Guards! Guards! inspired dragon by artists Bec Britain and Sharon Mee from award winning Same Sky, will take over the main hall.
Jess Richards – Creating Other Worlds Thurs 19 Sep 7.30pm, Waterstone’s Brighton £5 Richards discusses the possibilities involved in creating worlds complete with their own history, geography and culture, and explores the fun and invention needed to write a novel based in a fantasy setting. Jess is the author of Snake Ropes and new novel Cooking with Bones. 8
For more events and how to buy tickets, go here.
Around the web Tales of black dogs and fairy lore seem to be mutually exclusive Comparing maps of the UK from Graham J. McEwan’s Mystery Animals of Britain and Ireland and Janet Bord’s Fairy Sites appear to show that black dogs and fairies do not co-exist. See www.strangehistory.net for the full story.
Eleven ways to enter the Underworld Hades. Naraka. Guinee. Xibalba. Though names may differ from one set of teachings to another, almost every religion on the planet features the concept of an underworld – a place to which the souls of the dead are banished, for penance or punishment. This Atlas Obscura guide looks at various purported entrances to the netherworld, ranging from Mayan caves to Japanese swamps.
Neil Gaiman and Philip Pullman podcast An audio file of the event ‘Neil Gaiman in conversation with Philip Pullman’, at the Oxford Playhouse on 21 August, is now available here.
Map of American Folklore This map, by radical social realist artist William Gropper, was created to showcase the diversity of national myths and folk stories and was distributed abroad through the U.S. Department of State starting in 1946. The ‘folklore’ on display here is a mixture of history, music, myth, and literature.
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To see the map up close click on the image or go to the full article.
Gr amarye 3 On Sale Now
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RAMARYE ISSUE 3 is now available, with contents as follows:
• ‘Hans Christian Andersen: It’s Me The Story’s About’, Neil Philip • ‘The Well of D’yerree-in-Dowan’, Patrick Ryan • ‘Dragons of East and West’, Rosalind Kerven • ‘Death and a pickled onion’, Jakob Löfgren • ‘My Favourite Story When I was Young’, William Gray • A review of Sophia Kingshill and Jennifer Westwood’s The Fabled Coast, Jacqueline Simpson
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• A review of Peter Davies’ The Fairies Return, Or, New Tales for Old, Andrew Teverson
• A review of Philip Pullman’s Grimm Tales for Young and Old, Francisco Vaz da Silva • A review of Angela Carter and Decadence, Martine Hennard Dutheil de la Rochère • A review of Colin Manlove’s The Order of Harry Potter: Literary Skill in the Hogwarts Epic, Jane Carroll
Available from: • The University’s online store • Amazon (with SearchInside) • Kim’s Bookshop, Chichester • Waterstone’s, Chichester • Atlantis, London • Treadwells, London • Way Out There And Back, Littlehampton • Dave’s Comics, Brighton • Lunartique, Bristol A two-year subscription, for four copies of Gramarye in total, is available here.
Sneak peak inside Issue 3.
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Feedback Please contact Heather Robbins (h.robbins@chi.ac.uk) with any suggestions or feedback