Culture
The Politics of Fairytales
by Maniscalco Riccardo
Fairytales, heritage and identity in Europe Here the storytelling animal used all its imagina-
tive power to form and perform small narrative accounts where witches, speaking animals and called Europe lived a very special animal. It other wondrous figures could interact with hucouldn’t run faster than its fellow living beings, man beings and influence their fate. nor was it particularly strong or intelligent. Similarly it couldn’t soar free in the skies and the But fairytales still remained only a small part marine depths remained a mystery to it. How- of all the tales it told. And words weren’t the ever, it possessed a characteristic that made it only mean. At first came the paper, later radio unique: it told stories. From the cuddle to the and finally television and digital media. As time grave its life was filled with big and small tales. went by fewer and fewer members of the speThe adventures of Gilgamesh, Pinocchio and cies liked to listen to the good old fairytales. It Angela Merkel punctuated its days together came a point when the fairytale storytellers in with the newest gossips about the neighbour’s Europe were so few that they could be almost children or some gruesome news story. Of all all put in the same room and not fill it. This fact those narratives that imbued its life there was scared some of the animals. They didn’t know however one like no other. It was called fairytale. how to solve this situation, till one day, around
Once upon a time in a far away piece of land
Typical characters of fairytale
© Pixabay
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