Contact:
Emily Simon
617.496.7208
Fairy Tales a 'Heady Elixir' for Children
Harvard researcher explores the power of description in Hans Christian Andersen
Cambridge, Mass. - November 8, 2007 - The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen have enchanted children the world over for more than two centuries with their verbal sorcery and expressive intensity. Now their iconic power has drawn the attention of a Harvard professor, who hopes to broaden our understanding of how the eye-widening fairy tales play a formative role in the shaping of childhood identities.
According to Maria Tatar, John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, a strong moral message is not the key to Andersen's appeal. Rather, she says, Andersen's descriptive techniques create moments with "ignition power" that kindle the imagination.
"Andersen's descriptions of beauty can weave spells," says Tatar. "They create an adrenaline rush so that you begin to read with the spine rather than the brain. These luminous moments energize the mind, leading the reader to read on to explore perils and possibilities, but also to dig deeper."
The stories deserve serious intellectual investigation, Tatar says. Her identification of "luminous moments" is part of that critical approach.
"We need to engage our critical faculties in order to understand what makes these stories so emotionally addictive," says Tatar. "Why have these Danish cultural stories taken hold in the United States to become instruments for navigating childhood? How do the stories enable the reader to get lost in the book, to drink the heady elixir of fantasy? And how do they arouse the intellectual curiosity of children?"
Tatar explores the power of "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Snow Queen," "The Princess and the Pea," "The Ugly Duckling" and twenty other tales in a forthcoming book titled "The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen" (W.W. Norton). Tatar and Julie K. Allen, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin, translated Andersen's fairy tales from the original Danish versions.
"The Emperor's New Clothes"-one of Andersen's best-known fairy tales-exemplifies for Tatar the power of Andersen's narrative style.
"When I re-read the tale I remembered how as a child I had started to imagine what the cloth looked like," says Tatar. "Even though it is invisible, the swindlers and the adults describe the cloth as silky and beautiful, with gossamer designs ... and Andersen invests so much narrative energy in describing the invisible cloth that, ironically, it begins to dazzle in the mind's eye. That is what Andersen can do-he lights up the imagination."
Children's tales like "The Emperor's New Clothes" are not Andersen's only legacy. Tatar is eager to revive his short stories, which were enormously popular among adults in the 19th century.
"Many of Andersen's short stories really put him in the pantheon of 19th century writers," Tatar says. "I am trying to resurrect him as a writer who is really of the same stature as many of the European greats."
Regardless of intended age, says Tatar, Andersen's works have a powerful resonance in contemporary society.
"Andersen tapped into something very primal; into cultural fantasies, desires, fears and phobias that are still with us today," says Tatar. "These stories are our cultural heritage."
She sees Andersen's influence in television shows like "The Swan," a reality-TV makeover program on Fox.
"The plots of his stories are constantly recycled, and they should be," says Tatar. "We make improvements to these stories, but we also sometimes fall into the trap of including our own negative cultural baggage. The tales evolve and grow as we do, and remind us that there is no 'perfect' story for children."
For more information about Tatar's research, please visit http://www.harvardmagazine.com/2007/11/the-horror-and-the-beaut.html.
###