Resurrecting Dead Fairy Tales brings subversive stories back to life
MISCELLANEOUS Productions presents an online lecture and Q&A with folklorist and fairy-tale expert Jack Zipes
Fearless Ivan and his Faithful Horse Double-Hump by by Pyotr Yershov is one of the fairy tales Jack Zipes will discuss in Resurrecting Dead Fairy Tales.
“The worlds projected by the best of our fairy tales reveal the gaps between truth and falsehood in our immediate society.” Those words come from globally renowned folklorist Jack Zipes, who has dedicated his life’s work to the evolution of fairy tales and the social and political role they play in the civilizing process.
The translator of two major editions of the tales of the Brothers Grimm, Zipes is a professor emeritus of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota.
In an exciting event with Vancouver’s MISCELLANEOUS Productions, Zipes will delve into the importance and relevance of little-known fairy tales from the first half of the twentieth century.
Resurrecting Dead Fairy Tales is an online lecture and Q&A with Zipes taking place on February 17. The filmed lecture happens at 5 pm PST, followed by a live Q&A at 6 pm PST moderated by MISCELLANEOUS Productions’ director Elaine Carole. The Facebook Live event, geared to older youth and adults, is free.
The goal, Zipes says, is “unburying and reinvigorating dead fairy tales and their creators”. His talk will bring back to life subversive stories created to oppose the rise of fascism and other forms of totalitarianism internationally. Current events around the world—and their impact on young people—make this conversation especially timely.
Consider the story of Yussuf the Ostrich, in which political caricaturist Emery Kelen depicts a young ostrich who helps defeat the Nazis in Northern Africa during World War II. In Keedle, the Great, first published in 1940, Deirdre and William Conselman Jr. sought to give Americans hope that the world can overcome dictatorships. The title character represented not only Hitler, but all dictators then and now.
The Facebook Watch lecture was filmed in October 2020 at the beautiful Victorian Walter Library - Upson Room at the University of Minneapolis. will moderate the live Q&A.
Resurrecting Dead Fairy Tales is part of a series of events leading up to MISCELLANEOUS Productions' next community-engaged and youth-centred theatre work, Plague. The professionally produced hip-hop musical-theatre work will explore issues that have arisen during the COVID-19 pandemic, examining the plague through fairy tales, myths, and animal wonder tales from Indigenous and international cultures.
Plague is to be presented at the Scotiabank Dance Centre in 2022.
For more information, visit MISCELLANEOUS Productions.
This post was sponsored by MISCELLANEOUS Productions.