Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The fairy tale may be one of the most important cultural and social influences on children's lives. But until Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion, little attention had been paid to the ways in which the writers and collectors of tales used traditional forms and genres in order to shape children's lives - their behavior, values, and relationship to society. As Jack Zipes convincingly shows, fairy tales have always been a powerful discourse, capable of being used to shape or destabilize attitudes and behavior within culture.

For this new edition, the author has revised the work throughout and added a new introduction bringing this classic title up to date.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgments (p. ix)
• Preface to the Second Edition (p. xi)
• 1 Fairy-Tale Discourse: Toward a Social History of the Genre (p. 1)
• 2 The Origins of the Fairy Tale in Italy: Straparola and Basile (p. 13)
• 3 Setting Standards for Civilization through Fairy Tales: Charles Perrault and the Subversive Role of Women Writers (p. 29)
• 4 Who's Afraid of the Brothers Grimm? Socialization and Politicization through Fairy Tales (p. 59)
• 5 Hans Christian Andersen and the Discourse of the Dominated (p. 81)
• 6 Inverting and Subverting the World with Hope: The Fairy Tales of George MacDonald, Oscar Wilde, and L. Frank Baum (p. 105)
• 7 The Battle over Fairy-Tale Discourse: Family, Friction, and Socialization in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany (p. 137)
• 8 The Liberating Potential of the Fantastic in Contemporary Fairy Tales for Children (p. 169)
• 9 Walt Disney's Civilizing Mission: From Revolution to Restoration (p. 193)
• Notes (p. 213)
• Bibliography (p. 227)
• Index (p. 239)