13th Congress of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research

Presentation Abstracts

HAASE, Donald

Framing the Brothers Grimm: paratexts and intercultural transmission in English-language editions of the Kinder-und Hausmärchen

This paper considers the ways in which editors, publishers, and translators use framing devices in order to deny both the literary structure and the culturally-specific nature of Grimm’s tales. Given that the Grimm’s cultural agenda was linked to their attempt to present their stories as authentic oral texts, questions arise about how those same stories negotiate the shift from folklore to children's literature, and how they are presented to audiences of both children and adults in different cultures. For example, how do published translations in Anglo-American contexts, appropriate Grimm’s linguistic-cultural project and endow the stories with value and authority? How, in other words, do translators, editors, and publishers come to grips with the Grimm’s cultural agenda in English-language publications aimed ostensibly at the children's book-market? In addressing these questions, the paper demonstrates how, in English editions and translations, the tales are framed by editorial paratexts that promote the tales' authenticity and universality by dehistoricising them and denying both their literary nature and cultural specificity. In other words, the paper demonstrates how representatives of Anglo-American culture essentially appropriate Grimm’s German tales under the camouflage of the universal and the international. In the final analysis, the paper considers the degree to which intercultural transmission, especially in an age of globalisation and multicultural ideals, constitutes cultural colonization.