Respond to Darnton's and Bettelheim's articles. How do their perspectives differ? Which do you find more convincing? Do you have to take sides on this debate, or can the two complement each other?
While Bettelheim is concerned mostly with the effect of the fairy tale, Darnton is concerned with the nature of the fairy tale itself. I find it interesting that Darnton is concerned with tracing these tales as far back as possible in order to find a truer meaning than that prescribed by psychoanalysts and their “nonexistent” symbols. Bettleheim believes that fairy tales teach children that there are severe difficulties in life, yet these difficulties can be overcome. He continues to say that the introduction of fantasy in the tales connects with a child’s imagination to further his capabilities toward being morally good. Not that I can agree with Bettelheim, but if this was to be true, then Darnton’s quest for the source of these tales in different cultures is rendered obsolete. As long as children get this helpful/inspiring unconscious content, then the tale can really be about anything.
I do think that one has to take sides in this debate—even though the two essays are only indirectly linked. Bettelheim is suggesting that fairy tales teach children good moral behavior. Darnton, on the other hand, is attempting to expose fairy tales as their true form—gruesome, unrelenting, and not preoccupied with morality.
This post made me consider how much the two authors are really connected, attempting to move toward similar goals. Darnton is not really dismissing the fact that there are lessons to be learned from the tales, but rather to uncover what those original lessons were intended to be.
ReplyDeleteI feel that instead of completely disregarding Bettelheim's way of drawing out these lessons and realize that Bettelheim does not affect his interest that he is pursuing at the time in the fairytale concentration. I feel that Bettelheim will be the subject of similar research for the future generations who want to study his time period of interpretation of the fairy tales and how he choose to retell them or speak on them in relation to what the common ideologies and concerns of his time were...like what we are doing to some degree.
In a way we are using Darnton's methods to analyze Bettelheim. I still disagree with Bettelheim's views and interpretations of fairy tales, but I don't think him and Darnton are directly pitted against each other, so I am not really taking sides in that respect. Food for thought.