Our first foray into CGI Disney, Tangled is based on the tale of Rapunzel, the girl with the longgolden hair who uses it as a ladder to let people into her tower. Interestingly, the DVD box says the source text is “hilarious”, which is a slight departure from the original claim of “inspires Nazism”.
Okay, that’s an equally slight exaggeration, but Rapunzel formed part of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s most famous work, Die Kinder und Hausmärchen (Children’s andHousehold Tales), which was banned from many a classroom in the west after World War II. It was feared that the stories contained therein had desensitised children to violence and paved the way for extremism, so at least we know it’s not just video games that turn kids evil. Despite appearances, just asTangled is as happy-go-lucky as Hercules, Rapunzel is actually one of the less traumaticofferings from the Brothers Grimm.
In case you’ve only heard their names and not a lot else, the Brothers Grimm are heralded as the fathers of modern German literature studies, and with good reason. During the 19th Century, Germany was in a bit of a mess due to various political squabbles, and so to help preserve the country’s identity, the brothers set about collecting German folk tales and fairy stories as well as researching the roots of their own language. Since their adaptation is the first story that carries the name “Rapunzel”, I have chosen this version as our source text.
Based on the German translation of Mademoiselle de la Force’s Persinette,Rapunzel actually has two iterations, from 1812 and 1857 respectively. The one from 1857 is the most well known, but this was after some conservative editing – when the Grimms realised how popular their stories could be with children, they decided to clean them up accordingly. Sounds familiar.
So, are we going to look at the unedited 1812 version? Of course we are.
Flower Power
BY : TIARA
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