Fairy Tales and the Transmission of Prejudice

"Fairy Tales and the Transmission of Prejudice" is a unit in a lecture course on fairy tales that draws on research on anti-Semitism in 18th- and 19th-century German literature and culture, mapping questions raised in 18th- and 19th-century tales onto contemporary issues: The unit traces a trajectory from the Enlightenment to the present, and from Germany to the United States, analyzing a variety of texts, including Lessing's drama "Nathan the Wise" (1779), the three Grimms' tales about Jews -- "The Clear Sun Will Bring it to Light" (1815), "The Jew in Thorns" (1815), and "The Good Bargain" (1819) --, Spiegelman's graphic Holocaust narrative "Maus" (1980), and Sendak's illustrations for Wilhelm Grimm's "Dear Mili" (Grimm & Sendak, 1988). This article outlines the course, its background, and how the texts and their contexts are implemented in class. Throughout the course unit, the discussion of anti-Semitism in the fairy tales is broadened to one of prejudice in general. The article concludes with a brief discussion of student reactions to this unit.