Cinderella: A Casebook

by Alan Dundes (Editor), Charles Perrault, Jacob Grimm

Covering a period of more than one hundred years of work by renowned folklorists, these enlightening essays explore the timeless tale of Cinderella. In addition to the most famous versions of the story (Basile’s Pentamerone, Perrault’s Cendrillon, and the Grimm’s Aschenputtel), this casebook includes articles on other versions of the tale from Russian, English, Chinese, Greek and French folklore. The volume concludes with several interpretive essays, including a psychoanalytic view from Dundes and a critique of the popularization of Cinderella in America.

“Folklorists, scholars of children’s literature, and feminists should appreciate particularly the wide scope of this collection .  .  .  now in paperback with an updated Bibliographical Addendum. . . . Most helpful are the two-page introductions to each variant and to each essay which include a brief overview of the historical times as well as suggested additional sources for more discussion.”—Danny Rochman, Folklore Forum

“A milestone, a near complete source of primary and secondary materials.  .  .  .  The selected analytical writing include definitive classic and new discoveries, covering the whole range of methodological modes and theoretical perspectives from early forms and typology to myth-ritual, social-historical, anthropological, and psychoanalytical readings.  The annotated bibliography is most helpful, illuminating, and comprehensive, encompassing publications in other Western languages and works by Asianists.”—Chieko Mulhern, Asian Folklore Studies

“One can imagine several dimensions on which psychoanalysts might find such a collection interesting: as examples of applied psychoanalysis, in relation to philosophical and cultural examination of imaginative material, in relation to child development, and in the correlations between folktales of a particular culture and individual histories.”—Kerry Kelly Novick, Psychoanalytic Quarterly

Genres: Folklore, Nonfiction, Fairy Tales, Cinderella, Academic, Literary Criticism, Essays

316 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Alan Dundes was a folklorist at the University of California, Berkeley. His work was said to have been central to establishing the study of folklore as an academic discipline. He wrote 12 books, both academic and popular, and edited or co-wrote two dozen more. One of his most notable articles was called "Seeing is Believing" in which he indicated that Americans value the sense of sight more than the other senses.

Reviews

[AngelAB224 · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Cinderella: A Casebook" is a great researched book that compare and tell all different types from all around the world. It is a great book for telling the the different elements of the story is used in each continent. However, there were a lot of footnotes and long list of citations after the chapter so beware of that besides that point I think it is a amazing book.

[Sarah Morgan Sandquist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even I'm surprised by how quickly I tore my way through this book. Though academically meticulous, it was also so delightfully 'readable that I had a hard time putting it down and found d myself rushing off to relish another essay or two.

Having become familiar with a few older variants of the story, I was even still surprised to learn how far back the story itself, as well as many of its motifs stretched. And, speaking of those motifs, how extensive and non-Disney they really were.

I think Alan Dundes did an excellent job collecting and annotating the included essays, I really enjoyed the [fairy tale] : a case book concept and I will be definitely be reading more in the future.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another, fantastically well-researched bit of socio-historical overview!

It's definitely not the kind of thing the average reader can really dig their teeth into, but it is just as certainly, a lot more accessible than a great deal of other academic work in the Folklore Field.

This is a critical starting point for anyone with an interest in how culture drives storytelling and vice-versa!

[Bhav · Rating 5 out of 5]

super duper interesting book w a lot of essays and thoughts to revisit for my dissertation - can’t wait to get into it and use this book!

[Ally Rey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note to self: I listened to these three Cinderella tales on Story time for Grown ups but didnt read the bios/introd for each tale.