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Behind every mother lurks The Great Mother with her awesome power over life and death. Numerous fairy tales deal with women's and men's fear of this power and its threat to their individuality. This fascinating study discusses the psychology of this fear and patriarchal attempts to control it by impeding female bonding. The dynamics involved in the psychology of the birth episodes is especially intriguing. The study exhibits solid scholarship and a keen sense for the relevance of the fairy tale tradition to women of today.
List of contents
Contents: Grimm mothers, mean mothers, stepmothers with daughters and sons - Spinning mothers with lazy daughters and (too) good mothers of sons - Becoming a mother and having one.
Report
"Torborg Lundell's study, 'Fairy Tale Mothers', subjects an unusually broad sample of fairy tales to close scrutiny. The author supplements a strongly Jungian analysis with both historical experience and personal perspective. Lundell's approach clarifies the editorial history of many of the tales and yields new insights into the figure of the fairy tale mother in her many incarnations from witch to saint." (Ruth B. Bottigheimer, State University of New York - Stony Brook)
"Insgesamt zeichnet sich das Buch durch die Vielfalt an untersuchten Märchen und vor allem durch die gelungene Kombination von Textvergleichen verschiedener Varianten und mehreren Interpretationsansätzen aus. ... Als sehr gehaltvolles Buch kann man dieses Werk insbesondere Wissenschaftlern und Studenten der Erzählforschung und der Psychoanalyse empfehlen." (Diann Rusch-Feja, Fabula)
"Lundell's book is very exciting and inspiring and makes an important contribution to fairy tale research." (Inger Lövkrona, Nordic Yearbook of Folklore)
