This book analyzes the philosophical dimensions of fairy tales from cultures all around the world. Though there is a robust literature that analyzes fairy tales from sociological and historical perspectives and psychology has also focused on mining these stories for insights, this book is unique in its focus on fairy tales as philosophical texts. Bringing together scholars from a truly global range of philosophical and literary traditions, this book shows that fairy tales encapsulate the human dilemma of living in the world, trying to make meaning, and charting a course through good and evil. The book's contributors study fairy tales from East Africa, Australia, Jewish Eastern Europe, Iran, Korea, Turkey, Indigenous North America, and beyond. Ending with a section on Philosophy for Children, this book will also be of interest to scholars and practitioners in this subfield, in addition to scholars of philosophy and popular culture and philosophy of literature.
1: Introduction: the fairy tale and philosophy.- 2 : From Rags to Riches
Reconsidered: Cynical musings about good fortunes and happily ever afters in
Russian fairy tales.- 3: Euthanasia & Life Extension in Life and Death
(1897).- 4: Exploring philosophical concepts with a Turkish fairy tale.-
5: Come seek us where our voices sound: Encountering the Mermaid in Harry
Potter.- 6: The Golem: A Jewish Fairy Tale of Language, Identity, and
Responsibility.- 7: Community of Philosophical Inquiry Visits Derrida: In
defense of "Abnormality" in the Iranian Fairy Tale, Bald Black Mam.- 8: Et
max laryngitis; Silencing the Siren in The Little Mermaid.- 9: Absence,
Violence, and Desire: Derrida, Giraud, and Bluebeards Justice.- 10: The
Question of Time, or a Quest for Virtues in Liudmila Petrushevskaia's Fairy
Tales.- 11: Baba Yaga and Vasilia the Brave: a feminist revisiting.-
12: North American Indigenous Fairy tales/myths.- 13: If I become your wife,
what will you beat me with, when we argue?: A philosophical (Foucauldian)
reading of the feminine body in an Iranian tale, Khaleh Sooskeh.- 14: The
Philosophical Potential of Folk Tales for Children: An Exploration of "Who is
the Smartest?" from Karditsa, Greece.- 15: The Brother and the Sister who
became the Sun and the Moon.- 16: Sir Isumbras-a medieval fairy tale.- 17: A
Fairy and A Woodcutter.
Wendy C. Turgeon teaches philosophy at St. Josephs University in New York and has published extensively on philosophy of childhood, philosophy with children, and more recently, a book entitled Philosophical Adventures with Fairy Tales: New Ways to Explore Familiar Tales with Kids of All Ages with Rowman and Littlefield in 2020. She has served on boards of PLATO, ICPIC, and NAACI, all international organizations dedicated to philosophy in education.
