A Russian Formalist

Vladimir Propp was a Russian formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements.

He extended the Russian Formalist approach to the study of narrative structure. In the Formalist approach, sentence structures were broken down into analyzable elements, or morphemes, and Propp used this method by analogy to analyze Russian fairy tales. Propp was able to arrive at a typology of narrative structures.

Propp's approach was not intended to unearth meaning in the fairy tales he examined (as may be the case with Structuralist or Psychoanalytic analysis), nor to find the elements that differentiate one tale from another, but to unearth the elemental building blocks that formed the basis of their narrative structure.

Inteligence + Imagination= Egan

He is primarily interested in education. His work focuses on a new educational theory and its implications for a changed curriculum, teaching practices, and the institution of the school.

Kieran Egan is one of the most original ''big picture'' thinkers in education. He always read what he writes. Egan critiques both traditional and progressive education and puts forth his own provocative ideas on how change might be implemented. He proposes a radical change of approach for the whole process of education, he is convinced that the imagination-based approach to education could have a crucial and lasting impact on the way we learn.

He focuses on enhancing students' metalinguistic awareness and not just their intuitive use of words, fostering the development of higher mental functions.

The Importance of being literatured!

Maria Tatar is the John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures. She chairs the Program in Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University, where she teaches courses in German Studies, Folklore, and Children’s Literature.

She loves the combination between horror and beauty. She believes that is the contribution of aspects like sex and violene gives stories and special power in children imagination.

Maria Tatar challenges many of our assumptions about childhood reading. Much as our culture pays lip service to the importance of literature, we rarely examine the creative and cognitive benefits of reading from infancy through adolescence. By exploring how beauty and horror operate in C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, and many other narratives, Tatar provides a delightful work for parents, teachers, and general readers, not just examining how and what children read but also showing through vivid examples how literature transports and transforms children with its intoxicating, captivating, and occasionally terrifying energy.

Video: Lecture about violence in stories,sufficient description and context to make the argument clear.

They wrote for the tiniest ones

If we want to speak about fairy tales there are some names that we should have into account. Three particular representatives of writing for children, kings in their own land. I want to mention Charles Perrault, Hans Christian Andersen and the Grimm brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm.
These people did susch a wonderful research about tales that they once became very famous.

Charles Perrault (12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) was a French author who laid foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, and whose best known tales, often derived from pre-existing folk tales, Perrault's most famous stories are still in print today and have been made into operas, ballets (e.g., Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty), plays, musicals, and films, both live-action and animation.

The Brothers Grimm (German: Die Brüder Grimm or Die Gebrüder Grimm), Jacob (January 4, 1785 - September 20, 1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (February 24, 1786 - December 16, 1859), were German academics who were best known for publishing collections of folk tales and fairy tales[1] and for their work in linguistics, relating to how the sounds in words shift over time (Grimm's law). They are among the best known story tellers of novellas from Europe, allowing the widespread knowledge of such tales as Rumpelstiltskin, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and The Frog Prince.

Hans Christian Andersen (April 2, 1805 – August 4, 1875) was a Danish author and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", "The Snow Queen", "The Little Mermaid", "Thumbelina", "The Little Match Girl", and the "The Ugly Duckling".
During his lifetime he was acclaimed for having delighted children worldwide, and was feted by royalty. His poetry and stories have been translated into more than 150 languages. They have inspired motion pictures, plays, ballets, and animated films.

Customed Publishing

Texts for children are all kind of texts dedicated to children. There are many sorts of texts that are not included in this clasification as for example works such as comic books, joke books, cartoon books, and nonfiction works that are not intended to be read from front to back, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference material. Although there's a particular branch of writing dedicated to children as far as publishers notice that they can sell more books opening this branch, they do it, and books finally end being read by all age public.

Written material by children for children is also considered literature for children, you can read productions as for instance The Young Visiters by Daisy Ashford (aged 9) who can show you a childish point of view in his writting manner.

Consequently, adults select the material for children and they mostly choose the traditional fairy tales, nursery rhymes and other voyages of discovery problematic of life. Adults tent to avoid the situation for children of facing certain things, as matters related to desire, violence and wrong actions performed by human beings.

Summing up it is said that there's no real, authentic and absolute literature for children though it is believed so in order to sell more.

An American Tail...

Here you'll meet my dear friend in my younger times, he made me cry rivers showing me his feelings about life and I learnt many things with this cute character. first listen to his song and then have a second listening for completing the blanks with the verbs in progress.
IMPORTANT: You'll find the video in the 'Barra de Videos'. It's the first video of the column.


Somewhere Out There
Lyrics as performed byLinda Ronstadt and James Ingram
from the movie An American Tail (1987)
Somewhere Out There
written by James Horner, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil


Somewhere out there beneath the pale moonlight
Someone's ............... of me and ............... me tonight
Somewhere out there someone's ................ a prayer
That we'll find one another in that big somewhere out there
And even though I know how very far apart we are
It helps to think we might be ................. on the same bright star
And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby
It helps to think we're .................... underneath the same big sky
Somewhere out there if love can see us through
Then we'll be together somewhere out there
Out where dreams come true

Sleeping Beauty's analisis

Hi, here you have a short analisis about this well known fairy tale,

(I was obligued by Stella to add this sort of things) and I hope you can appreciate this moving view.

Sleeping Beauty: A brief look
© Mary C. Legg
Nov 3, 2002

Controversial, fairytales invite literary criticism and interpretation, varying among readers. Written as allegory, they invite different interpretations. Although regarded as a children's story, Sleeping Beauty offers much to adults. Everyone knows about the king and queen who wanted a child. The Grimms brothers presented the story in different versions. First, a crab crawled out of the water to prophesy, but later, the famous frog. Frogs, perceived as harbingers of good, whereas toads symbolize evil as in the story about the wicked stepsister whose mouth produced toads and other slimy creatures.
Upon entering the magical world, the story is strewn with symbols lending to variant interpretations. Representing the ultimate authority over life and death in this world, the King has the total control over his subjects and society. Nobility dispersed not only land and social privileges, but also marriages and penalties, including death. However, it is the Queen, yearning for the child, who represents an unspoken desire or goal in life. Combining them as a single person, the King might be the conscious, and the Queen; the subconscious. The frog is only the projection of longing. Where does he meet her? In the family bathroom? Although memorized from childhood, the setting begs question. The Queen is bathing alone in the woods and along comes a talking frog. Robert Graves might comment that the Queen is the White Goddess, an incarnation of Artemis, the barren goddess of the hunt. In an early English translation, the frog uses "thee" and "thy". What's the difference ?
That of "Sie" und "Du". "Du" breaking through the rigid rules of class formality to address the Queen intimately. Strange, no? The frog doesn't leap from a lake, but a well, symbolizing deep longing toward a goal not easily quenched. Water is the universal symbol of the subconscious dreams and goals. The goal is a baby. Babies, too, are symbolic. Athena sprang from Zeus' head. Any product of thought or project undertaken is frequently referred as "somebody's baby." An allegory is drawn. By substituting different variables, variant meanings are discovered, deriving a business application.
After a life of unchallenged authority, the King assumes authority over life and death. Possessing twelve gold plates, he is sufficiently rich to cast the 13th, but refuses. He doesn't invite the thirteenth guest. The reason is easily guessed. Thirteen is represented by Death in the Tarot. Superstitious people think it unlucky. Erroneously, he thinks to avoid death by not inviting it, and is deluded. He has not the ultimate power over life and death, but is subject rather to destiny himself. In his turn, he will die also. Glibly taken, death is inevitable: Far better to confront and accept it, than ignore it. Adamantly, he refuses to invite the thirteenth wise woman to the christening.
Why the big party? Whom does he invite? His family, friends and acquaintances in that order. A politician, he might despise his cousin, the Duke of Saxony, but he cannot afford a political quarrel. Misfortune begets him a girl. What should he do? Ask the Hapsburgs how they consolidated an Empire. Great for politics, girl babies make alliances between enemies, marrying a Marie Antoinette off to the threatening French. Ulterior motives exist within the simple lines. His self-interest dominates, imperiling the life of the new-born child. An easy form of corporate abuse occurs when the project becomes the tool whereby the company or manager accrues more power. The project becomes a power ploy.
In neglecting the thirteenth and considering himself the ultimate authority, the King fatally blunders, destroying his schemes. The thirteenth arrives unexpectedly to take revenge. Had he invited her, placating her with wine, he would have had a familiar drunken companion instead of an enemy. By deliberately snubbing her, death is bestowed on the sleeping child, only deferred as a hundred years sleep by the eleventh, incurred by pricking a spindle in her fifteenth year.
Why fifteen? Fifteen is the age of maturity. How calamitous for a project to be struck with sudden death just upon maturity? Consider World.com, Enron or Arthur Anderson, all ripe for the picking. The allegory fits the hidden motives and greed of the corporate leaders well. But a spindle? Instead of spindle, use paperclip. Is it possible to ban all the paperclips in the world? Especially when Microsoft implants them on your screen every time a letter is written? Yet, the rash King is self-deluded, thinking to thwart destiny by his own decree. Is it possible to impose a complete ban of a book-title? How many institutions have tried? From Plato's Republic to More's Utopia, how many political essays have discussed this? Were Communists successful? The rabid, self-appointed guardians of literature? Although D.H. Lawrence died of tuberculosis and despite postal restrictions, book burnings and official censorship, his literature lives in universities across the world.
Unable to acknowledge his personal limitations, the King, became self-destructive. Wise leadership evaluates the risks of a project, confronting them rather than blindly ignoring them-- acknowledging limitations and powers beyond its control. Consider the recent demise of Enron with the vaunted egos that refused to acknowledge personal greed or legal limitations.
Sleeping Beauty isn't a nice sleepy-time fairytale to put the squalling childie into bed; but a reflection of society. The interpretation changes according to the variables employed. The interpretations are as numerous as the readers.