Curran, Edel
(2004)
The French-language Reception of Grimms’
‘Rotkappchen’ 1868-1948.
PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
Abstract
In 1697 Charles Perrault’s Contes immortalised ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ (‘Le Petit
Chaperon rouge’), a fairy tale which was later recounted by the Grimm Brothers as
‘Rotkäppchen’ in their collection of 1812/1815. Scholarly research has already shown
the extent to which Perrault’s earlier collection influenced the Grimms’ Kinder- und
Hausmärchen. But how might the French reaction to the Grimm ‘version’ be reflected
in subsequent French translations, and especially during periods of Franco-German
conflict? This is the pivotal question addressed in the four chapters of this thesis.
The first chapter focuses on the theoretical. It situates the Grimm Brothers and their
influences within the context of German Romanticism and a complex form of
nationalism which lies at the root of this literary movement. The development of the
field of folklore studies from the Grimms to the present day is also outlined, with
particular emphasis on Jack Zipes’ socio-political reading of the versions and
adaptations of this tale from Europe and America; a reading which is adapted and
developed for this analysis. The second chapter introduces the textual analysis of the
selected adaptations and translations and focuses on the years between 1868 and 1933;
when the first Grimm-inspired adaptation and translation were published. The third
chapter focuses on the fortunes of ‘Rotkäppchen’ during 1942, the height of the
Occupation. The fourth and final chapter concentrates on the years between 1944 and
1948, in an attempt to establish how the French versions of the Grimm tale were
affected by liberation from German Nazi oppression and the subsequent ending of the
Second World War. Such a detailed comparative study proves revealing not only for
the French reception of a fairy tale common to the French and German literary
traditions for a given period, but also for Franco-German relations and translation
theory in general.
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