Fairy Tale

This volume offers a comprehensive critical and theoretical introduction to the genre of the fairy tale. It: explores the ways in which folklorists have defined the genre assesses the various methodologies used in the analysis and interpretation of fairy tale provides a detailed account of the historical development of the fairy tale as a literary form engages with the major ideological controversies that have shaped critical and creative approaches to fairy tales in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries demonstrates that the fairy tale is by definition a multi-media genre by exploring the uses of fairy tale on the stage, on film, in visual culture and in digital media.