The Biblical Motifs in the Grimm’s Fairy Tales: From the Perspective of Above and Below
Bibliographic Information
- Other Title
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- グリム童話に見られる聖書的モティーフ : 上方と下方という観点から
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Abstract
There are multiple methods for interpreting the Grimm’s fairy tales. Historical criticism investigates the process of the reorganization of folklore. Literary criticism analyzes the symbolic expressions seen in the final form of the text while the dialogical effect emphasizes the impact on the reader. This paper adopts both the historical and literary methods. The lore that makes up the Grimm’s fairy tales was collected through French Huguenot storytellers. Therefore, in composing the Brothers Grimm’s stories, biblical motifs such as the hospitality to a stranger in Leviticus, the inheritance of sin in The Fall of Man, the dew miracle of Gideon’s story in Judges, the usage of magic by Jacob in Genesis, and the white dove as the spirit of God, etc. are adopted. On the other hand, many of the Grimm’s fairy tales contain plants that have symbolic significance. The hazel tree in “Ashputtel,” the red flowers in “Jorinde and Joringel,” and the lettuce in “Rapunzel” are part of the story’s problem-solving and happy endings, and are influenced by ancient Germanic tree worship. Biblical belief, and nature worship which lead to idolatry, are fundamentally incompatible. However, they can co-exist in the Grimm’s fairy tales since the Grimm’s stories are a mixture of Germanic and Huguenot tales.
Journal
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- Toyo Eiwa journal of the humanities and social sciences
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Toyo Eiwa journal of the humanities and social sciences 40 75-94, 2023-03
東洋英和女学院大学
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Details 詳細情報について
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- CRID
- 1050014327015763456
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- NII Book ID
- AN10186150
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- ISSN
- 09157794
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- Text Lang
- ja
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- Article Type
- departmental bulletin paper
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- Data Source
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- IRDB
- KAKEN