Iring Fetscher
Fetscher, Iring (1922– ), German political scientist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Frankfurt am Main, best known for his numerous publications on the history and theory of marxism. In his 1972 collection of ironic fairy‐tale adaptations and criticism, Wer hat Dornröschen wachgeküsst? Das Märchenverwirrbuch (Who awakened Sleeping Beauty with a Kiss? The Book of Fairy Tale Confusion), Fetscher explores alternative meanings and contexts for the Grimms' tales. He employs what he terms Verwirr‐Methoden (methods of confusion), borrowing playfully from serious scholarly approaches, such as philological, psychoanalytic, and historical materialist textual criticism, to produce a unique blend of imaginative storytelling and light‐hearted criticism.
The collection contains reinterpretations of 13 of the best‐loved Grimm tales, divided into three sections more or less corresponding to the methods of confusion: the rehabilitation of the wolf; the rise of the bourgeoisie, the anti‐feudal revolution, and the problems of an antagonistic society; and the sexual problems of princesses. Traditional and adapted tales can be read nicely in relation to one another, for Fetscher begins with the Grimm version, then offers his tongue‐in‐cheek commentary, exposing a history of editorial censorship, class antagonism, and sexual anxiety. Cinderella, for example, was a labour activist whose consciousness of ‘irreconcilable class differences’ causes her to reject the prince's offer of marriage; Lucky Hans was not stupid, but inadequately socialized in the ways of capitalist trade economy; the wolf of several fairy tales was a victim of character assassination, and the kiss that awakened Sleeping Beauty marked the end of her defloration phobia.
Bibliography
- Fetscher, Iring, Marx and Marxism (1971).
— Mary Beth Stein
