Veronica Schanoes (Queens College, City University of New York)
The Blue Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang was first published in 1889, and has been in print in one form or another ever since. Here we find the very opening story taking part in discourses of antisemitism, racism, and white supremacy. But its connections to such ideologies have long been masked. This presentation puts this story into the context of British antisemitism and the imperial project of Lang’s colored fairy books, paying special attention to the illustrations of the tale and the rhetoric surrounding the impoverished Ashkenazic immigrants coming into Britain at the end of the nineteenth century.
Part of 09-14 Examining Folk and Fairy Tales, Saturday, October 15, 2:30 pm–4:30 pm