Jack Zipes

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Jack David Zipes is a Professor of German at the University of Minnesota whose publications and lectures on fairy tales have transformed research on fairy tales and their linguistic roots and socialization function. According to Zipes, fairy tales "serve a meaningful social function, not just for compensation but for revelation: the worlds projected by the best of our fairy tales reveal the gaps between truth and falsehood in our immediate society."

Zipes enjoys masking his scholarship with droll titles like Don't Bet on the Prince and The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Ridinghood.

Starting with a PhD in comparative literature from Columbia University, Zipes taught at various institutions before heading German language studies at the University of Minnesota. His retranslation of the complete fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm is now the standard.

[edit] Works

The Great Refusal. Studies of the romantic hero in German and American literature (1970)
Political plays for children: the Grips Theater of Berlin (1976) translator
Breaking the Spell: radical theories of folk and fairytales (1979).
Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion: the classical genre for children and the process of civilization (1983)
The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood :versions of the tale in sociocultural context (1983) ISBN 0-415-90835-3
Germans and Jews since the Holocaust: the changing situation in West Germany (1986) editor with Anson Rabinbach
Victorian Fairy Tales (1987) editor
Don't Bet on the Prince (1987)
The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (1987) translator
The Brothers Grimm: from enchanted forests to the modern world (1988) biography
Fairy Tales and Fables from Weimar Days (1989)
Beauties, Beasts, and Enchantment: classic French fairy tales (1989) translator
The fairy tales of Frank Stockton (1990) editor
Spells of Enchantment (1991)
Arabian Nights : (1991) adaptation
The Operated Jew : two tales of anti-semitism (1991) translator
Fairy Tale as Myth; Myth as Fairy Tale (1994)
The Outspoken Princess and the Gentle Knight (1994)
The Complete Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse (1995)
The Wonderful World of Oz (1998) editor
When Dreams Came True (1999)
The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (2000) editor
The Great Fairy Tale Tradition (2001) editor
Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of Children's Literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter (2001)
Hans Christian Andersen : The Misunderstood Storyteller (2005)
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature (2006) editor
Why Fairy Tales Stick (2006)