Fairy tale scholar to speak in Morris

Jack Zipes, University of Minnesota professor emeritus of comparative literature and German, will deliver the inaugural University of Minnesota, Morris Honors Lecture on Wednesday, September 14, at 4 p.m. in Recital Hall on the Morris campus. His talk, “De-Disneyfying the Fairy-Tale Film,” is free and open to the public.

Zipes extensively publishes and lectures on fairy tales and their functions. His talk at Morris will be based on his newest book, The Enchanted Screen: The Unknown History of Fairy-Tale Films. Zipes says, “Our contemporary concept and image of a fairy tale has been shaped and standardized by Disney so efficiently through the mechanisms of the culture industry that our notions of happiness and utopia are, and continue to be, filtered through a Disney lens….” Zipes will show short films and explore the endeavors of various filmmakers to develop fairy-tale films that propose alternatives to the standard Disney fairy-tale film.

“The work of Jack Zipes continues to challenge the ways that we understand fairy-tale narratives as well as the impulses that lead to their retelling,” says Tammy Berberi, director of the Morris Honors Program and associate professor of French. “The Honors Program is proud to welcome Professor Zipes to campus for its inaugural lecture.”

Zipes earned a doctorate in comparative literature at Columbia University. His publications include Hans Christian Andersen: The Misunderstood Storyteller, Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre, Relentless Progress: The Reconfiguration of Children’s Literature, Fairy Tales, and Storytelling. He also translated collections of Kurt Schwitters’ fairy tales, Lucky Hans and Other Merz Fairy Tales, Béla Bálazs’ The Cloak of Dreams: Chinese Fairy Tales, and The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm.

In 1997, Zipes founded a storytelling and creative drama program, Neighborhood Bridges, in collaboration with the Children’s Theatre Company, Minneapolis, that continues to thrive in Twin Cities’ elementary schools. He is editor-in-chief of the Routledge book series Children’s Literature and Culture and co-editor of the Palgrave book series Studies in Contemporary European Culture and History. He is editor of a new series, Oddly Modern Fairy Tales, published by Princeton University Press. He has written numerous articles for journals in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Canada, Italy, and France, and his awards include the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, and the International Brothers Grimm Award.

Morris Honors Program students organized the Zipes lecture with support from the Dean’s Office. The Honors Program provides motivated, high-achieving students a distinctive, academically challenging intellectual experience amplifying and complement the Morris liberal arts education.

Learn more about the University of Minnesota Morris at morris.umn.edu or call 1-888-866-3382.

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