Article: Tam Lin, Fair Janet, and the Sexual Revolution: Traditional Ballads, Fairy Tales, and Twentieth-Century Children's Literature

Through their depiction of incidents in which "goodness" is rewarded and "evil" deeds punished, folk and fairy tales function as pedagogical tools that illustrate cultural values, enforce the status quo, and define socially acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Yet this function certainly is not limited to the prose tales alone: traditional ballads, the old story-songs still performed in Anglo-American cultures, also tell the stories of men and women who must cope with established cultural conventions. The 305 traditional Scottish and English ballads collected by American folklorist Francis James Child at the end of the nineteenth century are filled with such stories, and their commentary ...

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:

 
 
Newsweek Harper's Magazine The Washington Post Chicago Tribune Crain's Chicago Business PRNewswire Pediatric News The Nation Advertising Age The Economist (US) A FREE trial gives you access to over 80 million articles! Access over 6,500 publications with a FREE trial!