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21

“Rapunzel”: Maiden/Mother/Crone

Lecture no. 21 from the course: A Children's Guide to Folklore and Wonder Tales

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Taught by Professor Hannah B. Harvey | 30 min

Femininity is once again examined, this time with a focus on the roles women play in stories. Dr. Harvey shares a combined (and more family friendly) version of “Rapunzel,” pulling from Grimm’s German version and Basile’s Italian version. Looking at the triad of Maiden/Mother/Crone and Warrior/Father/Sage, Dr. Harvey shows how stories reduce and distill all our life experiences into simple symbols; in such stories, each component is represented by a separate character even though we rarely experience such defined periods of existence.