This volume offers a comprehensive critical and theoretical introduction to the genre of the fairy tale. It:

• explores the ways in which folklorists have defined the genre
• assesses the various methodologies used in the analysis and interpretation of fairy tale
• provides a detailed account of the historical development of the fairy tale as a literary form
• engages with the major ideological controversies that have shaped critical and creative approaches to fairy tales in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
• demonstrates that the fairy tale is a highly metamorphic genre that has flourished in diverse media, including oral tradition, literature, film, and the visual arts.

Andrew Teverson is Director of Studies for English Literature and Creative Writing at Kingston University London. He is author of Salman Rushdie (2007)

Introduction 1. Definitions 2. The Establishment of a Literary Genre 3. Critical Methodologies 4. Fairy Tales and Ideology in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries 5. An Adaptable Genre: Multi-Media Fairy Tale Conclusion