Der gestiefelte Kater (Engl. Puss in Boots; Ital. Il gatto con gli stivali) is originally an Italian fairy tale. Its oldest written version is probably that by Italian author Giovanni Francesco Straparola (1480-1557), published within the collection Le piacevoli notti (The Facetious Nights of Straparola) (1550-1555), a sort of European story-book of fairy-tales, which was included in 1624 in the “Index of Prohibited Books”. This version was followed by Gianbattista Basile’s tale Cagliuso published in 1634. During the seventeenth century the work was included in the famous French collection Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités or Contes de ma mère l'Oye (Stories or Tales from Past Times, with Morals or Mother Goose Tales) by Charles Perrault (1628–1703). At the end of the 18th century the German Romantic writer Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853) published a German adaptation from this tale in his collection of Volksmärchen (1797). Interestingly enough the tale provided further inspiration for Ludwig Tieck, who transformed it into a sensational theatrical play. The book edition of the fairy tale was a great success, while the theatrical play staged only in 1844 in Berlin (arranged by Frederick William IV) was not well welcomed and had the performances to be cancelled after only three rehearsals, because the real audience reacted in a similar way as the fictional one presented in the play: with incomprehension and rejection. Our aim here is to show how Tieck’s version of the fairy tale and his transformation into a theatrical play ironically puts into question some intellectual poses and ideas about standards of human knowledge, as some structural metaphors like that of the scala naturae show. Moreover the play disrupted the leadership frames still in use by the Prussian regime after the French Revolution. Comparing the two versions of Tieck’s Gestiefelter Kater (the fairy tale and the play) we will try to put in evidence the value of irony and of the use of anthropomorphic fantastic animals in projecting change within individual self-understanding and intersubjective social relationships models.
Il Gatto con gli stivali di Ludwig Tieck: dal mondo magico alla satira politica
Gambino R. G.Co-primo
;Pulvirenti G.Co-primo
2023-01-01
Abstract
Der gestiefelte Kater (Engl. Puss in Boots; Ital. Il gatto con gli stivali) is originally an Italian fairy tale. Its oldest written version is probably that by Italian author Giovanni Francesco Straparola (1480-1557), published within the collection Le piacevoli notti (The Facetious Nights of Straparola) (1550-1555), a sort of European story-book of fairy-tales, which was included in 1624 in the “Index of Prohibited Books”. This version was followed by Gianbattista Basile’s tale Cagliuso published in 1634. During the seventeenth century the work was included in the famous French collection Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités or Contes de ma mère l'Oye (Stories or Tales from Past Times, with Morals or Mother Goose Tales) by Charles Perrault (1628–1703). At the end of the 18th century the German Romantic writer Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853) published a German adaptation from this tale in his collection of Volksmärchen (1797). Interestingly enough the tale provided further inspiration for Ludwig Tieck, who transformed it into a sensational theatrical play. The book edition of the fairy tale was a great success, while the theatrical play staged only in 1844 in Berlin (arranged by Frederick William IV) was not well welcomed and had the performances to be cancelled after only three rehearsals, because the real audience reacted in a similar way as the fictional one presented in the play: with incomprehension and rejection. Our aim here is to show how Tieck’s version of the fairy tale and his transformation into a theatrical play ironically puts into question some intellectual poses and ideas about standards of human knowledge, as some structural metaphors like that of the scala naturae show. Moreover the play disrupted the leadership frames still in use by the Prussian regime after the French Revolution. Comparing the two versions of Tieck’s Gestiefelter Kater (the fairy tale and the play) we will try to put in evidence the value of irony and of the use of anthropomorphic fantastic animals in projecting change within individual self-understanding and intersubjective social relationships models.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
