Fairy tales: ancient origins, modern meanings
ListenGuests: Jamie Tehrani, Marie Tatar
“Oh Grandma, what big teeth you have!” Everyone recognizes those words. That’s because “Little Red Riding Hood,” and similar versions, turn up all over the world –“The Tiger Grandmother” in Japan and China, “The Wolf and the Kids” in the Middle East. In a recent study, Durham University anthropologist JAMIE TEHRANI traced the “Little Red Riding Hood” tale back two thousand years to discover the story’s origins and its evolutionary path. He tells Marty about how the oral tale spread and what it tells us about culture and migration. Then, a conversation on the meaning of fairy tales and why they still captivate us today. Marty talks with MARIA TATAR, Professor of Germanic Languages and Literature at Harvard University.
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