From Palace to House. The Changing Domestic Settings of Fairy-tales

Research into the nature of the landscapes in fairy-tales is not a new field. The representations of space in fairy-tales have been investigated in many studies from different perspectives. Nonetheless, there is still little research about domestic settings. This paper is an effort to fill this gap. In my essay, I will compare how domestic settings were represented in three collections of European fairy-tales: Lo cunto de li cunti overo lo trattenemiento de’ peccerille by Giambattista Basile (1634-36); Histoires et Contes du temps passè o Les Contes de ma Mère l'Oye by Charles Perrault (1697); and Kinder– und Hausmärchen by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1st Ed. 1812, 7th Ed. 1857). Although the trademark of fairy-tale landscapes is usually atemporal and ahistorical, the analysis will bring to light evidence that over time the domestic settings have changed. The goal is to explore why and how such a transformation has taken place.