How have fairy tales from around the world changed over the centuries? What do they tell us about different cultures and societies?
Drawing on the contributions of scholars working on Italian, French, English, Ottoman Turkish, and Japanese tale traditions, this book underscores the striking mobility and malleability of fairy tales
written in the years 1450 to 1650. The essays examine how early modern scientific theories, debates on the efficacy of witchcraft, conceptions of race and gender, religious beliefs, the aesthetics of landscape, and censorial practices all shaped the representations of magic and marvels in the tales of this period.

Tracing the fairy tale's swift movement across linguistic and geographic borders, through verse and
prose versions, from the printed page to the early modern stage, this volume demonstrates the ways in
which these fantastic literary texts explored the ideological borders constructed by different societies.

An essential resource for researchers, scholars and students of literature, history and cultural studies,
contributors explore themes including: forms of the marvelous, adaption, gender and sexuality, humans
and non-humans, monsters and the monstrous, space, socialization, and power.