Sleeping Beauty?: The Tale of Briar Rose

Western culture has a love-hate relationship with fairy tales. They are trivial entertainment, guilty pleasures left over from childhood, and they are cultural dynamite we attempt to defuse with a range of feminist critiques and socio-psychological commentaries. We long for the “happily ever after” and also deride this sweet and simple view of life. 

Fairy tales trouble us. That is one of their cultural functions, and our endless reworking and revising tells us something about our hopes, tensions, and fears.

In this program I tell the fairy tale Briar Rose, collected by the Brother’s Grimm. It’s an older version of Sleeping Beauty that I find puzzling and fascinating. There is a beautiful princess, a spindle, and a long period of sleep, but this is not a romantic tale of “true love” and a powerful kiss from a handsome prince.

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