Ruth B. Bottigheimer is a literary scholar, folklorist, and author. She is currently Research Professor in the department of English at Stony Brook University, State University of New York[1] where she specializes in European fairy tales and British children’s literature.[1] She is also interested in the history of illustration and the religious socialization of children through edited Bible narratives.[1] She “has been hailed as one of America’s foremost Grimm scholars”.[2]

Education

Bottigheimer earned her D.A. in German Literature and Language in 1981 through Stony Brook University, State University of New York.[1] She earned a B.A. (Honors) in German Literature and Medieval History and an M.A. in German Literature at the University of California, Berkeley.[3] She also attended Wellesley College, the University of Munich, and the University College London.[3]

Career

In addition to her current position at Stony Brook University, Bottigheimer has also taught at Hollins University, the University of Innsbruck, the University of Vienna, Göttingen University, Princeton University, the University of California, and others.[3] She is a member of numerous professional organizations including the International Society for Folk Narrative Research, Bruder Grimm Gesellschaft, and the Children’s Literature Association.[3]

Bottigheimer has researched “the history of early British children’s literature and the seventeenth-century Port-Royalist Nicolas Fontaine. The Stony Brook University website states that “[Bottigheimer’s] work crosses disciplinary boundaries, contextualizing genres in their socio-historical cultures of origin, assessing them in terms of publishing history parameters, and utilizing linguistics in discourse analysis”.[1] She is currently researching Hannâ Diyâb's contributions to Antoine Galland's 'Mille et Une Nuits', which made their way into the 'Arabian Nights'.

Bottigheimer’s languages of research include English, German, French, and occasionally Italian and Spanish.[1]

Publications

Books

(reworking and expansion of Folklore and Folklore and Gender, see below)

Articles

Bottigheimer has written numerous articles including:

In addition to the above works, Bottigheimer has also written numerous reviews, encyclopedia articles, and published several translations.[3]

Controversy

Bottigheimer’s recent conclusions about the literary history of fairy tales, published in her book Fairy Tales: A New History, have created a great deal of controversy among folklore scholars.[4] At both the 2005 congress of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research in Estonia and the 2006 meeting of the American Folklore Society in Milwaukee, Bottigheimer’s claims – particularly the claim that the rise fairy tale “template” was originally conceived of by the 16th-century Italian writer Giovan Francesco Straparola[4] – were repeatedly and “uproar[iously]”[4] questioned by “unpersuaded” folklorists.[4] Folklorists Dan Ben-Amos,[5] Francisco Vaz da Silva,[6] and Jan M. Ziolkowski[7] each produced papers responding to Bottigheimer’s claims that appeared in the Journal of American Folklore. A response from Bottigheimer was published in the same issue.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Stony Brook University Website, Ruth B. Bottigheimer's Information Page.
  2. ^ Bendix, Regina. 1989. Book Review: Grimms' Bad Girls and Bold Boys: The Moral and Social Vision of the Tales by Ruth B. Bottigheimer. The Journal of American Folklore 102 (403): 95–97.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Ruth B. Bottigheimer CV, Ruth B. Bottigheimer's Curriculum Vitae.
  4. ^ a b c d Howard, Jennifer (22 May 2009). "From 'Once Upon a Time' to 'Happily Ever After'". The Chronicle of Higher Education.
  5. ^ Ben-Amos, Dan (Fall 2010). "Straparola: The Revolution That Was Not". Journal of American Folklore. 123 (490): 426–446. doi:10.5406/jamerfolk.123.490.0426. JSTOR 10.5406/jamerfolk.123.490.0426. S2CID 162210176.
  6. ^ Vaz da Silva, Francisco (Fall 2010). "The Invention of Fairy Tales". Journal of American Folklore. 123 (490): 398–425. doi:10.5406/jamerfolk.123.490.0398. JSTOR 10.5406/jamerfolk.123.490.0398.
  7. ^ Ziolkowski, Jan M. (Fall 2010). "Straparola and the Fairy Tale: Between Literary and Oral Traditions". Journal of American Folklore. 123 (490): 377–397. doi:10.5406/jamerfolk.123.490.0377. JSTOR 10.5406/jamerfolk.123.490.0377.
  8. ^ Bottigheimer, Ruth B. (Fall 2010). "Fairy Godfather, Fairy-Tale History, and Fairy-Tale Scholarship: A Response to Dan Ben-Amos, Jan M. Ziolkowski, and Francisco Vaz da Silva". Journal of American Folklore. 123 (490): 447–496. doi:10.5406/jamerfolk.123.490.0447. JSTOR 10.5406/jamerfolk.123.490.0447.

External links

Authority control databases
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