In Germany, quarantine has just begun to ease, and children, after a protracted lockdown, have finally been able to return to school. However, the fear of coronavirus, of course, did not evaporate with the opening of schools, but here terrible creatures appear in all their disgrace … “They deceive, bewitch, hunt, and the worst – want to eat,” – says the curator of the exhibition “Fraudsters, witches, evil creatures. Villains in international literature for children and youth “(” Schurken, Hexen, üble Gestalten. Bösewichte in der internationalen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur “) Sibylle Weingart.
Is it right to scare children at a time when there are enough fears against the backdrop of a pandemic? “I think that in a protected space, which is any book, these heroes do not pose any danger to children. We often underestimate children. After all, they know that this is a fairy tale, and fairy tales always have a good ending,” says the curator.
All imaginable and unthinkable villains can be seen in the “Castle of Books” – an old building in Munich, where in 1983 the International Library for Youth (Die Internationale Jugendbibliothek) settled. The general fund includes about 640 thousand publications. About 10 thousand – in Russian. The exhibition runs from May 2021 to April 2022.
Exhibition in Munich is open until April 2022
Exhibition in Munich is open until April 2022
Baba Yaga – in the center of the exposition
All the heroes were divided into categories: someone got to witches and wizards, others joined the ranks of evil family members, real and fictional animals were gathered in one group, enchanted and terrible places – in another. Therefore, it will be quite easy for the visitor to find his way, but who is waiting for him in the very center of the exposition? “Baba Yaga! Without her, we certainly could not have done this exhibition,” says Sibylle Weingarth. And it will appear in front of visitors in all its glory: as the reader knows her from the illustration “Baba Yaga in a mortar”, created by the Russian artist Ivan Bilibin in 1900 for the fairy tale “Beautiful Vasilisa”.
“What interested us most in this character was his ambivalence,” the expert emphasizes. It is difficult to tell by her appearance whether it is a woman or a man. She can be attentive and caring: she gives advice, gives the girl a gift that allows her to free herself from the oppression of her stepmother. But at the same time, she personifies the border between the dead and the living, and the skulls in her hut remind that she is not averse to feasting on human flesh.
“There are evil people in life, the world is much more complicated than the division into black and white. In every person there can be both good and bad. Books teach children that one cannot think only within the framework of stereotypes. Evil or good does not exist in And you can be greatly mistaken in people. In fairy tales, an evil character can reincarnate and become good, “says the curator of the exhibition.
Why is the stepmother in all fairy tales – evil, isn’t this how we impose stereotypes on children: they say, since the stepmother is so necessarily evil? “There are evil fathers and other evil family members: sisters, brothers. There are terrible teachers. Evil is everywhere,” says the curator of the exhibition. “After all, there are families in life where parents have not yet grown up to this role and rip off evil and take out aggression on children. Already from childhood, these guys know that these adults cannot be an example. They are broken people. “
Why horrible and scary heroes are so important in the books
Only in the book the place with the villain can always be flipped if the child is very afraid, but in real life everything is different. As the German expert emphasizes, “you cannot press“ stop ”to stop an out-of-control quarrel with an angry father, you cannot just stop mobbing from classmates. And you can always just close a book and throw it into a far corner.
With young children, of course, it is better to read scary stories together, to discuss them. But is it possible to endow fairy-tale characters with such evil characters as that of Bluebeard, the stepmother queen, the expert unequivocally believes that yes, it is possible! “Take the Brothers Grimm tales. At least 40 of them are stories of evil heroes.” It is the evil heroes who provoke the good ones to do good. “Imagine if we cleaned the fairy tales of all the villains, what would then be left? What boring thing! It’s adults who reason about what is good or bad for a child.
In Germany, in general, they often try to put the pedagogical approach at the forefront. Is it okay to show this to children? In England, a completely different approach. There, witches can fully match their image. Without hair, with blue saliva, with hooked fingers, they hate children and want them dead. In English literature, there is no problem with this “, – emphasizes the curator of the exhibition in Munich. According to her, the figure of a witch in children’s fairy tales is very important. It can be a lonely woman who lives on the outskirts of the village and became famous as a healer. Is she really a witch? Or is it evil tongues spread such fame about her?
The main goal set by the organizers of the exhibition is for children to read interesting books, reason, learn to pose questions and find answers to them. And villains from fairy tales remind you that you can’t be reckless. A terrible monster may end up as a kind hero, and a cute-looking character – a real villain. Everything is the same as in life.
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