Within or Beyond the Grimmian Hold? Considerations on Fairy Tales in Slavic Countries

Abstract

This contribution outlines the scientific outcomes of the international conference Fairy Tales in Slavic Countries: Reception — Production — Circulation, held at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” from February 11 to 13, 2026. Drawing upon the theoretical formulations of Ernst Bloch and Jack Zipes, the discussion positions the fairy tale as a site of utopian potential, characterised by the creation of alternative worlds that prefigure the subversion of empirical reality and resist social ossification. The analysis follows the three methodological coordinates that structured the event. First, reception is examined as a process of semantic assimilation and functional redistribution across diverse cultural environments, wherein the narrative demonstrates a memetic capacity to adapt to specific historical anxieties. Second, production is conceptualised as an act of collective confabulation, that is to say, rather than an invention ex nihilo, the fairy tale rearticulates existing repertoires to render historical trauma communicable or to destabilise hegemonic canons, thereby generating opportunities for political and gender emancipation. Third, circulation investigates the material and geographical mobility of texts through printing, editorial networks, and translation markets. This transnational migration facilitates a negotiation with local specificities — giving rise to culturally distinct oicotypes — and ensures the longevity of the genre across centuries. While acknowledging the historical primacy of the Grimmian paradigm (Gattung Grimm) in forging modern folkloristics, this study ultimately suggests the necessity of transcending such an architecture to recover the internal heterogeneity of Slavic traditions.

Keywords: fairy tale, Slavic countries, oicotypes, utopia, fairy-tale reception and circulation, fairy-tale adaptation