WCL E4: Michael Rosen's socialist fairy tales, part 2

Working Class History

Society & Culture, Education, History

5.0 • 813 Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2022

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Part 2 of our double-episode in which we talk to acclaimed author, poet and Professor of Children’s Literature, Michael Rosen, about his anthology, Workers’ Tales: Socialist Fairy Tales, Fables, and Allegories from Great Britain, which gathers together short stories from the labour and socialist press between 1880 and 1920.

In this episode, Michael shows how popular children’s stories (like Wind in the Willows and Alice in Wonderland) are shot through with the political content of their adult authors. He also reads a story from his anthology by William Morris and explains how all culture, including children’s writing, contains within it elements of social contest.

You can buy a copy of Michael's anthology here: https://bookshop.org/books/workers-tales-socialist-fairy-tales-fables-and-allegories-from-great-britain/9780691175348

More info on the webpage for this episode: https://workingclasshistory.com/blog/wcl-e3-4-michael-rosens-socialist-fairy-tales/

Transcript

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0:56.0	Welcome back to part two of our double episode about socialist fairy and folk tales with Michael
1:00.4	Rosen.
1:01.6	If you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, I recommend you go back and listen to that first.
1:07.4	At the matina, apenn alzata Before we get into the episode, Before we get into the episode, this is just a quick reminder that we're only able to produce
1:30.0	this podcast thanks to the support of our listeners on Patreon our supporters fund our work
1:35.5	and in return get exclusive early access to podcast episodes bonus episodes free and
1:41.0	discounted merch and other content join us or find out more at patreon.com slash working class history.
1:47.9	Link in the show notes.
1:50.3	Children's stories are frequently shot through with all kinds of social and political assumptions
1:54.7	which are included intentionally or not by their adult authors.
1:59.0	Everything from who the good guys are, who or what threatens them,
	...

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