English Literature

In general, here are some search tips when looking for scholarship on Fairy Tales:

1. Use quotation marks around the title of the fairy tale or work; e.g., "The Magic Fish"
2. For fairy tales with names in languages other than English, search for both the English and the original language title; e.g., "Malá mořská víla" OR "The little mermaid"
3. Use filters/limiters to weed out too many results
4. Double-check your result is for the right version of the fairy tale. Some have the same name or remakes! Use the date and/or the author's name as a search term.

For more general information about finding journal articles, view our Find Articles research guide.

Märchen- is the official MLA Descriptor (SU) for Fairy Tales 

• Do Not Use Fairy Tales as a Descriptor (SU) 

You can use Fairy Tales as a plain Keyword, but not as a descriptor or Subject Heading. Märchen will retrieve the MOST results. You can include OR "folk tale" as a more broad term.

Searching in MLA Bibliography:

Looking for fairy tale writers?  

Use their names in the Subject - SU field

• Grimm in SU

• Hans Andersen in SU
• Perrault in SU

Looking for a known tale by name?  

Use the Subject - SU field and tale name (include original language names with an OR operator!)

• Cinderella in SU
• Hansel & Gretel in SU
• Puss n Boots  in SU

Looking for criticism on a specific version of a tale?

Use the Author and Tale name in the Subject - SU field. You may also want to include the country/region of origin:

• Perrault and Cinderella - in SU
• Grimm and Hansel and Gretel - in SU
• Andersen and Mermaid in SU 

Looking at a motif or element -  not a specific tale?  

Use Märchen* in the SU field + your motif or element keyword without a field  (All Fields):

• ​Märchen in SU  AND  "rages to riches"
• Märchen in SU  AND  princess*
• Märchen in SU  AND  frog*

Add a box searching film in the Subject - SU field. Some fairy tales have been made into multiple films, include additional terms such as the names of directors and/or the year the film was produced with no field selected in order to get results for the correct film.

Examples:

• Snow White
  • "Snow white" - in SU
  • film - in SU
  • 1937, Hand (no field selected)
• Cinderella
  • Cinderella - in SU
  • film - in SU
  • 1950, Geronimi (no field selected)

For more tips on finding Film Criticism in MLA Bibliography and other databases, see our find Film Criticism page!