In Fairy-Tale Science: Monstrous Generation in the Tales of Straparola and Basile, Professor Magnanini looks at the birth of the literary fairy tale in the context of early modern discourses on the monstrous and explains how scientific dis- course and literary theories of the marvelous limited the genre’s success in Europe. Between 1550 and 1650, fanciful stories of women giving birth to animals, young girls growing penises, and valiant men slaying dragons appeared in Europe. Circulated in scientific texts and in the first two collections of fairy tales published on the continent, the stories invigorated readers and established a new literary genre. Magnanini argues that men of science positioned the fairy tale in opposition to science and fixed it as a negative pole in a binary system. Fairy-Tale Science expands our understanding of the early modern European imagination. Professor Magnanini has been a member of the CU-Boulder faculty since 2000.
