Orrin W. Robinson III, Professor of German Studies at Stanford University, will present “White as Snow, Red as Blood: Girls and Women in the Grimms’ Fairy Tales,” at 6 p.m., Monday, March 19, in the South Room of the Iowa Memorial Union (IMU). A public reception will follow at 7 p.m. in the North Room of the IMU. Robinson is an Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor.

There exists a widespread impression that the Brothers Grimm were collectors and preservers of folk and fairy tales told to them by common folk of the German-speaking world. We now know, however, that many of their informants were middle class, a number of tales were taken from published sources, and some are arguably not originally German. Robinson will concentrate on changes the Grimms carried out that reinforced gender stereotypes, emphasizing preferred words for boys and girls, characteristics attributed to them via different kinds of adjectives, and one grammatical choice the Grimms increasingly made to distinguish between good girls and bad ones (and women).

Sponsors include the University of Iowa Departments of German, Asian and Slavic Languages and Literatures, English, French and Italian, Linguistics, and Spanish and Portuguese, International Programs, and the Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Interdisciplinary Colloquium.