Free Online Talk · Guardian, Guide, Gift-Giver: A Brief History of the Fairy Godmother with Cultural Historian Jason Lahman
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
7pm ET (NYC time)
Free! RSVP with email at checkout
PLEASE NOTE: Video playback of free events is only available to Patreon members. Become a Member HERE.
Ticketholders: A Zoom invite is sent out two hours before the event to the email used at checkout. Please check your spam folder and if not received, email hello@morbidanatomy.org.
This lecture is offered as an introduction and sneak peek into Lahman's popular The History of Fairies class, back by popular demand beginning May 4th.
Since the late 17th century, the Fairy Godmother has been a powerful presence in the fairy tales and popular visual cultures of the West. But how did a character who combines the ritual Christian function of taking responsibility for a young person's spiritual education and the older pagan duties of a supernatural "guardian, guide and gift-giver" come to hold such prominence?
In this image-rich lecture, Jason Lahman will guide us through the works of the proto-feminist courtiers of the ancien régime such as Madame D'Aulnoy and Madame Leprince de Beaumont, the invention of the Romantic lore of fairies, and the explosion of illustrated children's books in the Victorian era, including not only the works of of Perrault, Andersen and the Grimms, but also early authors of modern fantasy such as George MacDonald which made images of the fairy godmother and other kinds of magical helpers household presences.
Jason Lahman is an artist and cultural historian specializing in the history of technology, science and the occult. He has taught a number of classes for Morbid Anatomy including A Cultural History of Robots, A History of Fairies and a two-part course on The Femme Fatale.
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
7pm ET (NYC time)
Free! RSVP with email at checkout
PLEASE NOTE: Video playback of free events is only available to Patreon members. Become a Member HERE.
Ticketholders: A Zoom invite is sent out two hours before the event to the email used at checkout. Please check your spam folder and if not received, email hello@morbidanatomy.org.
This lecture is offered as an introduction and sneak peek into Lahman's popular The History of Fairies class, back by popular demand beginning May 4th.
Since the late 17th century, the Fairy Godmother has been a powerful presence in the fairy tales and popular visual cultures of the West. But how did a character who combines the ritual Christian function of taking responsibility for a young person's spiritual education and the older pagan duties of a supernatural "guardian, guide and gift-giver" come to hold such prominence?
In this image-rich lecture, Jason Lahman will guide us through the works of the proto-feminist courtiers of the ancien régime such as Madame D'Aulnoy and Madame Leprince de Beaumont, the invention of the Romantic lore of fairies, and the explosion of illustrated children's books in the Victorian era, including not only the works of of Perrault, Andersen and the Grimms, but also early authors of modern fantasy such as George MacDonald which made images of the fairy godmother and other kinds of magical helpers household presences.
Jason Lahman is an artist and cultural historian specializing in the history of technology, science and the occult. He has taught a number of classes for Morbid Anatomy including A Cultural History of Robots, A History of Fairies and a two-part course on The Femme Fatale.
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
7pm ET (NYC time)
Free! RSVP with email at checkout
PLEASE NOTE: Video playback of free events is only available to Patreon members. Become a Member HERE.
Ticketholders: A Zoom invite is sent out two hours before the event to the email used at checkout. Please check your spam folder and if not received, email hello@morbidanatomy.org.
This lecture is offered as an introduction and sneak peek into Lahman's popular The History of Fairies class, back by popular demand beginning May 4th.
Since the late 17th century, the Fairy Godmother has been a powerful presence in the fairy tales and popular visual cultures of the West. But how did a character who combines the ritual Christian function of taking responsibility for a young person's spiritual education and the older pagan duties of a supernatural "guardian, guide and gift-giver" come to hold such prominence?
In this image-rich lecture, Jason Lahman will guide us through the works of the proto-feminist courtiers of the ancien régime such as Madame D'Aulnoy and Madame Leprince de Beaumont, the invention of the Romantic lore of fairies, and the explosion of illustrated children's books in the Victorian era, including not only the works of of Perrault, Andersen and the Grimms, but also early authors of modern fantasy such as George MacDonald which made images of the fairy godmother and other kinds of magical helpers household presences.
Jason Lahman is an artist and cultural historian specializing in the history of technology, science and the occult. He has taught a number of classes for Morbid Anatomy including A Cultural History of Robots, A History of Fairies and a two-part course on The Femme Fatale.