Hell’s Kitchen: Fairy Tales and the Domestic Uncanny - An Online Talk

Hell’s Kitchen: Fairy Tales and the Domestic Uncanny with Mikita Brottman, PhD and Melissa Daum, LMFT-D

The kitchen occupies a uniquely sensory place in the imagination. Food sizzling, coffee dripping, cupboards creaking, conversation lingering around the table. Its sounds, smells, and tastes create one of our earliest and most enduring experiences of comfort and home. Yet in fairy tales, we encounter the shadow side of the kitchen: a site of domestic enslavement, hidden perils, even cannibalism. Terror in the woods is expected, but terror in the kitchen is deeply uncanny. Here, domestic magic turns volatile, and the nurturing impulse curdles into something far darker. Drawing on art, literature, and psychoanalysis, this richly illustrated presentation explores the unconscious anxieties expressed by the kitchen in fairy tales and folklore, and in doing so, reveals that our image of the cozy kitchen is a spellbinding but necessary illusion.

Fairy tales we’ll be discussing: Hansel and Gretel, The Magic Porridge Pot, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Cinderella / Donkeyskin, Baba Yaga, as well as Freud’s The Uncanny and plentiful theories of the kitchen.

Tickets: $12 (ONLINE ONLY)

Please Note: Recordings of the class/event will be sent a few days after the event date and will be available for 2 weeks.

Please sign in to zoom with your full name or email address that you used to register for this event so we can check you in!

If you have any questions please email events@prs.org or phone 323-663-2167.

Through Mirrors, Webs, & Woods: A Month of Folk & Fairy Tales at PRS

This September, PRS celebrates the many wonders of fairytales and folk stories through a series of illustrated presentations, film screenings, and workshops!