‘Kill Her, and Bring Me Back Her Heart as A Token!’ Identity, Power and Violence in the Grimms ’ Fairy Tales Collection

Abstract: We obtain some of our first organized accounts of human action through folk and fairy tales, through their participants. It is by means of these stories that we make ourselves acquainted with the social world that surround us. This paper analyses the role of the main participants and the processes they carry out ina selected corpus of 22 tales of the Grimm’s tales collection. The intention is twofold: firstly, to show how violent actions, power and social status are intrinsically related in them and that this narrative might be embedded within a visible social construction of the self. In addition, I intend to prove that the degree of violence in the tales does not suit publishers ’ readings criteria in terms of age which are being applied nowadays to readers for childrenThe analytical framework used for the analysis draws on the principles of CDA, CL, SFL and the social identity theory. The results confirm that the verbal processes performed by some of the characters who use the power that their status provides them could influence the potential receptors of these narratives: children