Facilitating Environment, Transitional Space, and Living Creatively: Crane Meets Winnicott on Fairy Tales' Educative Value

• In Event: 45.094 - Sheraton Roundtable Session Seven - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 45.094-4 - Arts Education in Schools

Abstract

This paper illuminates the power of illustrations in children’s fairy tales by analyzing Walter Crane’s illustrations in the fairytale, “Mother Holle,”through the theoretical lens of D.W. Winnicott’s concepts of facilitating environment, potential space, the False and True self and projection and cross identification. I posit that fairytales offer a facilitating environment and the space between the illustrations and text is a space of potential for developing visual intelligence that acts as a portal to seeing and imaging the True Self through projection and cross identification of the images, offering multiple creative experiences that help foster healthy emotional development.

Author

• Lori A. Palmer, Connors State College, Warner, OK