HANSEL AND GRETEL AT THE GROCERY STORE

Abstract

What is the relationship between economy and culture? To address this question, the paper draws a parallel between the well known fairy tale Hansel and Gretel on the one hand and the American grocery business in the twentieth century on the other hand. From the thirties to the fifties, American grocers (like the witch) happened to progressively use their shops (like a cake house) as a means to attract children (like Hansel and Gretel). However, the parallel shows that fairy tales and market exchanges are connected not because the second refers to the former, or the other way round, but because they describe and perform similar scenes and action patterns, like economics (as a tale) performs the economy (as a fact), but also the other way round: the analysis focuses on the situated and 'equipped’ processes that produce both facts and culture, along the pragmatic view of Actor Network Theory.

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