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

Drawing on art, literature, & psychoanalysis, this presentation explores the unconscious anxieties expressed by the kitchen in fairy tales
About this Event

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

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 [email protected] or phone 323-663-2167.

Through Mirrors, Webs, & Forests: 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!

Mikita Brottman is Professor of Literature at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She has a D.Phil from Oxford University in English Language and Literature and is an NAAP certified psychoanalyst. She performs forensic evaluations for the National Institute for the study, prevention and treatment of sexual trauma. She is also the author of 15 nonfiction books, the latest of which, Guilty Creatures (Simon & Schuster, 2024) was described by the New York Times as “an unputdownable read” and has been ordered to series at Apple TV, starring and executive produced by Julia Garner. 

mikitabrottman.com

Melissa Daum is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, writer, and the founder of Atrium Psychotherapy, a psychodynamically oriented group practice based in New York City’s West Village. She teaches in NYU's Mental Health Counseling Program and has pursued advanced psychoanalytic training at the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis (NPAP). She completed her postgraduate training at an eating disorder day program, where she developed a nuanced understanding of appetite in all its enigmatic and contradictory forms.

melissadaum.com 

@melissadaum

CONTENT DISCLAIMER: The views, opinions, and thoughts expressed by the presenters are solely those of the presenter and may not represent those of the Philosophical Research Society (PRS), its affiliates, or any individuals associated with PRS. Presentations are intended for informational and entertainment purposes.

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