Grimm's 'The Willful Child'
example · Grimm fairy tale ·
retold in 3 talks
A willful child dies and is buried, but his little arm keeps emerging from the grave no matter how many times it is pressed back. The mother must beat it with a switch for it to rest. Žižek reads this as the purest image of the death drive's obscene insistence.
As told 2
“His little arm suddenly came forth and reached up. And it didn't help when they put it back in and put fresh earth over it, for the little arm always came out again.”
“his little arm suddenly came forth and reached up, and it didn't help when they put it back in... the mother herself had to go to the grave and beat the little arm with a switch”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
Its cast and sources
populated by
Ambrose Bierce1Karl Kraus1Eve Ensler1Éric Rohmer1Joe Ashkenazi1Mark (host)1Brothers Grimm1George Balanchine2
alongside works
Every retelling 2
A willful child dies and is buried, but his little arm keeps emerging from the grave no matter how many times it is pressed back. The mother must beat it with a switch for it to rest. Žižek reads this as the purest image of the death drive's obscene insistence., illustrating Todestrieb,undead,e pur si muove
A willful child is buried but its little arm keeps rising from the grave until the mother beats it down with a switch, Žižek reads this as the best metaphor for resistance and for the emancipatory subject as detached organ., illustrating organ without a body,emancipatory subjectivity,resistance