ABSTRACT
As already demonstrated, fairy tales and fantasy have an enormous subversive potential. The nature of subversion, however, may vary radically depending on the society in which the texts appear, since they will be affected by the dominant ideology. In this chapter I will show how a certain type of fantasy functioned in the former Soviet Union, a society in which art and literature were strongly subordinated to the offi cial ideology. In these stories, young protagonists are disempowered through their encounters with magic. I will then contrast Soviet children literature against some works of Brazilian magical realism, likewise created under totalitarian regime, but demonstrating signifi cantly stronger subversive traits.
