ABSTRACT
This chapter explores post-Second-World-War texts featuring individual miniature protagonists. At some level, whether consciously or unconsciously, both Norton and Kastner have joined fairytale elements with a realistically created world, as they reimagine collective archetypes and 'dress' them in the clothes of a European post-war world. There is a sense of futurity in their work and a mood of optimism in the willingness of the young protagonists to go forward into the unknown and lead the way for their elders. Erich Kastner's The Little Man is the male, mainland-European counterpart of tiny Arrietty. Rosa is Kastner's creation of princess and fairy godmother rolled into one, as her name implies, she is sweetness personified, the female figure who is always 'deliciously' tempting, yet loving and irresistible to the Professor and to Maxie. There are few female figures in Kastner's text: Frau Holzer of Maxie's dream is an anxious elderly woman.
