Instruction Mode: In-Class
Professor: Multiple Professors
Resource(s): | Type | Description | Required | Textbook | Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Salman Rushdie, Penguin Group |
Required | Textbook | Folk and Fairy Tales, Martin Hallett and Barbara Karasek, Peterborough: Broadview Press, 5th edition, 2018 |
Applicable student group(s): General Education Elective
Course Details: MODULE 1 – INTRODUCTION TO FOLK AND FAIRY TALES
Unit 1 – Course Introduction
Folk and Fairy Tales: Conventions and Characteristics
Fairy Tale Origins
Readings: “Introduction,” in Hallett and Karasek
MODULE 2 – CRITICAL APPROACHES TO THE FAIRY TALE
Unit 2 – Orality to Literacy: Folkloristic Perspectives
Folklore and the Fairy Tale
Fairy Tales across Cultures
Arabian Nights, Basile, Perrault, J. and W. Grimm, Andersen
Comparative Analysis: “Little Red Riding Hood”
Readings: “Little Red Riding Hood” (three/four versions – must include “The Chinese Red Riding Hoods,” Chang or “Flossie and the Fox,” McKissack); “Fairy Tales from a Folkloristic Perspective,” Dundes in Hallett and Karasek
Unit 3 - The Psychological Significance of Fairy Tales: Freud and Jung
Bruno Bettleheim and The Uses of Enchantment
Themes, Motifs and Archetypes
Comparative Analysis: “Sleeping Beauty”
Readings: “Sleeping Beauty” (three/four versions – must include “The Ninth Captain’s Tale,” Arabian Nights); “The Struggle for Meaning,” Bettelheim in Hallett and Karasek
MODULE 3 – FAIRY TALES AND THE SOCIAL WORLD
Unit 4 – Feminism and the Fairy Tale Hero
Feminist Perspectives
Characteristics of the Fairy Tale Hero
Readings: “Cinderella” (three/four versions – must include “Cap o’ Rushes,” Jacobs); “Molly Whuppie,” Jacobs; “The Fairy Tale Hero: The Image of Man in the Fairy Tale,” Luthi; “Feminism and Fairy Tales,” Rowe in Hallett and Karasek
Assignment 1 (20%)
Unit 5 – Landscape and Transformation
Beasts and Villains
Love, Temptation and Redemption
Culture and Landscape
Readings: “The Enchanted Bride Groom” (three/four versions – must include “The White Cat,” d’Aulnoy); “Bluebeard,” Perrault in Hallett and Karasek
Mid-term Exam (20%)
READING BREAK
MODULE 4 – LITERARY TALES OF THE 19th CENTURY
Unit 6 – The Fairy Tale as Sociopolitical Critique
Literary Language and Narrative Techniques
Tragedy and Social Issues
Parody and Satire
Readings: “The Griffin and the Minor Canon,” Stockton; “The Happy Prince,” Wilde; “A Toy Princess,” De Morgan; “The Ugly Duckling,” Andersen in Hallett and Karasek
Assignment 2 (10%)
MODULE 5 – INTERTEXTUALITY AND MODERN ECOLOGIES
Unit 7 – Haroun and the Sea of Stories
East meets West
Fairy Tale Allusions
Tolkien’s Cauldron, The Ocean of Story (The Kathasaritsagara)
The Universality of Fairy Tale Themes
Readings: Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Rushdie
MODULE 6 – ADAPTATION: THE FAIRY TALE IN IMAGE AND FILM
Unit 8 – Illustration, Animation and the “Disneyfication of the Fairy Tale”
Illustration: Style, Symbol and Composition
Disney and the Animated Fairy Tale
“A Little Mermaid:” Andersen, Disney and Miyazaki’s Ponyo or Moore’s Song of the Sea
Film viewing: The Mickey Mouse Monopoly (documentary)
Readings: “Disney Revisited, or, Jiminy Cricket, It’s Musty Down Here,” Hearne and all illustrations in Hallett and Karasek
MODULE 6 – POSTMODERNISM AND THE FRACTURED FAIRY TALE
Unit 9 – Fairy Tale Revisions
Defining Postmodernism
Film viewing: Shrek 2 or Into the Woods
Assignment 3 (25%)
Readings: “What Bugs Bunny Said to Red Riding Hood,” Seibles; “The Three Little Pigs,” Garner; “Giant Story,” Scieszka and Smith; “How Shrek and Friends Have Changed Children’s Stories,” Poniewozik in Hallett and Karasek
MODULE 7 – THE FAIRY TALE: ALIVE, WELL AND CONTINUING TO EVOLVE
Unit 10 – The Fairy Tale in Contemporary Contexts
Fairy Tales and Other Genres: Fantasy, Magical Realism, Gothic, Horror
Extending Belief to Secondary Worlds
Classic Criteria and Fairy Tale Persistence
Readings: Revisionist Tales (for example: “The Company of Wolves,” Carter; “Wolf,” Block; “Sleeping Beauty and the Airplane,” Garcia Marquez; “The Sleeping Beauty,” Owen; “When the Clock Strikes,” Lee; “The Wicked Stepmother’s Lament,” Maitland; “The Tale of the Handkerchief,” Donoghue in Hallett and Karasek)
Final Exam (25%)
Course Evaluations, Student Consultations