ENG 381: Evolution of the Fairy Tale Bishops s University, Fall 2010

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1 Bishops s University, Fall 2010 Class time: Wed, 6:00-9:00 Classroom: Johnson 102 Instructor: Dr Steven Woodward address: swoodwar@ubishopsca Office: Morris 17 Office telephone: 2250 Office hours: Tues & Thurs, 2:30-4:00; Wed, 10:00-12:00 Description This course will investigate how one kind of text, the fairy tale, a genre that perhaps derives from the oral culture of peasants, has been modified and reworked to suit a wide range of other cultural contexts By investigating both the production and reception of fairy tales within the literary culture of the court of Louis XIV and of 19 th century England, in the folklore movements of 19 th century Germany and Britain, in children s culture from the late 19 th century to the present, throughout American movie culture in the 20 th century, and within late-20 th century feminist circles we will see how this genre so focused on the image of metamorphosis has itself been transformed and used in radically liberating or deeply repressive ways This year, the end of the course will coincide with the Cinderella Perplex, an undergraduate conference at Bishop s about the persistence of Cinderella and other fairy tales, and with a stage performance of Cinderella at Centennial Theatre With this in mind, course content has been adjusted this year to focus more on these kinds of tales Ideally, most students in the course will participate in the conference Course Texts These required texts are available at the university bookstore: Burton, Richard, trans Favorite Tales from the Arabian Nights Entertainments Mineola, NY: Dover, 2002 Winterson, Jeannette Sexing the Cherry Vintage, 2000 Zipes, Jack, ed The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm The following required text is out of print Find a used copy if possible, or download the required sections of the book from Moodle: Lurie, Alison, ed The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales Oxford: Oxford UP, 1993 The following text is not required and is out of print, but is highly recommended: Zipes, Jack, ed The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales New edition Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003 Stories and Critical Articles (pdf files available on Moodle) Apuleius, Cupid and Psyche The Golden Ass Trans Robert Graves New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1967 Avery, Gillian British and Irish Fairy Tales The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales Ed Jack Zipes Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003

2 Boccaccio Giovanni [Andreuccio of Perugia] The Decameron 2 nd ed Trans G H McWilliam London: Penguin, 1995 D Aulnoy, Marie-Catherine Finette Cendron The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm Ed Jack Zipes New York: Norton, 2001 Jacobs, Joseph SeleMoodleions from English Fairy Tales London: Bodley Head, 1968 Lhéritier, Marie-Jeanne The Discreet Princess The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm Ed Jack Zipes New York: Norton, 2001 McCallum, Robyn Approaches to the Literary Fairy Tale The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales Ed Jack Zipes Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003 Of Feminine Subtlety [from the Gesta Romanorum] Spells of Enchantment: The Wondrous Fairy Tales of Western Culture Ed Jack Zipes New York: Viking Penguin, 1991 Ovid Lycaon Tales from Ovid Trans Ted Hughes New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997 Ovid Tereus Tales from Ovid Trans Ted Hughes New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997 Rossetti, Christina Goblin Market Beyond the Looking Glass: Extraordinary Works of Fantasy and Fairy Tale Ed Jonathan Cott New York: Stonehill, 1973 Schacker, Jennifer The Household Tales in the Household Library: Edgar Taylor s German Popular Stories National Dreams: The Remaking of Fairy Tales in Nineteenth-Century England Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2003 Sexton, Anne SeleMoodleions from Transformations Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971 Films We do not have the time to screen the following films in class Therefore, it is your responsibility to screen them before the date on which they will be discussed In the case of films which very few people have seen, group screenings may be arranged Beauty and the Beast (d Jean CoMoodleeau, 1946) Faerie Tale Theatre: The Tale of the Frog Prince (exec prod Shelley Duvall, 1982) Faerie Tale Theatre: The Dancing Princesses (exec prod Shelley Duvall, 1987) Ever After: A Cinderella Story (d Andy Tennant, 1998) Pretty Woman (d Garry Marshall, 1990) Freeway (d Matthew Bright, 1996) Aladdin (d Clements & Musker, 1992) Shrek (d Adamson & Jenson, 2001) Ball of Fire (d Howard Hawks, 1941) The Princess Bride (d Rob Reiner, 1987) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (d Walt Disney, 1937) The Little Mermaid (d Clements & Musker, 1989) Beauty and the Beast (d Trousdale & Wise, 1991) The Storyteller: Hans My Hedgehog (d Barron and Henson, 1988) The Storyteller: Sapsorrow (d Barron and Henson, 1988) Willa: An American Snow White (d Tom Davenport, 1998) Bluebeart (d Catherine Breillat, 2009) Useful Websites Endicott-Studio Surlalune Fairy Tales 2

3 Evaluation Seminar Guide: Author 15% Seminar Guide: Film 15% Annotated Bibliography Entries 20% Research Paper 35% Participation 15% TOTAL 100% 3

4 Attendance Policy 4 It is assumed that all students participating in this seminar course will attend and participate unless dire circumstances prevent them from doing so Poor attendance and participation will seriously affect the student s participation grade and will likely also affect the grade for the research paper, which is expected to reflect class discussion Schedule (subjemoodle to revision; note that Moodle beside a title indicates that the article/story is accessible through the Moodle system) Date SubjeMoodle Texts 8 Sept What is a Fairy Tale? The Meaning of Metamorphosis Ruth Bottigheimer vs Jack Zipes 15 Sept 1) Pre-History of Fairy Tales Ovid, Lycaon and Tereus (Moodle) Apuleius, Cupid and Psyche (Moodle) Of Feminine Subtlety (from the Gesta Romanorum) (Moodle) 2) Early Tellers: The Italians (Restoration and Rise Tales) Boccaccio, Decameron 25 (Moodle) Straparola, The Pig Prince (Zipes) Basile, The Young Slave (Tatar) 22 Sept Early Tellers: The French Lhéritier, The Discreet Princess (Moodle) D Aulnoy, Finette Cendron (Moodle) Perrault, Donkeyskin; Little Red Riding Hood; Bluebeard; Little Thumbling (Tatar) De Beaumont, Beauty and the Beast (Tatar) Oriental Fairy Tales: Aladdin (Burton) The Arabian Nights 29 Sept The Brothers Grimm Grimms, The Robber Bridegroom; The Juniper Tree; The Frog King; Hansel and Gretel; Snow White; Cinderella (all in Tatar) Tatar, Sex and Violence (Tatar) 6 Structure and Meaning in the Fairy Tale McCallum, Approaches to the Literary Fairy Tale (Moodle) Orenstein Aarne/Thompson, from The Types of the Folktale (Tatar) Propp, Folklore and Literature (Tatar) Propp, from Morphology of the Folktale (Tatar) Bettelheim, from The Uses of Enchantment (Tatar) Darnton, Peasants Tell Tales (Tatar) Fairy Tales, Children, and Morality Sinclair, Uncle David s Nonsensical Story Pyle, The Apple of Contentment Ewing, Good Luck Is Better than Gold De Morgan, A Toy Princess Hawthorne, Feathertop (all in Lurie) Schacker, The Household Tales in the

5 SubjeMoodle Original Fairy Tales: Hans Christian Andersen Original Fairy Tales: 19 th C England English Fairy Tales, from Beowulf to Joseph Jacobs 20 th C Feminist Tellers: Anne Sexton s Transformations 20 th C Feminist Tellers: Angela Carter s The Bloody Chamber Household Library (Moodle) Texts Andersen, The Little Mermaid; The Red Shoes (Tatar) ENG 381: Evolution of the Fairy Tale Wilde, The Selfish Giant (Tatar) Ruskin, King of the Golden River (Lurie) MacDonald, Light Princess (Lurie) C Rossetti, Goblin Market (Moodle) Avery, British and Irish Fairy Tales (Moodle) Jacobs, English Fairy Tales (Moodle): The History of Tom Thumb Jack the Giant Killer Jack and the Beanstalk Child Rowland Cap o Rushes Catskin Gilbert and Gubar, [Snow White and Her Wicked Stepmother] (Tatar) Sexton, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Tatar); Rapunzel; Cinderella; Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty) (Moodle) Orenstein Rowe, The Female Voice in Folklore and Fairy Tale (Tatar) Carter, The Tiger s Bride (Tatar); The Courtship of Mr Lyon (Lurie) 3 Nov Disney s Fairy Tale Films Zipes, Breaking the Disney Spell (Tatar) FILMS: Snow White; Beauty and the Beast (d Jean CoMoodleeau); Beauty and the Beast (d Trousdale and Wise) Disney s Fairy Tale Films FILMS: The Little Mermaid; Aladdin 10 Nov Fairy Tale Films: Shelley Duvall FILMS: Faerie Tale Theatre Fairy Tale Films: Jim Henson LAST DAY TO SUBMIT BIBLIOGRAPHY ENTRIES FILMS: The Storyteller 17 Nov Fairy Tale Films: Submerged Fairy Tales Fairy Tale Films: Tom Davenport s American Fairy Tales 24 Nov Jeanette Winterson RESEARCH PAPERS DUE BY 5PM ON APRIL 5th 4 Dec Cinderella Perplex FILMS: Ball of Fire, Pretty Woman, Freeway FILMS: Willa: An American Snow White Winterson, Sexing the Cherry 5

6 Assignments For all written assignments, be sure to use parenthetical citations and include a corresponding list of works cited, following MLA style #1: Seminar Guide: Author You will provide a hand-out and lead discussion for one of the classes focused on the individual collemoodleors and writers of fairy tales (a sign-up sheet will be circulated) Your seminar guide should be no more than two pages, single-spaced, and should offer essential cultural context, relevant biographical details, and unique features of the work of this particular author Rather than offering a definitive position, your guide should serve to provoke informed discussion on the connemoodleions between context, author, and texts To that end, you may wish either to include a number of questions on the guide or to draw our attention to certain issues during the seminar Your hand-out should be distributed to the class the day before the discussion of your writer/collemoodleor You should also upload a copy to WebMoodle #2: Seminar Guide: Film You will prepare a hand-out about and lead discussion on one of the films that are required viewing for the course Your hand-out should discuss the story of the film in relation to its fairy tale analogues, noting any major variations in plot, charamoodleer, or theme You should also include a brief summary of the popular and critical reception, using short quotes from reviews and scholarly articles The guide should be no more than two-pages, single-spaced As with the author seminar guide, it should be distributed in the class before that in which the film is discussed (see above) #3: Annotated Bibliography Entries Working as one large group, we will construmoodle a bibliography of our reading about the fairy tale To this end, you must read at least five chapters or scholarly journal articles about the fairy tale or the fairy tale film other than those we will discuss together in class and those you use to construmoodle your seminar guides (they may be chapters or articles you are reading for your research paper) Produce an annotated bibliographic entry for each chapter/article Follow MLA format in construmoodleing your entry and limit your annotation to 200 words Send your entries to me as Word files I will paste them into a master document, which I will update regularly on WebMoodle All entries must be submitted to me by March 22 nd #4: Research Paper This paper should be between 10 and 15 pages long (double-spaced) and may address any topic related to the course, but not extensively covered in our discussions You should consult with me early in the course to define a topic and at regular intervals thereafter as you develop your paper The article Approaches to the Literary Fairy Tale (available on WebMoodle) may help you choose a subjemoodle Possible topics: competing versions of a tale; particular authors and their contexts; the illustration of fairy tales; editing fairy tales for children; the moral aspemoodles of fairy tales; gender in fairy tales; violence in fairy tales 6