STUDIES IN LIT & FOLKLORE: FAIRY TALES AND SOCIAL STRUGGLES

While the
popular image of the fairy tale centers around the magic-romance formula, this
course focuses on how folk and fairy tales symbolically represent individual
and collaborative struggles to transform the world while also changing
ourselves fit for the world. We will analyze print and filmic fairy-tales adaptations
that are concerned with—cope with and protest—war, social injustice, sexual
violence, & people’s displacement.

This is a
writing-intensive course that will feature some class discussion and some peer
review. Required reading not listed below will be available to download and
print via Laulima.

 

Course Requirements
Attendance & Participation;
formal papers (50%); film presentation and related
short paper (2-3 pages) 20%; reaction papers & focused activities (20%);
final exam (10%)

 

Required Texts (available at Revolution Books, 2626 King Street)
Jane Yolen, Briar
Rose

Margo Lanagan, Tender
Morsels

Emma Donoghue, Kissing
the Witch

Nalo Hopkinson, Skin Folk
Marina Warner
ed., Wonder Tales

Carlo Collodi, The Adventures of Pinocchio(Nancy
Canepa’s translation)

Andrei Codrescu, Whatever Gets You through the Night: a story
of sheherezade and the
Arabian
Nights Entertainments

Tea Obreht, The Tiger’s Wife
Andrew Teverson, The Fairy Tale (2013)