Folk & Fairy Tale in American Literature and Film.
This Studies course focuses on literature and film with an eye to how European fairy tales, Americanized folk & fairy tales, and Indigenous wondertales are adapted in and to American literature and film, especially in the late-twentieth-century and early-twenty-first-century. In this course, we will consider how folktales and fairy tales inform—structurally, emotionally, and ideologically— the production and reception of American literature and popular culture; what the relationship is between fantastic storyworlds and the fragmentation and disenchantment of the so-called American dream; and what kind of hope these tales of wonder offer for the future. In the course of the semester, via discussion, analysis, and research, we will address specific questions: How and to what effects have tales of magic, wonder, and trickstery been Americanized, and for whom? How do the ideological functions of magic and wonder in contemporary American fairy-tale adaptations compare to those in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz? How do Native American and other decolonial fantasies work to refocus our attention on wonder and social change? How do fairy-tale and fantasy participate in the negotiation of social trauma? Do activist adaptations that purposefully offer critical commentary on fairy tales provide a space for subversion of narrative, gender, and other social norms? What do we make of the fairy-tale mix with other popular genres in today’s American literature and film?
Assignments: two essays, one of which includes a research component (50%); short written assignments (20%) that include takeaways, questions for discussion, responses to the UHM symposium “Creating Futures Rooted in Wonder: Bridges between Indigenous, Science Fiction, and Fairy Tale Studies” (Sept 16-19); group presentation of film & related short paper (20%); final exam (10%).
Texts will include
Fairy Tales in Popular Cultureedited by Martin Hallett & Barbara Karasek
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
Once Upon a Time: New Fairy Tales edited by Paula Guran
Written in the Sky by Matthew Kaopio
Boy Bird Snow by Helen Oyeyemi OR God Help the Childby Toni Morrison
The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman
We will also read selected texts by Aimee Bender, Nalo Hopkinson, Daniel Heath Justice, Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada, Veronica Schanoes, Nisi Shawl, and Leslie Marmon Silko. Films will include Tom Davenport’s Ashpet, one or two films directed by David Kaplan, no more than two Disney productions, and at last one mixed-genre movie. In addition to the literary and cinematic texts listed above, we will read some mo‘olelo in translation as well as selected tales from http://www.surlalunefairytales.com, American Folktales from the Collections of the Library of Congress(edited by Carl Lindahl), Seneca Myths & Folktales by Arthur C. Parker.
NOTE: This is a writing-intensive (W) class and also fulfills a DL requirement in the UHM Gen Ed core.
SLOs: Demonstrate ability to discuss the genre of folk/fairy tales; recognize the functions and significance of folk and fairy tales in US literary and cultural production; analyze the structural, ideological, and aesthetic roles folk and fairy tales have in literary and filmic production & reception; conduct research on a specific retelling or revision; articulate research and analytical findings in writing and in oral presentation.