ENG 381: Evolution of the Fairy Tale Bishops s University, Winter 2007

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1 Bishops s University, Winter 2007 Class time: Tues. & Thurs., 10-11:30 Classroom: Morris House Seminar Room Instructor: Dr. Steven Woodward address: swoodwar@ubishops.ca Office: Morris 17 Office telephone: 2250 Office hours: Mon. & Wed., 1-2; Tues. & Thurs., 3-4 Description This course will investigate how one kind of text, the fairy tale, a genre appropriated 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. Course Texts These required texts are available at the university bookstore: Burton, Richard, trans. Favorite Tales from the Arabian Nights Entertainments. Mineola, NY: Dover, Orenstein, Catherine. Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality, and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale. New York: Basic Books, Tatar, Maria, ed. The Classic Fairy Tales. Norton Critical Edition. New York: Norton, Winterson, Jeannette. Sexing the Cherry. Vintage, The following required text is out of print. Find a used copy if possible, or download the required sections of the book from WebCT: Lurie, Alison, ed. The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales. Oxford: Oxford UP, 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, Stories and Critical Articles (pdf files available on WebCT) 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, Boccaccio Giovanni. [Andreuccio of Perugia]. The Decameron. 2 nd ed. Trans. G. H. McWilliam. London: Penguin, 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, Jacobs, Joseph. Selections from English Fairy Tales. London: Bodley Head, 1968.

2 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, McCallum, Robyn. Approaches to the Literary Fairy Tale. The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales. Ed. Jack Zipes. Oxford: Oxford UP, Of Feminine Subtlety [from the Gesta Romanorum]. Spells of Enchantment: The Wondrous Fairy Tales of Western Culture. Ed. Jack Zipes. New York: Viking Penguin, Ovid. Lycaon. Tales from Ovid. Trans. Ted Hughes. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Ovid. Tereus. Tales from Ovid. Trans. Ted Hughes. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Rossetti, Christina. Goblin Market. Beyond the Looking Glass: Extraordinary Works of Fantasy and Fairy Tale. Ed. Jonathan Cott. New York: Stonehill, 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., Sexton, Anne. Selections from Transformations. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 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 Cocteau, 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) Evaluation Seminar Guide: Author 15% Seminar Guide: Film 15% Annotated Bibliography Entries 20% Research Paper 35% Participation 15% TOTAL 100% 2

3 Attendance Policy ENG 381: Evolution of the Fairy Tale 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 (subject to revision; note that CT beside a title indicates that the article/story is accessible through the WebCT system) Date Subject Texts Jan. 9 Jan. 11 & 16 Fairy Tales in Our Lives: The Meaning of Metamorphosis Pre-History of Fairy Tales Dora the Explorer Tex Avery cartoons Chanel No.5 commercial Ovid, Lycaon and Tereus (CT) Apuleius, Cupid and Psyche (CT) Of Feminine Subtlety (from the Gesta Romanorum) (CT) Jan. 18 Early Collectors: The Italians Boccaccio, Decameron 2.5 (CT) Straparola, The Pig King (Tatar) Basile, The Young Slave (Tatar) Jan. 23 & 25 Early Collectors: The French Lhéritier, The Discreet Princess (CT) D Aulnoy, Finette Cendron (CT) Perrault, Donkeyskin; Little Red Riding Hood; Bluebeard; Little Thumbling (Tatar) De Beaumont, Beauty and the Beast (Tatar) Jan. 30 Oriental Fairy Tales: The Arabian Nights Sinbad the Seaman and Sinbad the Landsman; Aladdin (Burton) Feb. 1 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) Feb. 6 & 8 Structure and Meaning in the Fairy Tale McCallum, Approaches to the Literary Fairy Tale (CT) 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) Feb. 13 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 Household Library (CT) Date Subject Texts 3

4 Feb. 15 Feb. 20 Feb. 22 Mar. 6 Mar. 8 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 Andersen, The Little Mermaid; The Red Shoes (Tatar) Wilde, The Selfish Giant (Tatar) Ruskin, King of the Golden River (Lurie) MacDonald, Light Princess (Lurie) C. Rossetti, Goblin Market (CT) Avery, British and Irish Fairy Tales (CT) Jacobs, English Fairy Tales (CT): 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) (CT) Orenstein Rowe, The Female Voice in Folklore and Fairy Tale (Tatar) Carter, The Tiger s Bride (Tatar); The Courtship of Mr Lyon (Lurie) Mar. 13 Disney s Fairy Tale Films Zipes, Breaking the Disney Spell (Tatar) FILMS: Snow White; Beauty and the Beast (d. Jean Cocteau); Beauty and the Beast (d. Trousdale and Wise) Mar. 15 Disney s Fairy Tale Films FILMS: The Little Mermaid; Aladdin Mar. 20 Fairy Tale Films: Shelley Duvall FILMS: Faerie Tale Theatre Mar. 22 Mar. 27 Mar. 29 April 3 & 5 Fairy Tale Films: Jim Henson LAST DAY TO SUBMIT BIBLIOGRAPHY ENTRIES Fairy Tale Films: Submerged Fairy Tales Fairy Tale Films: Tom Davenport s American Fairy Tales Jeanette Winterson RESEARCH PAPERS DUE BY 5PM ON APRIL 5th FILMS: The Storyteller FILMS: Ball of Fire, Pretty Woman, Freeway FILMS: Willa: An American Snow White Winterson, Sexing the Cherry 4

5 Assignments ENG 381: Evolution of the Fairy Tale 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 collectors 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 connections 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/collector. You should also upload a copy to WebCT. #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, character, 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 construct 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 construct 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 constructing 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 WebCT. 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 WebCT) may help you choose a subject. Possible topics: competing versions of a tale; particular authors and their contexts; the illustration of fairy tales; editing fairy tales for children; the moral aspects of fairy tales; gender in fairy tales; violence in fairy tales. 5