How have fairy tales been co-opted by artists, writers (such as Shakespeare), and film specifically or in general? Examine one specific film (please no Disney Animated films) as to how it meets either the archetypes of fairy tales or follows the Hero’s Cycle. I have a list of films that can be used if you are interested in this one.
These are broken into 3 mini-modules to be completed across four weeks:
Part 1 – The first part will focus in on the basics of research: what it is, finding a topic, and bringing the focus into something that can be covered in the word count and time allowed. The first Research Assignment is a Prospectus or proposal of a research topic based on the questions provided. From there, we will move into an overview of sources working to Research Module 2. There is one last Check Your Understanding quiz to complete before moving forward; this quiz will be on the selection and use of sources in particular.
Part 2 – The second part of the research module, which will be two weeks in duration, focuses first on the selection and development of sources, leading to the Annotated Bibliography. All the information you will need on how to craft an Annotated Bibliography will be covered.
Part 3 – The final Research Module will focus on the basics of forming an argument, claims, reasons, and evidence, response, and warrants. The final Research Module focuses on taking all the information from planning to organizing, to incorporating sources to focusing on introductions and conclusions and then revising. The third part of the Research module finishes with the Research Paper being turned in.
Lecture Source for this Module:
Most of our lectures in this Module are based on the writings of Wayne Booth, Gregory Colomb, Joseph Williams, and others in their book, The Craft of Research.
Booth, Wayne C, et al. The Craft of Research, 4th edition, University of Chicago, 2016
Below are some Research Questions focusing in on the Fairy Tale genre that our course is centered on. You must select from one of these questions/topics.
Fairy Tale Research Questions for Consideration (the questions are in bold for each entry):
1. “The Hero’s Journey duplicates the stages of the Rite of Passage. First, the initiate faces separation from his own, familiar world. Once separated, he undergoes initiation and transformation, where the old ways of thinking and acting are altered or destroyed, opening the way to a new level of awareness, skill, and freedom” (Harris).
Valerie Estelle Frankel, while patriarchal in her thinking, writes. “[t]he true goal of the heroine’s journey is to become the archetypal, all-powerful mother…The girls demonstrate this need for motherhood by questing, rarely for kingdoms, but for husbands or missing family members. These goals show the desire to build a family circle of one’s own” (4)
Given these two quotes, is there a difference between “boy stories” and “girl stories” in fairy tale films? Is the goal different or just the means of achieving it? How have these goals changed in the 21st Century?
Frankel, Valerie Estelle. From Girl to Goddess: The Heroine’s Journey through Myth and Legend, McFarland & Company, Inc., 2010. Google Books, books.google.com/books?
Harris, Reg. “The Pattern of Human Experience.” The Hero’s Journey: Life’s Great Adventure, Harris Communications, 2015, yourheroicjourney.com/the-heros-journey-lifes-great-adventure/
2. “Who can imagine a fairy princess with hair that is anything but long and blonde, with eyes that are anything but blue, in clothes that are anything but a filmy drape of gossamer and gauze. The fairy princess remains one of the most powerful symbols of femininity the Western world has ever devised and falling short of her role model, women are the feminine failures to some degree” (Holland, 54). Are fairy tale characters still good gender role models today?
Holland, Samantha. Alternative Femininities: Body, Age, and Identity, Bloomsbury Academic, 2004. EBSCOhost, db11.linccweb.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=142325&site=ehost-live
- “The wondrous fairy tale emanated from a wide variety of tiny tales thousands of years ago that were widespread throughout the world and continue to exist in unique ways under different environmental conditions. The form and contents of the fairy tale were not exactly what they are today… the fairy tale refuse[s] to be dominated by print and continue[s] to be altered and diffused throughout the world by word of mouth up to the present. That is, it shaped and was shaped by the interaction of orality and print and other technological mediations and innovations, such as painting, photography, radio, film, and so on” (Zipes, para. 2) This leads to two questions:
How have fairy tales been co-opted by artists, writers (such as Shakespeare), and film specifically or in general?
Examine one specific film (please no Disney Animated films) as to how it meets either the archetypes of fairy tales or follows the Hero’s Cycle. I have a list of films that can be used if you are interested in this one.
Zipes, Jack. “The meaning of fairy tale within the evolution of culture.” Marvels & Tales, vol. 25, no. 2, 2011, p. 221+. Academic OneFile, db11.linccweb.org/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=lincclin_hcc&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA275921478&it=r&asid=100495a050152aae7cf8f60edc016d5c. Accessed 5 Aug. 2017.
- “Fantasy and horror often exploit disabled people, presenting them as embodiments of terror and evil. In contemporary fantasy, we sometimes see archetypically evil characters redefined primarily by the telling of their backstories to provide [a] rationale for their behavior and to evoke sympathy or pity from the audience” (Donnelly, para. 1). Recently many blockbuster books and/or films have been adapted from fairy tales, but have shown a darker view with the deformity of classic characters, such as Maleficent in “Sleeping Beauty” or Elphaba in Wicked, even Tyrion, and Jamie Lannister or Theon Greyjoy in the Game of Thrones. Why this dark turn?
Donnelly, Colleen Elaine. “Re-Visioning Negative Archetypes of Disability and Deformity in Fantasy: Wicked, Maleficent, and Game of Thrones.” Disability Studies Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 4, Fall2016, p. 7. EBSCOhost, doi:10.18061/dsq.v36i4.5313.
5. “As psychologist and educator Bruno Bettelheim points out in The Uses of Enchantment, second only to a child’s parents and other caregivers in influencing that child’s understanding of his or her world ‘is our cultural heritage,’ and ‘[w]hen children are young, it is literature that carries such information best.’… For young children, the Harry Potter books work like fairy tales. They are set in a magical world, with evil characters such as Voldemort and good ones such as Albus Dumbledore. There are even mermaids, dragons, unicorns, trolls, orphans, and witches. Thus, youngsters recognize the books as part of the fairy tale world and Harry as a fairy or folk tale hero” Is Harry a fairy tale or folk tale hero? How does the Harry Potter series follow the Hero Quest?
Grimes, M. Katherine. “Harry Potter: Fairy Tale Prince, Real Boy, and Archetypal Hero.” The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter : Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon. University of Missouri Press, 2002, pp. 89-122. EBSCOhost, db11.linccweb.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=113900&site=ehost-live.
Harry Potter has many different topics that could be explored: racism, feminism, the sky’s the limit (just run it through the Discussion Board for approval.
- “I formed a mental image of Cinderella in which she could have been black with short, curly black hair, like me, the Disney reference changed forever my mental image of how a princess should look. In the movie, Cinderella was white, and all of the other Disney princesses were white as well; none of the princesses I saw in my favorite films looked like me. Slowly, the imagery solidified and the message became more concrete: princesses are white, and if you are not white, then you cannot be a real princess. These Disney representations of what a girl should look like and how she should act, if she wants to be a princess, stay with many girls” (Hurley). How do Disney films represent race in recent films?
Hurley, Dorothy L. “Seeing White: Children of Color and the Disney Fairy Tale Princess.” The Journal of Negro Education, vol. 74, no. 3, 2005, pp. 221–232. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40027429.
