) Russian Formalism / Viktor Shklovsky (1893-1984)

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1.) Russian Formalism / Viktor Shklovsky (1893-1984) Defamiliarization and “Henny Penny” (English) Henny Penny believes the sky is falling when an acorn falls on her head. The hen decides to tell the King and on its journey meets other animals (including a fox) that join in the quest. The fox invites them to its lair and there eats them all. The animals have rhyming names such as Henny Penny, Cocky Locky, Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey, Gander Lander, Turkey Lurkey and Foxy Woxy. (Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henny_Penny)

2.) Structuralism and Linguistics / Vladimir Propp (1895-1979) NARRATIVE STRUCTURE: 31 Sequence Functions, 7 Character Functions, and “Jack and the Beanstalk” (English)

Jack is a young boy living with his widowed mother and a cow who is their only source of income. When the cow stops giving milk, Jack's mother has told Jack take the cow to the market to be sold. On the way, he meets an old man who offers "magic beans" in exchange for the cow and Jack makes the trade. When he arrives home without any money, his mother becomes furious, throws the beans on the ground and sends Jack to bed. / A gigantic beanstalk grows overnight which Jack climbs to a land high in the sky. There he comes to a house or a castle that is the home of a giant. Jack breaks into the house. When the giant returns, he senses that a human is nearby. / When the giant sleeps, he steals a bag of gold coins and makes his escape down the beanstalk. / Jack returns up the beanstalk twice more. He learns of other treasures and steals them when the giant sleeps: first a goosethat lays golden eggs (the most common variant is a hen; compare the idiom "to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs."), then a harp that plays by itself. However, the giant is woken when Jack leaves the house with the harp. The giant chases him down the beanstalk and Jack calls to his mother for an ax. Before the giant reaches the ground, Jack cuts down the beanstalk, causing the giant to fall to his death. Jack and his mother then live happily ever after with their riches that Jack stole from the giant. (Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_the_Beanstalk)

3.) Psychoanalysis / Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Condensation, Displacement, Manifest & Latent Content and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (Disney) and Literally Every Fairy Tale

Example of Displacement >>> The huntsman takes Snow White into the forest, but is unable to kill her because she is so beautiful and innocent. The stability of his ego is threatened at the mere thought of such a crime. “After raising his knife, he finds himself unable to kill her as she sobs heavily and begs him: "Oh, dear huntsman, don't kill me! Leave me with my life; I will run into the forest and never come back!" The huntsman leaves her behind alive, convinced that the girl would be eaten by some wild animal. He instead brings the Queen the lungs and liver of a young boar, which is prepared by the cook and eaten by the Queen. (Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White#Plot)

4.) Marxist Analysis / Karl Marx (1818-1993 Alienation, Species Being, and Communal Life “The Little Red Hen and the Grain of Wheat” (Russian) A little red hen finds a grain of wheat and implicitly demands help from the other farmyard animals, but none of them volunteer. / At each later stage (harvest, threshing, milling the wheat into flour, and 2 baking the flour into bread), the hen again demands help from the other animals, but again gets no assistance. / Finally, the hen has completed her task and asks who will help her eat the bread. All the previous non-participants volunteer. She declines, stating that no one aided her in the preparation work. Thus, the hen eats it with her chicks leaving none for anyone else."(Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Red_Hen)

5. Deconstruction and Post-Structuralism / Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) Untenable Binary Oppositions, Deconstruction, and “Cinderella” (Perrault/Disney)

“Cinderella maintains hope through her dreams and remains kind, gentle, and sweet. She has faith that someday her dreams of happiness will come true and her kindness will be repaid. Cinderella is shown to have a down-to-earth attitude, but she is also a daydreamer.” (Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella_(Disney_character)#Characteristics)

6.) Post-Structuralism and Post-Marxist Analysis / Julia Kristeva (b. 1941) Intertextuality, “Little Red Riding Hood” (German), and “The History of Little Golden Hood” (Marelles) The story revolves around a girl called Little Red Riding Hood. In the Grimms' and Perrault's versions of the tale, she is named after the red hooded cape/cloak that she wears. The girl walks through the woods to deliver food to her sickly grandmother (wine and cake depending on the translation). In the Grimms' version, she had the order from her mother to stay strictly on the path. A Big Bad Wolf eats the grandmother, Red Riding Hood, and even the food in the basket. A huntsman saves the day by cutting the grandmother and Red Riding Hood out of the wolf’s stomach. The both live, no worse for the wear. (Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Red_Riding_Hood#Modern_uses_and_adaptations)

Andrew Lang included a variant called "The True History of Little Goldenhood" in The Red Fairy Book (1890). He derived it from the works of Charles Marelles. This version explicitly states that the story had been mistold earlier. The girl is saved, but not by the huntsman; when the wolf tries to eat her, its mouth is burned by the golden hood she wears, which is enchanted. (Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Red_Riding_Hood#Modern_uses_and_adaptations)

7.) Feminism / Gayle Rubin (b. 1949) Gender, Sex, and Atlanta Ballet’s “The Nutcracker (2015)” (Russian) In the famous scene where the Nutcracker Prince slays the Rat King with his sword, in the 2015 Atlanta Ballet version, Marya slays the Rat King with the Prince’s sword and then releases the Prince from the bonds the Rat King and his minions placed upon him. No doubt Gayle Rubin would approve.

8.) Gender Studies, Gay/Lesbian Studies, and Queer Theory / Judith Butler (b. 1956) / Gender Performativity and “Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs” (Disney) Snow White has an evil jealous queen who plots to kill her/put her asleep. She ends up running away and living with seven dwarfs. She turns into the homemaker that cooks, cleans and takes care of her little men. They originally decide to keep her around because of these qualities, but soon grew to love her as a kind of mother figure. One day when the men are out at work and she is home making a pie, the evil queen shows up in disguise. She feeds the naive Snow White a red apple. Snow White falls into her trap and is put in a spell that causes her to fall asleep. The seven dwarfs build a glass coffin to place her in. She is finally awoken by her true love (that she never actually meets, but somehow is in love with him). 3

(Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_and_the_Seven_Dwarfs_(1937_film))

9.) Historicisms / Stephen Greenblatt (b. 1943) Juxtaposition of Literary and Non-literary Texts in “Aladdin”(Persian) and “I Dream of Jeannie” (U.S.)

Aladdin (1992 Disney Film) >>> Aladdin is a street-urchin who lives in a large and busy town long ago with his faithful monkey friend Abu. When Princess Jasmine gets tired of being forced to remain in the palace that overlooks the city, she sneaks out to the marketplace, where she accidentally meets Aladdin. Under the orders of the evil Jafar (the sultan's advisor), Aladdin is thrown in jail and becomes caught up in Jafar's plot to rule the land with the aid of a mysterious lamp. Legend has it that only a person who is a "diamond in the rough" can retrieve the lamp from the Cave of Wonders. Aladdin might fit that description, but that's not enough to marry the princess, who must (by law) marry a prince. - Murray Chapman (IMDB: FMJ_Joker http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103639/plotsummary)

“Aladdin” (The Arabian Nights - 18th Century) “Aladdin is an impoverished young ne'er-do-well in a Chinese town. He is recruited by a sorcerer from the Maghreb, who passes himself off as the brother of Aladdin's late father Mustapha the tailor, convincing Aladdin and his mother of his good will by apparently making arrangements to set up the lad as a wealthy merchant. The sorcerer's real motive is to persuade young Aladdin to retrieve a wonderful oil lampfrom a booby-trapped magic cave. After the sorcerer attempts to double-cross him, Aladdin finds himself trapped in the magic cave. Fortunately, Aladdin retains a magic ring lent to him by the sorcerer as protection. When he rubs his hands in despair, he inadvertently rubs the ring and a jinnī (or "genie") appears who takes him home to his mother. Aladdin is still carrying the lamp. / When his mother tries to clean it, a second far more powerful genie appears who is bound to do the bidding of the person holding the lamp. / With the aid of the genie of the lamp, Aladdin becomes rich and powerful and marries Princess Badroulbadour, the Emperor's daughter (after magically foiling her marriage to the vizier's son). The genie builds Aladdin a wonderful palace, a far more magnificent one than that of the Emperor himself. / The sorcerer returns and is able to get his hands on the lamp by tricking Aladdin's wife (who is unaware of the lamp's importance) by offering to exchange "new lamps for old". He orders the genie of the lamp to take the palace along with all its contents to his home in the Maghreb. Fortunately, Aladdin still has the magic ring and is able to summon the lesser genie. Although the genie of the ring cannot directly undo any of the magic of the genie of the lamp, he is able to transport Aladdin to the Maghreb where he recovers the lamp and kills the sorcerer in battle, returning the palace (complete with the princess) to its proper place. / The sorcerer's more powerful and evil brother tries to destroy Aladdin for killing his brother by disguising himself as an old woman known for her healing powers. Badroulbadour falls for his disguise and commands the "woman" to stay in her palace in case of any illnesses. Aladdin is warned of this danger by the genie of the lamp and slays the impostor. Everyone lives happily ever after, Aladdin eventually succeeding to his father-in-law's throne. (Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin) 10.) Ethnic, Post-Colonial, and International Studies Edward Said (1935-2003) Orientalism and “Oriental Tales” (French / Marguerite Yourcenar) “Oriental Tales (French: Nouvelles orientales) is a 1938 short story collection by the French writer Marguerite Yourcenar. The stories share a self-consciously mythological form; some are based on pre- existing myths and legends, while some are new. The story "How Wang-Fo Was Saved" was adapted into an animated short film by René Laloux in the 1980s.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_Tales) 4

11.) Cultural Studies / Richard Hoggart (1918-2014) Ordinary decency and “Hercules and the Wagoner” (Aesop)

“A wagoner was driving a wagon along a country lane, when the wheels sank down deep into a rut. The rustic driver, stupefied and aghast, stood looking at the wagon, and did nothing but utter loud cries to Hercules to come and help him. Hercules, it is said, appeared and thus addressed him: ‘Put your shoulders to the wheels, my man. Goad on your bullocks, and never more pray to me for help, until you have done your best to help yourself, or depend upon it you will henceforth pray in vain.’ Self- help is the best help.” (About.com: http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_aesop_hercules_wagoner.htm)