Richard Hugo House, Fall 2016: Fairy Tale­Inspired Fiction

Level: Intermediate to advanced. The class will be most useful to writers who have previously completed one or more stories.

The class will be structured as a workshop and practicum; that is, each two­hour session will be devoted to a combination of workshop of a class member’s story; discussion of published tales or stories; and in­ class writing exercises, often related to that day’s reading, which could serve as idea­generators for new work. Writers in the class may have already been working in tale/fantasy/magical realism/surrealist modes in their fiction, or they may have come to the course looking for new ideas or directions.

Unless the class turns out to be very large, the plan will be that each writer in the class gets two chances to have a story draft workshop­discussed. The second workshop could be used to discuss a revised draft of the earlier­workshopped story or a new story, whichever the writer prefers.

Reading assignments will be available either as handouts or at online links.

SYLLABUS

Week One: Fairy Tale Foundations. To read: Grimms tales: “Cinderella,” “Little Red Cap,” and “The Six Swans.” To Bring: Your memory of a favorite fairy tale—or any memory of a first story or book you read. Bring an actual copy of a story or tale if you can.

Week Two: Making a Fairy­Tale Canon. To read: Grimms tales: “Thumbling,” “The Robber Bridegroom,” “Brier Rose,” “Snow White,” “Rumpelstiltskin,” “The Goose Girl,” and “Bluebeard.” First workshop.

Week Three: Tales into Stories. Hans Christian Andersen, “Thumbelina,” “The Brave Tin Soldier,” “The Ugly Duckling,” and “The Wild Swans.”

Week Four: How to Be Smart/How to Be Good. H.C. Andersen, “The Little Mermaid,” “The Little Match­Seller,” and “The Red Shoes.” Russian Tales, “The Little Brown Cow,” “The Little White Duck,” “Vasilisa the Fair,” “Pig Skin,” and “The Wise Girl.”

Week Five: The African­American Canon. African American Folk Tales, pp. 41­50, 85­93, 119­131.

Week Six: Signifying, Fooling, Tricking, Explaining. African American Folk Tales, 182­196, 223­ 233, 238­241, 274­280.

Week Seven: Fairy Tales, Erotica, and Feminism? Angela Carter, “The Bloody Chamber” and “The Courtship of Mr. Lyon.”

Week Eight: What’s Love Got to Do with It? Angela Carter, “The Tiger’s Bride,” “The Erl­King,” “The Werewolf,” and “The Company of Wolves.”

Week Nine: Tales of Modern Love. Michael Cunningham, “A Wild Swan,” “Crazy Old Lady,” “Poisoned,” and “A Monkey’s Paw.”

Week Ten: Happily Ever After. Michael Cunningham, “Little Man,” “Beasts,” “Her Hair,” and “Ever/After”; stories from issues of Fairy Tale Review.