Harvard Summer Session 2015 SWGS S-1421, Syllabus Draft 6/24/2105 When the Princess Saves Herself: Gender and Retold Fairy Tales Instructor: Dr. Keridwen N. Luis [email protected] Office Hours: Mon, Wed, 3-5 Office: Boylston G25 Time: Mon & Wed, 6:30-9:30 pm Location: Lamont Library 230 Class Site: https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/3044 Course Description: Folklore and fairy tales have an enduring appeal in cultures across the world: so enduring that literature and media retell them again and again. From mass media such as Disney films to well-known novelists like Margaret Atwood and Terry Pratchett, our authors, filmmakers, and storytellers revisit, revise, and reinvent stories we all know. When such stories are retold, they are retold to suit our current sensibilities: our children's editions of Grimm's fairy tales no longer include "The Juniper Tree" (otherwise known as "My Mother, She Killed Me, My Father, He Ate Me") and very few villains dance to death in red-hot shoes. But nowhere is the profound influence of folk process (the way we retell, change, and keep folklore living) found more strongly than in how we portray men and women in fairy tales. Is Cinderella's "virtuous suffering" a a good model for our daughters? Must a young man be a literal prince to succeed in love? Is external beauty a reliable way to judge whether a person is good? This course will introduce students to the study of male and female roles in traditional folk and fairy tales, to the study of folk process itself, and then to the particular study of how we have created modern reinterpretations of those gender roles here in the United States. We will read a wide variety of folk and fairy tales, folklore scholarship, criticism of the fairy tale, and modern adaptations of the fairy tale. We will explore such questions as, "Did women have it so bad in traditional fairy tales?" "Do modern adaptations give girls positive role models?" and "What kind of role models do fairy tales offer boys?" The class will use cultural studies to focus on how fairy tales and their modern retellings and media have an impact on the actual lives of men, women, and children. Course Aims and Objectives: Students will gain a basic understanding of the techniques and terminology of folklore studies, as well as an introduction to the basic tools, terminology, and concepts of cultural studies (including anthropology and sociology). We will also learn about gender and gender studies and apply their conceptual tools to folk and fairy tale analysis. Students will learn to apply critical thinking techniques to fairy tales of many different origins. We will study the impact of cultural media and systems of inequality in such media; folklore as a tool people use to express, shape, and comment on their lives; and the importance of story and storytelling in culture. 1 Harvard Summer Session 2015 SWGS S-1421, Syllabus Draft 6/24/2105 Class Structure Required Readings: Books will be available at the bookstore and on reserve at the library. I also recommend trying the Advanced Book Exchange, at http://www.abebooks.com, a consortium of independent used booksellers which I have found very useful in the past for finding multiple copies of used books (in varying conditions and prices). Additional required articles--marked in the syllabus with the word reserve in bold print--will also be available to students via the library. These articles are essential to the course. A link to the library reserves is available via our course website at PLEASE NOTE (re reserve): The library does NOT make book chapters available online, but these are available via physical reserve. For the convenience of students, I make all reserve articles available for a limited time on our course website, as I happen to have them in electronic format for my own use. Although book chapters are allowed as fair use, Harvard University prefers that they not be made available through online distribution, and thus they will be available only for a limited time. Weekly readings will be available a week or two in advance, and will be taken down after the lecture day on which they are due. I recommend copying the PDF files to your own hard drive or USB drive if you wish to keep copies of book chapters for your own perusal. Please note that this service is provided as a courtesy only. All reserve materials are also available via library reserve. Required Readings: Donoghue, Emma. 1999. Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins. HarperTeen. ISBN: 0064407721. Marked on the syllabus as Witch. Hopkinson, Nalo. 2013. Sister Mine. New York: Grand Central Publishing. ISBN: 9781455517732. Marked on the syllabus as Sister. Pratchett, Terry. 2002. Witches Abroad. HarperTorch. ISBN: 0061020613 Marked on the syllabus as Witches Abroad. Willingham, Bill. 2002. Fables, Vol 1. New York: D.C. Comics. ISBN: 1563899426. Marked on the syllabus as Fables. Yang, Gene Luen. 2008. American Born Chinese. Square Fish. ISBN: 0312384483. Marked on the syllabus as ABC. Please note that all of these are also on reserve in the library. Purchasing these is optional. Reserve texts available through the library. Marked in the syllabus as reserve. Recommended Readings: Some of these we will be using portions of in the class; others are simply recommended as excellent examples of the refigured fairy tale. Portions in Class Atwood, Margaret. 1998. Bluebeard's Egg. Anchor. ISBN: 0385491042 Bobby, Susan Redington, 2009. Fairy Tales Reimagined: Essays on New Retellings. London: McFarland & Co. ISBN: 978-0-7864-4115-0 Hopkinson, Nalo. 2001. Skin Folk. New York: Warner Books. 2 Harvard Summer Session 2015 SWGS S-1421, Syllabus Draft 6/24/2105 Sexton, Anne. 2001 [1971]. Transformations. Mariner Books. ISBN: 061808343X. Windling, Terri. 1995. The Armless Maiden, and Other Tales for Childhood's Survivors. New York: Tor Books. Wu Ch'eng-en (tr. Arthur Waley). 1970. Monkey: Folk Novel of China. New York: Grove Press. Yeats, William Butler, ed. 1972. Irish Folk Stories and Fairy Tales. New York: Grosset and Dunlap. Zipes, Jack. 1987. Don't Bet On the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North America and England. New York: Routledge. Further Reading Bernheimer, Kate. 2010. My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales. Penguin. ISBN: 014311784X Windling, Terri, and Ellen Datlow. 2009. The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales. Firebird. Note: Look for the many other fairy tale collections by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling such as Black Swan, White Raven. Yolen, Jane. 2002. Briar Rose. Tor Teen. ISBN: 0765342308 Course Requirements: This course will require weekly short writing assignments, and either two essays or a final research paper. Discussion Participation/Attendance: 20% Weekly Writing: 30% Research Paper OR Two Essays: 50% General Requirements: Class attendance and participation are both essential to this class. For this reason, unexcused absences will impact your grade; the discussion we do in class cannot be replicated by simply doing the reading. Although this is not a writing intensive course, the papers are another vehicle for you to reflect on the reading topics and to introduce your own ideas; creativity, critical thinking, and good analysis are all highly encouraged. The use of cell phones, pagers, or other communication devices will not be permitted in class, unless you are an EMT or other medical professional on call. Laptops will also not be permitted without my prior consent. Graduate Students: Gradate students attending this course will complete all of the same assignments that are required of undergraduates, but will be held to more stringent standards and will receive separate assignment sheets. We will also schedule a couple of graduate-only discussion sections during the semester, our schedules permitting. In particular, the final research paper (graduate students will be required to do a final research paper) will be held to a graduate-level standard of research, theory, and writing. Email Policy: Emails will be answered within 24 hours, except for weekend days (when I cannot guarantee to check my email as regularly). I do not check email between the hours of 9 pm and 8 am. Please keep emails short and to the point; longer commentary may be better discussed 3 Harvard Summer Session 2015 SWGS S-1421, Syllabus Draft 6/24/2105 during office hours. Written work should be turned in via the Dropbox on our iSite, as this is more secure than email; email should be used as a last resort. Written Work/Assignments: All written work will be graded on presentation (grammar, writing skills, proper citation, etc.), arguments (flow, use of texts, coherent and clear thesis), and grasp of the ideas presented in class as well as on your own original theory and take on the material. Assignment sheets will be available on our website and due dates are specified in the syllabus. Written work submitted later than fifteen minutes after the due date will be lowered by a third of a grade for each day late, except in cases of illness or emergency. Written work should be submitted via dropbox on our website. Discussion Questions/Weekly Writing Assignment: Students are requested to come to class once each week with a set of 2-4 discussion questions (written down) in hand to use during discussion. You will also answer one of these discussion questions with a short essay (2-4 paragraphs, 1 page) answer. These sheets (typed, standard font) will be turned into the dropbox on our website before class. A more full assignment sheet will be provided on our class website. Final paper/Two Essays: In this class, you may choose to do two short, traditional essays (4-5 pages, one halfway through the semester and the other as a final paper, written to provided essay prompts), or else a final research paper (graduate students must choose the research paper option; students who have not yet completed a year of undergraduate work must choose the 2-essay option).