Popular Culture and Narrative: Use and Abuse of the Fairy Tale

Readings

The required texts are as follows:

[T] = Tatar, Maria, ed. The Classic Fairy Tales. W. W. Norton & Company, 1999. ISBN: 9780393972771.

 Lord, Albert B. The Singer of Tales. 2nd ed. Edited by Stephen Mitchell and Gregory Nagy. Harvard University Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780674002838.

[P] = Propp, Vladimir Yakovlevich. The Russian Folktale by Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp. Edited by Sibelan Forrester. Wayne State University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780814334669. [Preview with Google Books]

[PV] = ———. Morphology of the Folktale. 2nd ed. Edited by Louis A. Wagner. University of Texas Press, 1968. ISBN: 9780292783768. [Preview with Google Books]

[K] = Kirk, Robert. The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies. Edited by Andrew Lang and Introduction by R. B. Cunninghame Graham. Dover Publications, 2008. ISBN: 9780486466118. [Preview with Google Books]

[B] = Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. Vintage, 1975, and later edns.

[V] = von Franz, Marie–Louise. The Interpretation of Fairy Tales. Shambhala Revised Sub Edition, 1996. ISBN: 9780877735267. [Preview with Google Books]

[K] = Kamanetsky, Christa. Children’s Literature in Hitler’s Germany: The Cultural Policy of National Socialism. Ohio University Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780821406991.

Macdonald, Dwight. “A Theory of Mass Culture.” (PDF) Diogenes, no. 3 (1953): 1–17. (Originally published in Diogenes 1953 1: 1)

[C] = Carter, Angela. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. Penguin Books, 1990. ISBN: 9780140178210.

Online resource: Multilingual Folk Tale Database

SES #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Introduction: Folklore and Print Culture; Links between Oral Tradition and Literary Culture	No readings
2–4	John M. Ellis: One Fairy Story Too Many; Germany in the Age of the Grimms; Perrault and the Written Fairy Tale Tradition	Ellis, John M. One Fairy Story too Many: The Brothers Grimm and their Tales. University of Chicago Press, 1983. ISBN: 9780226205465.
5	Classic Fairy Tales	[T] “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Pp. 3–72.
6	Classic Fairy Tales (cont.)	[T] “Snow White,” “Cinderella,” “Bluebeard” and “Hansel and Gretel.” Pp. 74–211.
7	Vladimir Propp: The Russian Folktale	[P] “Preface.” Pp. xiii–xxvi. [PV] “Introduction.” Pp. 1–41.
8	Vladimir Propp: The Russian Folktale (cont.)	[P] Chapter 3: Wonder Tales, pp. 147–224. [PV] Chapter 3: The Functions of Dramatis Personae, pp. 25–65.
9	Robert Kirk: The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies	[K] “Introduction.” Pp. 13–43. [K] pp. 43–62.
10	Robert Kirk and Celtic Fairy–belief Concluded	[K] “A Succinct Account of My Lord Tarbett’s Relations in a Letter to the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire, of the Predictions made by Seers.” Pp. 63–84.  Henderson, L., and E. J. Cowan. Scottish Fairy Belief. Tuckwell Press, Limited, 2001. ISBN: 9781862321908. [Preview with Google Books]  Evans–Wentz, Walter. The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries. University of California Libraries, 1911. Quiller–Couch, Arthur. “Thomas the Rhymer.” The Oxford Book of Ballads, 1910. Child, Francis James. “Tam Lin: 39A.” The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 1882–1898.
11	Bruno Bettelheim: The Uses of Enchantment; Freudian Theory and the Fairy Tale	McLeod, Saul. “Sigmund Freud.” SimplyPsychology 2013. “Sigmund Freud.” The Victorian Web. 1998. (With particular reference to sexuality and the role of the unconscious) [B] “Introduction.” Pp. 3–19.
12	Bettelheim and the Freudian Interpretation (cont.)	[B] “The Three Little Pigs.” Pp. 41–45. [B] “The Queen Bee.” Pp. 76–78. [B] “Little Red Riding Hood.” Pp. 166–83.
13	Bettelheim Concluded	[B] “Goldilocks.” Pp. 215–24. [B] “Snow White and the Myth of Oedipus.” Pp. 199–215. Dundes, Alan. “Bruno Bettelheim’s Uses of Enchantment and Abuses of Scholarship.” The Journal of American Folklore 104, no. 411 (1991): 74–83. Zipes, Jack. “On the Use and Abuse of Folk and Fairy Tales with Children.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly (1978): 113–22. (Johns Hopkins University Press)
14	Marie–Louise von Franz, Jungian Theory and the Fairy Tale	McLeod, Saul. “Carl Jung.” SimplyPsychology 2014. Hall, Calvin S., and Vernon J. Nordby. A Primer of Jungian Psychology. Taplinger Publishing Company, 1973. ISBN: 9780800865542. [V] Chapters 1–5: Preface, pp. 1–113. Betts, John. “Jungian Fairy Tale Interpretation.” Jungian Psychoanalysis.
15	Jungian Theory Concluded	[V] Chapter 7, pp. 114–97.
16	The Literary Fairy Tale: Hans Christian Andersen and After	[V] pp. 212–61. Dahlerup, Pil, Ulla Thomsen, et al. “Splash!: Six Views of “The Little Mermaid.”” Scandinavian Studies 62, no. 4 (1990): 403–29. (University of Illinois Press.)
17	The Literary Fairy Tale (cont.)	Dickens, Charles. “The Magic Fishbone.” In Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales. Edited by Alison Lurie. Oxford University Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780192142184. Baum, L. F. “The Queen of Quok.” In Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales. Edited by Alison Lurie. Oxford University Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780192142184. Dick, Philip K. “The King of the Elves.” In Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales. Edited by Alison Lurie. Oxford University Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780192142184. Asbosen, Hans Christian. “Snow White and the Seven Dads.” In The Asbo Fairy Tales. Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 2008. ISBN: 9781843172932.
18	The Literary Fairy Tale Concluded	[T] “Three Bluebeard Stories: Margaret Atwood, “Bluebeard’s Egg”.” Pp. 156–78. [C] “The Bloody Chamber.” Pp. 7–41. Warner, Sylvia Townsend. “Bluebeard’s Daughter.” In Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales. Edited by Alison Lurie. Oxford University Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780192142184.
19	Abuse of the Fairy Tale?: The Nazis and German Folklore, Christa Kamenetsky	Kamenetsky, Christa. “Folktale and Ideology in the Third Reich.” The Journal of American Folklore 90, no. 356 (1977): 168–78. (American Folklore Society.) [K] “Folktale, Germandom and Race.” Pp. 70–81.
20	Abuse of the Fairy Tale? (cont.): Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs	Disney, Walt. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Golden / Disney, 2003, ISBN: 9780736421867.
21	Classic Angela Carter Stories	[C] “The Courtship of Mr. Lyon.” [C] “The Tiger’s Bride.”
22	Classic Angela Carter Stories (cont.)	[C] “The Company of Wolves.” [C] “Lady of the House of Love.”
23–25	Liz Lochead: Grimm Sisters	Lochhead, Liz. “Grimm Sisters.” Sequence from Dreaming Frankenstein and Collected Poems 1967–1984. Birlinn Limited, 2003, ISBN: 9780954407513. Lochhead, Liz. “The Choosing.” From Memo for Spring, 1972. Blographia Literaria.
26	Last Class	No new readings assigned