Folk and Fairy Tales

Over the course of this semester I have learned so much in all of my classes, and though it has been difficult some of the things that I have learned will follow me for the rest of my life. Looking back, I wish I hadn’t taken as many intensive classes during this semester so that I could have focused more on this class, because it was one of the more interesting classes I took this semester. I thought the multicultural approach to the class was particularly interesting, and I wish we had learned more about culture and the zeitgeist of each of the stories, being one who loves history and learning how cultural ideas and stories are created and developed. I think this class has both tied in a lot to what I have learned in English but also taught me something new. I never knew there was this whole realm of research done on fairy tales and psychology applied to it. I think I learned a lot about other cultures and how their tales influence culture. I also learned how fairy tales infl...

I think Professor Zaru’s lecture was my favorite we’ve had so far. I loved how she tied in her own life, her experiences, and personal bits to make the stories more interesting. I think that learning about the origin of the stories before is a really interesting aspect that we haven’t experienced to such an extent before. These stories are similar to the ones we have encountered before in the fact that they were first oral tradition and were later written down, but different in that they have their own lore behind them and are all connected into one bigger story. This is different from the Grimm's fairy tales since they came from all different parts of Germany and aren't connected in any way. The fact that people still tell stories orally, and are treated as artists for doing so is also very interesting. In Western culture, their is a tendency to believe that fairy tales are only for children, while in Arab cultures these oral stories are taken seriously. The idea of the su...

I think the lectures that Dr. Valk and Dr. Lyngdoh gave were really interesting and opened my eyes to a whole different realm of fairy tales that I’d never really experienced before. Before going to the lecture, I had a different view of possession. Being Catholic, I had always thought of possession as a very religious thing, only consisting of a person and a demon. The person is usually not responsible and has no agency when possessed, completely controlled by what is possessing them. The lectures of both professor’s, however, changed my views and showed me a totally different side of things. Dr. Lyngdoh’s talk especially was very insightful into possession on India. I found the idea of the sankhini extremely interesting, especially how they view the act of possession. Instead of a complete possession, their version reminds me more of a werewolf. The differences between snake and tiger possession were really interesting, as well as how the different stories reflect the culture of th...

I really enjoyed going through Danielle's blog posts, and it definitely gave me ideas for my own. Danielle's blog is a lot more professional than mine - all of her titles are like titles of papers, for example: "Giving Kids Relatable Heroes: The Role of Tricksters" and "The Importance of Luck: An Analysis of the 'Rags to Riches' Motif". All of her blogs are long and descriptive, each having more than one paragraph. She frequently uses pictures, all of which are aesthetically pleasing and fit with what she's talking about in each paragraph. She also provides links to all of her pictures, citing where she got them. I think that this is a great idea and something I hadn't thought of; I will try to also do this in the future. In her most recent blog post, she discusses the psychology in fairy tale trickster stories, and how the role of the trickster figure helps children. She made excellent points about the powers of escapism and how stories can ...

In fairy tales, children are often the protagonists, and even the heroes. This does make a lot of sense,since many fairy tales have their roots as tales to be told to children, either as cautionary tales or lessons. Common forms of the child-hero are trickster figures, who use their intellect to get out of situations. “Little Thumbling”, though ridiculed by his family and seen as dumb and small, saves his siblings through his mental maturity and ability to be cunning. It is through this journey that he gains respect and saves his siblings. In the folktale "Momotaro"or "The Peach Boy", Momotaro must leave his town and his elderly parents on a quest. Featuring an antagonist in the form of an ogre just like "Little Thumbling", this story is different. In this story, Momotaro is only able to achieve his goals through the help of his animal allies, teaching lessons about how help can lead to success. His growth into adulthood is also portrayed in this fo...

  I’m not sure why, but I really enjoyed the various Bluebeard stories we read for class, but If I had to pick a favorite it would be Margaret Atwood’s “Bluebeard’s Egg.” My favorite types of stories are ones with nuance, and for me this modern retelling was nuanced in which character matched up with which traditional counterpoint, as well as if the symbols and motifs meant the same things. Something that particularly interesting to me was the concept of the Egg, and how it relates to Ed in Atwood’s story.  In the story, the narrator Sally reads the story of Bluebeard in one of her classes and reflects “Ed isn’t the Bluebeard: Ed is the egg. Ed Egg, blank and pristine and lovely. Stupid, too. Boiled, probably.” (223) This is particularly interesting to me, since the character of Bluebeard in this story is not as obvious and is left up to interpretation over whether it is Ed or Sally’s friend Marylynn who is the Bluebeard figure. The image of the egg itself is also very intere...