Course Times: Monday through Friday, 1-3:30 PM, in EPB 205

Office Hours: Wednesday, 3:30-5 PM and by appointment, in EPB 455

Phone: 335-0465 (office)

E-mail: r rob-latham@uiowa.edu

Required Texts (all at Prairie Lights Bookstore):

• Martin Hallett & Barbara Karasek, eds., Folk and Fairy Tales (2nd Edition)
• Jack Zipes, ed., Victorian Fairy Tales: The Revolt of the Fairies and Elves
• Oscar Wilde, The Collected Fairy Tales
• Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber
• Donald Barthelme, Snow White

Description: This course surveys British and American writers of the 19th and 20th centuries who have used the familiar form of the fairy tale as a mode of aesthetic exploration and social commentary. We will begin by briefly examining the "source texts" for the literary tradition in the folklore work of Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, then consider how popular Victorian writers deployed these sources for diverse purposes: on the one hand, to inculcate culturally conservative moral messages and, on the other hand, to satirize or critique social norms. This tension between conservation and critique will provide a critical paradigm as we work through fiction by three major writers who have made the fairy tale uniquely their own: Oscar Wilde, Angela Carter, and Donald Barthelme.

Requirements and Assignments: You must be here for every class session with the assigned reading completed. There will be daily quizzes to test your preparation; your top ten scores on these quizzes will count towards your final quiz grade. Quizzes will be administered during the first ten minutes of class; they cannot be made up, so you need to be on time for each session. Quizzes will count 10% towards your final grade. Participation in class discussion is an important component (10%) of your final grade, so please attempt to contribute to each class session. Attendance will not constitute a specific percentage of your final grade, but if you miss more than two classes you will fail this course. Two short (5-6 pp.) papers will be due in class on the first sessions of Weeks 2 and 3, and each will focus on the material assigned during the previous week. I will hand out topic questions on the Fridays of Weeks 1 and 2, from which you will select one to answer. These questions will be comparative-contrastive, requiring you to focus on at least two texts in your essays. Late papers will not be accepted. The papers will each count 25% towards your final grade. A final exam will be administered during the Friday class session of Week 3. The exam will be composed of objective and essay sections. It counts 30% towards your final grade.

Week 1.

Monday (May 14): Introduction

• Jacob & Wilhelm Grim, "Briar Rose"--handout
• Anne Sexton, "Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty)"--handout

Tuesday (May 15): Functionalism vs. Utopianism: Two Critical Views

In Hallett & Karasek, Folk and Fairy Tales:

• Jack Zipes, "Spells of Enchantment," pp. 370-392
• Karen E. Rowe, "Feminism and Fairy Tales," pp. 325-345

Wednesday (May 16): Classic Heroines

In Hallett & Karasek, Folk and Fairy Tales:

Section on "Loss of Innocence," "Sleeping Beauties," and "Damsels in Distress," pp. 21 -76

Thursday (May 17): And Their Victorian Variants

In Zipes, Victorian Fairy Tales:

• Harriet Louisa Childe-Pemberton, "All My Doing; or Red Riding-Hood Over Again," pp. 209-248
• Juliana Horatia Ewing, "The Ogre Courting," pp. 127-134
• Mary de Morgan, "A Toy Princess," pp. 163-174

Friday (May 18): Classic Heroes and Their Victorian Variants

In Hallett & Karasek, Folk and Fairy Tales:

• Section on "Brain over Brawn," pp. 77-97

In Zipes, Victorian Fairy Tales:

• Laurence Housman, "The Rooted Lover," pp. 317-326
• George MacDonald, "The Day Boy and the Night Girl," pp. 175-208

Week 2.

Monday (May 21): Children's Culture

In Hallett & Karusek, Folk and Fairy Tales:

J.R.R. Tolkien, "On Fairy Stories," pp. 263-294

In Zipes, Victorian Fairy Tales:

• Lucy Lane Clifford, "Wooden Tony," pp. 295-306
• Edward H. Natchbull-Hugessen, "Charlie Among the Elves," pp. 145-62

•  
  First Paper Due

  Tuesday (May 22): Didacticism: Possibilities and Limitations

  In Zipes, Victorian Fairy Tales:
  • George Cruikshank, "Cinderella and the Magic Slipper," pp. 37-58
  • Charles Dickens, "The Magic Fishbone," pp. 89-100
  • Alfred Crowquill, "Heinrich; or, The Love of Gold," pp. 59-72

  Wednesday (May 23): The Ache of Irony

  In Oscar Wilde, The Collected Fairy Tales:
  • "The Happy Prince"
  • "The Nightingale and the Rose"
  • "The Birthday of the Infanta"
  • "The Fisherman and His Soul"

  Thursday (May 24): Unleashing the Beast

  In Hallett & Karasek, Folk and Fairy Tales:
  • Charles Perrault, "Bluebeard," pp. 114-116
  • Madame de Beaumont, "Beauty and the Beast," pp. 124-135

  In Carter, The Bloody Chamber:

  "The Bloody Chamber"

  Friday (May 25): Then Domesticating It

  In Hallett & Karusek, Folk and Fairy Tales:
  "Puss in Boots," pp. 94-97

  In Carter, The Bloody Chamber:

  • "The Courtship of Mr. Lyon"
  • "The Tiger's Bride"
  • "Puss 'n' Boots"
  • "The Lady of the House of Love"
  • "The Company of Wolves"

   

Week 3.

Monday (May28): University Holiday; No Classes

Tuesday (May 29): Magic Powers

Screening and Discussion:

Beauty and the Beast (1946; dir. Jean Cocteau)

Second Paper Due

Wednesday (May 30): Snow White as Horsewife

In Hallett & Karusek, Folk and Fairy Tales:

The Merseyside Fairy Story Collective, "Snow White," pp. 211-217

Donald Barthelme, Snow White, Part I

Thursday (May 31): The Postmodern Fairy Tale

Donald Barthelme, Snow White, Parts II & III

Friday (June 1): Final Exam

 

LINKS:

Grimm's Fairy Tales On-line (full text)

Marvels and Tales (Journal of Fairy Tale Studies)

Modern Fairy Tales (bibliography)

SurLaLune Fairy Tale Pages

 

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