world literature for children 1
Read this article for background on the Grimms: National Geographic Article National Geographic Article – Alternative Formats
Read
Ten stories by the Grimms–please use the translations at the links below.
The Grimm Brothers’ Children’s and Household Tales(http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimmtales.html)
- “Sleeping Beauty†(http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm050.html)
- “Snow White” (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm053.html)
- “Little Red Riding Hood†(http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm026.html)
- “Cinderella” (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm021.html)
- “Hansel and Gretel†(http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm015.html)
- “The Bremen Town Musicians†(http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm027.html)
- “The Frog King†(http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm001.html)
- “Rapunzel” (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm012.html)
- “The Brave Tailor” (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm020.html)
- “Rumplestiltskin” (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm055.html)
- If you’d like to listen to the stories, here are two sites with oral versions: http://storynory.com/
- LibriVox( https://librivox.org/fairy-tales-by-the-brothers-grimm)
Questions for the discussion board
Apostrophe warning: Here is the Purdue OWL’s entry on using apostrophes appropriately(https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/621/1/)
Please follow its advice in this lesson. Your ‘tour guide, ‘ who can turn into a wicked witch quite easily!
- Write the citation for the National Geographic article in MLA format. Remember: the course materials has a list of Purdue OWL resources to help with documentation.
- Why is there so much violence in all these stories? Give examples from the stories to prove your case.
- Cultural markers: These stories are cultural gems in Germany, which is one of the reasons the Grimms collected them. They didn’t write them as original stories, they recorded and edited them.
Besides language, what are the cultural markers in these stories that mark them as German? List at least five and connect to the story or stories where the marker is evident.
What might be embarrassing about these stories now? - Archetypes. An archetype in literature is a model or event that becomes typical over time; it’s an original that has been imitated. For example, the handsome prince, usually nameless but brave, who rescues a girl at the end of a story.
What other archetypes—people or events—do you recognize in these stories? Describe the archetype and then give the example from the story in which it occurs. - The Grimms were editors, adding details like punishments of bad characters. What kind of editing is permissible when one is collecting stories for publication to an audience of children? How true to the original telling must the story be in order to remain the same kind of story?
- Abuse and neglect. There are a lot of instances of both in these stories. What do you know about abuse and neglect from other courses you’ve taken that apply to these stories?
- Disney based several full-length animations on these stories.
- Snow White is ‘adapted from Grimms’ fairy tales’
- Cinderella is ‘from the Charles Perrault version’ [that’s next week]
- Sleeping Beauty is ‘from the Charles Perrault version’ with Tchaikovsky’s music
Obviously, there have been changes to these stories over the years, and stories based on characters in these stories—think ‘Maleficent.’
How much change do you need to make to a story before it becomes a totally new story? Where might an editor make changes, and why would those changes happen?
- Where are the Christian influences in these stories? Please list:
The story, the influence/cultural marker for Christianity, your reason for how the marker is Christian
Response
Please reflect on your classmates’ findings about the Brothers Grimm and post your thoughts to the class conference/forum. Again, please include more than just a quick point of agreement. Extending answers and asking questions of each other makes this a better course for all.
Research
Two articles this week
Wicked Women Wicked Women – Alternative Formats
, a capstone project by Kirstyn Crawford
Brothers Grimm saved classic fairy tales by changing them forever: https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/Tech-Culture/…
Please write the MLA citation for each and evaluate each article. Is this a helpful article for college students wanting to know more about the Grimms?
Evaluate the usefulness of each article using these each of these criteria:
From the Cornell University Olin Library site.
http://guides.library.cornell.edu/evaluating_Web_pages
Extra for Experts
Choose one:
- This is an exercise in transactional analysis, the “I’m OK, you’re OK” school of psychology from the 1970s. It’s still an interesting assignment:
Write your life as a fairy tale. Make sure you use the tools of fairy tales—settings, characters, events like fairy tales rather than like your own life.You can share in the class discussion board if you like, but many people feel it’s way too personal to do that. If you do choose to do this assignment but not to share it, at least share what you’ve learned about yourself and the fairy tale models your life seems to be following. Submit your story to the professor/guide directly via email: rmacdonald@charteroak.edu. This assignment does not need to be shared, though I ask that you share what you learned through this assignment in your discussion board posting.- OR –
- Find at least two good web sites that provide picture illustrations for this lesson. Please explain to us with a couple of sentences what we’ll find in your sites and why they’re good additions to a student experience in this course.
