Fairy Tale

Writer Philip Pullman characterizes the fairy tale by what he calls its “perpetual state of becoming and alteration,” and indeed the fairy tale seems defined by its inherently transformative nature. The goal of this course is to examine the genre of the literary fairy tale in its perpetually transforming state. By tracing its movement across time and geographical borders, we will attempt to answer the fundamental question of what defines a fairy tale, and in doing so we will consider the limitations of genre, the complexities of translation and the problematic notion of authorship. We will work to identify similar tropes and motifs in the stories, while paying particular attention to how these tropes and motifs are transformed as the tales are adapted and re-told. We will read stories from Western Europe and the British Isles in some of the earliest printed versions of the tales and in contemporary retellings in poetry and fiction.

Satisfies General Education Requirements:

• Group-Satisfying: Arts and Letters
• Multicultural Courses: International Cultures (IC)