Welcome to our IDS 2015 Seminar at McDaniel College

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Once upon a time … For centuries folk and fairy tales have fueled the popular imagination of people of all ages around the world. The course provides an in-depth analysis of folk and fairy tale traditions. We will read, discuss and analyze folk and fairy tales from around the world, as well as modern folktale adaptations (film, music, art). In the course, folk and fairy tales will be illuminated from different perspectives, including formalist (structure and style), feminist, religious, sociological and psychoanalytic approaches. McDaniel Plan: International Nonwestern, Textual Analysis.

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Learning Objectives:  In this course, students will gain an appreciation of the larger context (cultural and historical) of the development of the genre “fairytale”. They will also gain a better understanding of the literary and form/stylistic characteristics of the genre. The course provides the students with the interpretative tools they need to critically examine fairy and folk tales from various scholarly approaches, above all psychoanalytical (Bruno Bettelheim (Freud), Marie-Louise von Franz and Verena Kast (Jung)), feminist (Maria Tatar, Ruth Bottigheimer and Kay Stone), Marxist (Jack Zipes), social (19th century nationalism and bourgeois construction of the family and children), and religious. Students will also learn to analyze films with fairy tale motives (e.g. Silence of the Lambs or What Lies Beneath). In addition, they will demonstrate literary and cultural openness and appreciation of various cultures around the world.