Course syllabus

 

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Comparative Literature             Semester 2              2020

Interpreting Folktales

 

Timetable:

202/303 Lectures:  Mondays 11-1         8 Eden Crescent Room 204

202 Tutorials: Wednesdays 11-12         Clocktower, East Room 110

 

COMPLIT 202: Interpreting Folktales (15 pts)

Every society has its stock of traditional stories, passed on orally from one generation to the next, sometimes committed to writing, painting, video, or other semi-permanent media. These narratives may be roughly divided into ‘myths’, sacred narratives purporting to express truths about the creation of the world, the origins of human mortality, etc., and ‘folktales’, regarded even by members of the social group in which they are told as playful products of collective fantasy yet having 'truth value'. Tales such as “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Sleeping Beauty,” best known as children's stories through the Grimm Brothers and Walt Disney, derive from folktales which have been recounted in various versions by oral tellers to audiences of all ages across Eurasia for hundreds (in some cases, thousands) of years. These stories also use motifs and narrative devices (journey or quest, transformation of humans into animals and back again, magic, subversion of authority, injustice avenged) similar to those found in folktales from cultures elsewhere in the world -- China, Japan, the Caribbean, the Americas, South Asia, West Africa, and Polynesia.

This course explores international and regional aspects of folktales and fairy tales. Are these stories products of culturally specific ways of knowing and feeling, or do they express universal human preoccupations present in the collective unconscious? What are the relations between folktales and other popular narrative forms, e.g. fairy tales, tall tales, ballads, and myths? Are folktales formal constructions which are given different meanings by the particular cultures that make, reuse, or preserve them? What are the relations between the rich oral traditions of tale telling and the literary or media narratives which sometimes rely on folktale motifs and forms, for example Superheroes? What do folktale narratives as cultural forms tell us about the making and uses of stories in general?

 Convenor and Lecturer:       

Dr. Nicole Perry (German Studies, Comparative Literature)

Email: nicole.perry@auckland.ac.nz

Office: CLL Building 207-324

Office Hours: Tuesdays 2-3 or by appointment

Additional Lecturers:

Dr. Sara Buttsworth (History)

Dr. Daniela Cavallaro (Italian)

Assoc. Professor Neal Curtis (Media and Communication)

Dr. Peter Keegan (Education and Social Work)

Nisha Ghatak  (Comparative Literature)

Dr. Linetto Basilone (Comparative Literature)

Dr. Ian Fookes (Comparative Literature)

Please check SSO Canvas for any updated room allocations.

 

Students are expected to attend all lectures and tutorials and complete weekly readings as assigned by the course convenor, lecturers, and tutor. To receive a final grade, students must complete and submit all assignments for marking.

 

Eligibility:       

COMPLIT 202: completed at least 60 points in any BA subjects

Texts: 

1) The Classic Fairy Tales. Ed. Maria Tatar. NY/London: W. W. Norton, 2016. ISBN 0393602974 (pbk).

Available at the bookstore or online. Make sure you have the 2nd edition:

https://www.bookdepository.com/Classic-Fairy-Tales-Maria-Tatar/9780393602975?ref=grid-view&qid=1561424957158&sr=1-3

2) COMPLIT 202/303 Course Reader, Parts 1 & 2. Available online in the files section of this course.

3) A few additional course readings -- folktales and critical materials -- will be posted to the CANVAS course website.

Course text and readers are required and can be purchased through the University Bookstore, or in the case of Classic Fairy Tales can be ordered from Book Depository. The reader is available online in the files section of CANVAS. Additional texts will be available for download from CANVAS.

 

Assessments:

COMPLIT 202:

**************************************

Research Essays: 

topics will be released 4 weeks in advance. You will be given three topics and expected to write on one of them. Citation style is MLA. Minimum of 5 secondary source citations. 

In Class/Online Tests:

Short answer style questions based on lectures given up to that point. You will have to answer 3 out of the 6 questions asked. One test will be in class and the other will be online. For the online test, you will have a week to complete it, but once you open the test you will only have one hour to write your answers.

Class Work:

Best 8 Assignments of 200 words on one of the questions posed at the end of the lecture on Monday, due at the beginning of the tutorial on Wednesday. The assignment must be in a word document form. You are to include at least one reference (PPT slide, Readings, Folktale, other). I have uploaded an example from last year for you to take a look at. 

Of the 8 assignments, up to 3 will be online discussion forums: you will answer the question given in the discussion forum and also be expected to comment on another classmate's answer.

 

COMPLIT 303

Assessments:

 

Research Essays: 

topics will be released 4 weeks in advance. You will be given three topics and expected to write on one of them. Citation style is MLA. Minimum of 5 secondary source citations. 

In Class Test:

Short answer style questions based on lectures given up to that point. You will have to answer 4 out of the 6 questions asked. 

Presentations: 

in groups of 4-5 you will present for 15 min on a comparative topic of interest in this course. An example would be a presentation on LRRH and variations of the folktale. It is to be presented as PPT (max. 15 slides):

• Group presentation proposal (150 words, due via email)
• Group presentations (PPT + discussion/questions, in tutorials Weeks 9,10, 11)

You are also required to submit peer evaluations of the other presentations. A guide will be given to you closer to the presentations. I will collect the peer assessments and collate the comments for the presenting group. 

 

Course Schedule:

Monday lectures will present material for both 202 and 303. Tutorial assignments and activities are specific to each course level.

303 Tutorials will discuss and explicate lecture materials and readings and also include materials and activities.

Course Schedule:

Monday lectures will present material for both 202 and 303. Tutorial assignments and activities are specific to each course level.

 COMPLIT 202 Tutorials will discuss and explicate lecture materials and readings  

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

Week 1  July 27                                                        

Introduction: Folktales and other narratives (NP)

Week 2 August 3

From Little Red Riding Hood to the Hunger Games.  (SB)               

Week 3 August 10                                                                                                                                       

Close Reading of a folktale in different contexts: Little Red Riding Hood (LRRH). (DC)                                                               

 Week 4  August 17                                                               

He Kōrero Māori/Māori literature, Māori folktales. (PK) 

Week 5 August 24

Folktales: the example of Italo Calvino. (DC)  

Week 6 August 31

Chinese Morality Tales (LB)                           

MID-SEMESTER BREAK

Week 7 September 21 

"Japanese Folktales in specific contexts" (IF)

followed by a Rakugo Performance in English by Kanariya Eishi

Week 8 September 28                                                                    

European Nationalism and the Grimm Brothers. (NP)

 Week 9 October 5

South Asian Folktales (NG)

Week 10 October 12

Superheroes, folktales and myth. (NC)                       

 Week 11 October 19

African, Caribbean & African-American Folktales: (post) colonial stories. (NP) 

Week 12 October 26 

Werewolves & Vampires in folktales. (NP)