EN103: Fairy Tales

Spring 2012

Tuesday and Friday 9:30-10:45

Click here for the course syllabus.

• Instructor: Robert Epstein
• Office: 120 Donnarumma Hall
• Office Hours: Tuesday 11:00-12:00 and 2:00-3:30, or by appointment
• Office extension: 2787
• E-mail: repstein@fairfield.edu

DESCRIPTION AND PURPOSE

This course will focus on the classic fairy tales—"Beauty and the Beast," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Cinderella," "Snow White," etc.—in their oldest preserved versions by authors like Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, in post-modern retellings, and in popular culture. We will also read modern tales in the mode of folklore by authors like Hans Christian Andersen, as well as Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre, which is deeply informed by the conventions and themes of fairy tales, and contemporary stories in the literary fairy tale tradition. And we will engage the critical literature on fairy tales and related genres. The class leads to the production of a critical research paper. Attention throughout will be on developing skills of close-reading, thesis development, and argumentation, by way of such themes as: the construction of childhood and the family; fairy tale structure and the marriage plot; feminism and the construction of gender roles; the conception of nature; historical changes in the presentation of fairy tales and their imagined audiences; class, rank, and status; anonymity, authorship, and commercialization.

REQUIREMENTS

Students are required to attend all class meetings. If you have to miss a class for a foreseeable obligation, inform me beforehand. I also expect all students to have fulfilled the assignment and to be prepared to participate in class discussion. Attendance and participation will be factors in grading. Please bring the assigned texts to class!

For most class meetings, students will write a response paper, about a page in length, on the assigned readings. These are not graded, but are required. Responses papers are due at the class meeting for which they are assigned, and as they are intended both to give more practice in writing and to facilitate class discussion, late response papers cannot be accepted. Students will collect their response papers in a folder throughout the semester. At the end of the course, students will review their portfolio of response papers and submit them along with a summative essay describing how their views of and reactions to fairy tales have evolved over the course of the semester. As an alternative to the summative essay, students may compose their own original fairy tale, re-writing, revising, or responding to a classic fairy tale.

There will be three critical essays due during the semester. At the end of the semester, a longer research paper (approximately 12-14 pp.) will be due. For this paper, I will ask you to research any fairy tale of your choosing-- so long as it is not among those tales assigned as part of the course syllabus. You will investigate the history of the tale, locating its earliest recorded version and at least one other version; you may also look into how the tale has evolved over the years, how it varies in different cultures, and how its meaning is different in its different tellings. We will discuss these terms and requirements further at the end of the semester.

There will be other occasional writing assignments. These assignments will not be graded, but they are required will be considered alongside class attendance and participation when figuring the grade for the course.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Among the educational goals for this course are that students:

• Demonstrate knowledge of major figures and works of the literary fairy tale tradition and major principles and theories in the study of this tradition (Core Pathway: "Engaging Traditions")
• Analyze and evaluate the literary and critical traditions of fairy tales as systems of knowledge and power (Core Pathway: "Enaging Traditions")
• Experiment with the classic fairy tales and their literary tradition in ways that engage the creative process (Core Pathway: "Creative and Aesthetic Engagement")
• Develop creative capacity and skills in written expression, using the full resources of language, in developing theses and arguments based on close readings of texts and drafting and revising thesis-driven essays (Core Pathway: "Rhetoric and Reflection")

GRADING

Papers are due at the beginning of class on the day indicated on the syllabus. Unless I have explicitly granted an extension before the due date, late papers will be penalized one-third of a letter grade per day. (A paper that would have earned a B+ will receive a B if it is one day late, a B- if it is two days late, and so on.)

After each of the first two essays are submitted, I will read them and return them with grades and with comments and suggestions. Students will then have one week from the day the graded papers are returned to revise the papers in light of my comments and to resubmit them for re-grading. The grade for the revised essay may go up by as much as a full letter grade. (The grade might not go up at all; it will not go down.) This is to encourage you to think of every essay as a work in progress and to revise your work as thoroughly and as frequently as possible. Papers submitted late may not be revised and resubmitted.

As you write and revise your essays, please keep in mind that there are peer-tutors in the Writing Center trained to help students of any level develop work at any stage.

Grades for the course will be determined according to the following formula:

• first essay: 15%
• second essay: 20%
• third essay: 20%
• annotated bibliography of sources for the research paper: 5%
• research paper: 25%
• oral presentation: 5%
• portfolio of response papers with summative essay: 10%

FORMAT OF ESSAYS

All submitted papers should follow the Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines for formatting a paper. These guidelines can be found in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed., which is available in the Reference Section of the library and in the Writing Center. They are also summarized Hacker & Sommer’s Pocket Style Manual. When commenting on your essays, I will refer to Hacker & Sommers on matters of format and style.

ACADEMIC HONESTY

Secondary critical sources are not required for the first three essay assignments in this course, but they will be required on the final research paper. On any assignment, however, you must fully cite any sources that you use. The source must appear in the list of works cited at the end of the essay, and each source must be cited on every occasion that you make use of its words or ideas. This is true if the source is your primary source (the text you are studying) or a critical source (an analysis of the work published elsewhere), and it is true if the source is printed or electronic, including internet sources. Follow the MLA style of in-text citation and lists of works cited described in A Pocket Style Manual, pp. 128-148.

The failure to fully cite sources within your submitted work is a form of plagiarism. Plagiarism is the appropriation of ideas, data, work, or language of others and submitting them as one’s own to satisfy the requirements of a course. Plagiarism constitutes theft and deceit. Special care should be taken, when cutting and pasting materials or when paraphrasing, to cite sources correctly and to use quotation marks around exact words from source materials. Actions that result in plagiarism may be intentional or unintentional. Consequently, students must understand the concept of plagiarism. When reading, processing, or using materials from any source, appropriate documentation is always essential.

The consequences of plagiarism may range from failure on the assignment to failure for the course and university disciplinary action. Resources such as the library (ext. 2178) and the Writing Center (www.fairfield.edu/writingcenter) are available on campus to assist you in your academic endeavors. You are encouraged to take advantage of these resources.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL MEDIA

During class, students are expected to use electronic media and technology only if they immediately relate to the topic of class discussion, such as accessing electronic texts or taking notes on a laptop. At times, I may ask that even these resources be shut down or disconnected, so that the entire class can focus on a text, a project, or a point of discussion.

TEXTS

The required texts for the class are:

• Maria Tatar, ed., The Classic Fairy Tales, (Norton Critical Edition)
• Kate Bernheimer & Carmen Giménez Smith, eds., My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales (Penguin)
• Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, edited by Beth Newman (Bedford Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism)
• Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber
• Diana Hacker & Nancy Sommers, A Pocket Style Manual, 6th edition (Bedford/St. Martins)
• Sourcebook of additional class readings-- available from the English Department office, DMH 130

Films will be shown on-line as streaming video; viewing them will require usernames and passwords, which will be distributed to class members by e-mail.