Essay #3 Prompt

Essay #3 Prompt: The Evolution of a Fairy Tale

Please choose one fairy tale and critically examine two of it's cultural manifestations. One of these manifestations needs to be an older version of the tale--it can be a Greek myth, a peasant version, a Grimm's story, a Hans Christian Anderson story, or a Perrault story. Your second version should be a contemporary version--it can be Disney, Angela Carter's rewrites, something from a TV show like Once Upon a Time or Grimms, an updated film, etc. If you are unsure about the validity or appropriateness of your fairy tale or it's two versions for this assignment, feel free to email me questions at katedurbinteacher@gmail.com. You can also choose a contemporary film that offers a less obvious version of the fairy tale, as long as you explain in your paper why it's an updated telling of the fairy tale (an art film like The Sleeping Beauties is one example).

Your thesis should either:

1) focus on the cultural needs that the fairy tale addresses in teach manifestation--what lessons does it teach, and why did that particular culture have those needs? Does the fairy tale offer a satisfactory "answer" to the moral problems of the day?

2) You can examine the versions of the fairy tale from a critical perspective such as feminist, post-colonial, Marxist, etc. instead, if you'd like. In this case you are breaking it down vis a vis a close reading of the text, seeing where it displays sexism and/or women's empowerment; or racism or equality; encourages monarchies and capitalism, or promotes revolution, etc.

3) You may not choose a version of the tale that we have read for class and you are strongly recommended to also choose a fairy tale we have not covered in class. I want to see original thinking and analysis--not a rehashing of my own lecture notes.

The paper should be 5 or more pages in length, double-spaced, MLA style. It should have a strong title and a Works Cited page.

Your paper needs to have at least three critical, scholarly resources in addition to the stories/films you are analyzing (so, five sources total), which should also be cited carefully. Please find these through the library's database. You will likely want to research the fairy tale itself, and in some cases the specific version may also have critical sources on it (such as Disney).