ENGH 590: Topics in Folk Narrative
ENGH 590-001: Folktales and Fairytales
(Fall 2012)
07:20 PM to 10:00 PM T
Section Information for Fall 2012
“I would ask you to remember this one thing. The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.”
-- Barry Lopez, Crow and Weasel
“It’s just a story” some say. But there’s not a day goes by that we don’t tell some kind of story. And stories have a way of staying with us. What are stories, truly, and why do we tell them? What happens in those moments when we are lost in the web of someone’s words as they tell us a tale? After all, during protests and revolutions, people have often used traditional materials to carry their messages. And, when individuals have reached for larger personal freedoms and fought to publicly express issues of their own racial, gendered, and sexual identities, they often tell a story or two. How have people used stories to create a sense of self and a sense of place for themselves? How do people subvert, reject, transform the negative judgments they receive? Using the lenses of performance study, phenomenology, and feminist studies, we’ll explore the twists and turns of the traditional oral tale and develop several ways of understanding what lies beneath their deceptively simple surface. We’ll consider mythological tales, folktales, stories commonly referred to as “fairytales, and contemporary legends. Finally, we’ll consider how storytelling can be applied in educational, therapeutic, spiritual, and conflict resolution practices.
Assignments include experiential exercises, in-class presentations, one short paper, a semester project. MFA students may submit a portfolio assignment that combines creative writing and folktales.
Texts include readings from a variety of cultures: Tatar, The Classic Fairy Tales; Toelken & Evers, Native American Oral Tradition; Narayan, Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon: Himalayan Foothills Folktales; McCarthy, Jack in Two Worlds; and more.
[All ENGL folklore courses fulfill a Department of English literature requirement]
ENGH 590 001 enrollment is controlled. Contact the instructor, myocom@gmu.edu for permission to register.
Course Information from the University Catalog
Credits: 3
Enrollment limited to students with a class of Advanced to Candidacy, Graduate, Junior Plus, Non-Degree or Senior Plus.
Enrollment is limited to Graduate, Non-Degree or Undergraduate level students.
Students in a Non-Degree Undergraduate degree may not enroll.
This course is graded on the Graduate Regular scale.
The University Catalog is the authoritative source for information on courses. The Schedule of Classes is the authoritative source for information on classes scheduled for this semester. See the Schedule for the most up-to-date information and see Patriot web to register for classes.