GERM 313 Grim Tales: The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm
Although the first volume of the Grimms’ Children Stories and Household Tales was published more than 200 years ago, their fairy tales continue to enchant contemporary readers. In this course we will not only study the Grimms’ fairy tales themselves and rediscover their enduring magic, but also take a look at their origins and their social, ideological, and political contexts in 19th-century Europe. We will work with fairy tale theory (narrative, psychoanalytic, historical) and discuss the function of the tales for adult communities as well as their status as children’s literature. Alongside the “original” Grimms’ tales—a concept that we will discuss—a major portion of the course will engage the legacy of the fairy tales and the way they have been appropriated by others, particularly from a critical, feminist perspective. Points of emphasis will include: how writers in the first half of the 20th century politicized the tales in the battle for societal change during the time of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany; how the tales were reinterpreted in different national traditions and historical periods; how the fairy tale becomes a mass culture icon in Disney’s film versions; and how contemporary writers like Margaret Atwood continue to employ fairy tales to question the construction of gender and carve out new possibilities for relating to one another.
This course will meet twice a week with CSLC 113, and for one additional 85 minute session per week to develop German students’ language skills. Students will have an opportunity to translate and discuss selections from texts in the original German.
Students in this course are required to complete a 10-12 page interpretive paper, one that incorporates the students' own translations of original texts. A passing grade of C or higher on this paper will satisfy the Second Stage writing requirement.