COMP 216
Folk and Fairy Tales in Literature and Beyond Spring 2025
Division I Writing Skills

From cannibalistic crones in sugary cottages to frogs who can be transformed with a kiss, the English term “folktale” covers a broad range of stories that been beloved and belittled, transmitted and transformed for hundreds of years. This course will look broadly at folktales from different traditions, ranging from medieval China to early modern Europe and contemporary America. We will approach the folktale from a number of perspectives, including typologies; moral lessons embedded in tales; nationalism and the origins of folktale studies; modern transformations of old tales in new media such as film; and the often porous borders between the natural and the supernatural, the animal and the human, and the living and the dead. We will explore the way normative gender and ethnic roles are portrayed and sometimes undermined. We will also consider the complex literary histories of folktales, looking at sources, the interplay of oral and written traditions, folktales as alternative histories, notions of authorship, and the ways stories transform over time.