Title: Fairy Tales (Catherine McKenna)
Description/Goals: This was one of the assignments picked out as particularly strong in our first round of assignment review in Fall '09. Here's what Tom and Lisa had to say about what was so exemplary about this assignment: "The assignment involved reading fairy tales and two critical pieces on such tales. The critical pieces took contrasting lines of argument. But rather than asking for students to choose a side in the argument, the assignment defined the critical terrain of the argument and then asked what sort of arguments might be made in response to both critical positions. The assignment asks for a reading of the tales that extends to how the tales may be said to function in their culture and then how the engagement with the criticism is in the service of understanding the relationship among the primary texts (the tales), the critical texts, and the broader culture. So rather than emphasizing what the tales may be said to mean, the assignment puts students in a position to explore how the tales may be said to function in culture."
Texts Used: Maria Tatar, ed., The Classic Fairy Tales.