Write a 1,300–1,600-word paper on ONE of the following topics. Most of the topics encourage traditional essays, but if you would like to take a creative approach to one of them, feel free. Only Topic 6 specifically requires you to produce a work of creative writing.
Topics
On the surface, the concept of the taboo seems relatively simple. However, it is much more complex than it appears; what is taboo, how it is taboo, why it is taboo, and what the breaking of a taboo may mean will differ from culture to culture and period to period. Discuss the thematic role of the taboo in at least TWO works studied this term. [Note: this topic is quite broad. Please narrow it down.]
Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm used fairy tales, in part, as a means of instructing their readers on acceptable behaviour. Does this perception of the fantastic as instructive remain in the more recent works we are studying? Discuss the concept of didacticism as relates to at least TWO of the following texts: A Coyote Columbus Story, Moana, Pinkney’s The Little Mermaid, The Hobbit, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Dark and Deepest Red. [Note: you are free to challenge the topic and/or examine how these texts work against the didactic if you prefer.]
We have run into a fair number of tricksters this term. Module 4 deals with them specifically, but they also appear in stories covered in other modules, as well as in more recent works such as A Coyote Columbus Story, Moana, The Hobbit, and arguably Howl’s Moving Castle. Discuss at least TWO works, only ONE of which may be from Module 4, in light of the idea of the trickster as a force of both creation and destruction.
[This topic is open only to students who chose Topic 1 of Assignment 1. Students who chose Topic 2 and have thus already compared a story to an alternate version in Assignment 1 must choose another topic.] Choose one fairy tale or myth studied in this course in Week 4, 5, or 7 and analyse it in comparison with at least one other version of the same tale that is not covered in this course.. The second version can be a transcribed folk tale from any culture, a literary adaptation, a film adaptation, a comic, a picture book, a novel, a work of art, or a parody or deconstruction in any format: whatever you like. However, the first work must be a fairy tale or myth (one based on the folk-tale tradition, not a wholly original creation) on our syllabus. You must examine the two versions in terms of how each represents characters, events, settings, and symbols in order to develop a particular meaning for a particular audience at a particular historical moment and in a particular narrative medium. Please do not simply repeat the modules. If you choose the Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty material, please find a unique angle. [If you’re interested in studying a folk tale that belongs to one of the same tale types as a course text, a good place to start is D.L. Ashliman’s online collection of stories, as he arranges his collection by tale type and will often include numerous versions of a story on a single page.]
Compare either Sleeping Beauty or Moana to any other Disney animated feature (note this film must be animated; the live-action remakes are not fair game) based entirely or partially on a fairy tale, myth, or legend from any culture (check with the instructor if you’re not sure which films count). In the process, you must consider the following: 1) the source material, about which you must demonstrate yourself knowledgeable; 2) the era in which the film was released, about which you must also demonstrate yourself knowledgeable (please remember that no era is uniform in its beliefs and customs).The topic is very broad; narrow it down. Find an element that will allow you to look at the two films together (for instance: use of the idea of storytelling, role of the Other World, use of the tale to comment on some element of contemporary society, villains, the hero’s/heroine’s journey, helpers, tricksters; the sky’s the limit). Your argument may not bear any resemblance to the following statement: “These two films demonstrate that gender roles in X decade and gender roles in Y decade were very different; therefore, times have changed.” Find a non-evaluative angle from which to examine the films; do not simply pit them against each other and declare one “better” because it adheres more closely to your own beliefs. Explore the “how” and the “so what?” of the films’ elements. Note: This is one of the topics that absolutely requires research.
Write an adaptation of (at least) one of the fairy tales studied in this course (the Disney movies and novels are not eligible, and neither are the picture books; stick to the folk-tale-based fairy tales and nineteenth-century literary fairy tales). You may write a straight adaptation, a parody, a postmodern version, or even a tale that incorporates more than one fairy tale. You may also choose any creative form you like (short story, poem, picture book, comic, short film, song, etc.). However, you must be writing for a present-day audience of your choice (i.e., your job is not to make your piece “sound like a folk tale”). Your story should be analytical in nature. In other words, it should exist for a reason; the way you tell the story should definitely constitute some sort of comment on the tale, the tale type, and/or some other aspect of fairy tales in general (i.e., your primary objective is not to use your story to comment on something other than the source material; this may be a secondary objective, but what you must do if you want to do well on the assignment is to use your story to analyse the source material). Your story should be between 800 and 1,100 words long and must be accompanied by a 500-word Author Statement explaining how your fairy tale is directed at a specific audience and for a specific purpose, explicitly outlining how the work is commenting analytically on the source material, and citing the sources you drew on for inspiration and/or the critical/theoretical/historical works that influenced you. The story itself does not need to include citations within it, but the Author Statement does; it should cite every source you used in your creation of the story, and you should then include these sources in an MLA-formatted list of works cited.
Assignment Requirements and Restrictions
Texts and Restrictions: Any texts specifically and substantially covered in the course modules (this does not include the “recommended texts”) are fair game. You must discuss at least two in your paper; you are welcome to cover more than two. Unless otherwise specified, you may not write on two close analogues (for instance, “Little Red Cap” and “Little Red Riding Hood” or “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” and “Brier Rose”). You may not repeat any of the texts you have covered in Assignments 1 or 3.
Format: Typed and double-spaced using 12-point Times New Roman font with 1-inch margins. At the top of the first page, please include your name, the course number and title, your instructor’s name, the date, and the essay’s title.
Citation: MLA. Please read up on this format and conform to its specifications. Check the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)’s MLA guide. Caveat: the MLA rules have changed relatively recently. Please ensure that you are adhering to the current rules, not the old ones.
List of Works Cited: Required. Failure to include it will lose you 20%. Failure to include cited works (including the primary texts) in the list of works cited or to cite works properly within the body of your paper will also result in a penalty (scaled according to the severity of the problem). If you include a work in your list of works cited, it must be cited in the body of your paper.
Research: None required, though it is highly recommended. Some of the topics will be difficult to get through without it. As this course is concerned with the ways in which stories written down in different times and environments produce different effects, you may find that background reading is a good idea. Do remember that your argument must be your own; secondary sources should be used only for support. The essay must be analytical, not expository. All sources, primary and secondary, must be cited correctly, and you should be prepared to comment on secondary material instead of simply plugging it into your text and moving on. Be especially sure to provide a citation within the text every time you take words, information, or ideas from a secondary source (and yes, the course modules count as secondary sources).
Further Note on Sources: It is strongly recommended that most of your sources be academic in origin. Please consider investigating the university’s excellent article database before you start poking around on blogs. Wikipedia, SparkNotes, Answers.com, Ask.com, Schmoop.com, and all their little friends are out of bounds. (Note on Wikipedia: if you absolutely must use it, do so for its reference sections and not the contents of its articles. The articles may be informative, but they are also unregulated and sometimes poorly referenced.) If you draw material from the modules, please cite them.
Content: Your essay should have an introduction, a body of supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion. It does not need to be exactly five paragraphs long. It absolutely must not blindly follow the “sandwich method” or contain within it the words “Firstly,” “Secondly,” “Lastly,” “In this essay, I shall discuss,” or “Since the dawn of time.” It should not list its thesis points in the introduction, though it does need a clearly worded thesis containing a “so what?” element. It also needs to present a logical, unified argument that progresses smoothly to a satisfying conclusion. Build your argument; don’t scatter it lightly over the page and hope it sticks.
Plagiarism Policy: You are responsible for reading the university’s plagiarism policy, which is available in the Student Code of Academic Conduct. If you are unsure how to cite your sources properly, please visit the university’s Writing Centre website, which contains a lot of highly useful information. The university does not consider ignorance an excuse in cases of plagiarism, so please take the time to learn the rules.
A Note on Comparison: a “comparison” essay is really a “comparison/contrast” essay. If you simply list similarities between works, you are going to end up handing in a lot of plot summary. Find your basis of comparison, but build your thesis around contrast.
This assignment, worth 30% of the final grade, is due by 11:59 p.m. EST on the Friday of Week 9. Submit your term paper on D2L via the Assignment 2 link.
Note: The attachment on this page is an assignment FAQ. It is strongly recommended that you read it, especially if you have chosen to write on Topic 6.
PICK TOPIC 5 !!!!!!!!
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