This semester I taught my very first fairytale themed college course. I’ve had lots of requests for the reading list, so here it is, all free online if you follow the links. (I’m so thankful places like Surlalune exist, making fairy tales readily accessible. It’s also where I found all the images in this post.) The class is an Intro to the University course, so sometimes I had to base the readings off of guest university speakers, thus it doesn’t follow the typical fairytale class setup, where you read a different tale-type each week. Instead, I grouped stories by relevant themes, with a few tale-type weeks to enforce the idea that there is no single version of a fairy tale. The course also needed to be multicultural, so I intentionally had my students read tales from around the world instead of only Grimm and Perrault, though they still read many of those. My goal for next year is to include even more non-European tales.
Week 1: Introduction
On Fairy-Stories by J.R.R. Tolkien
Week 2: Little Red Riding Hood
The Story of Grandmother, Italian
Little Red Riding Hood, Perrault, French
Little Red Cap, Grimms, German
The Company of Wolves by Angela Carter
The Little Girl and the Wolf by James Thurber
Little Red Riding Hood has a Gun by Amelia Hamilton
Week 3: Animal Bridegrooms
Beauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, French
East of the Sun, West of the Moon by Asbjornsen and Möe, Norwegian
The Monkey Prince collected by Stokes, Indian
Week 4: Cinderella
Yeh-hsien, Chinese
Donkeyskin, Perrault, French
Cinderella, or Aschenputtel, Grimms, German
The Poor Turkey Girl, Zuni
Little Burnt Face, Micmac
Introduction to The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales
Week 5: The Necessities
Hansel and Gretel, Grimms, German
Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, Persian
Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen, Danish
The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde, British
Week 6: Stress and Sorrow
The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, Danish
Marwe in the Underworld, Kenyan
The Juniper Tree, Grimms, German
The Bamboo-cutter and the Moon-child collected by Ozaki, Japanese
Week 7: Villains
Bluebeard, Perrault, French
Rumpelstiltskin, Grimms, German
Vasilissa the Beautiful, Russian
Handout: “Breaking the Disney Spell” by Jack Zipes.
Week 8: Working Hard for the Money
Six Swans, Grimms, German
Puss in Boots, Perrault, French
The Stonecutter, Japanese
Halloween Reading
You can find everything I had them read for Halloween on a previous post.
And that’s what I had them read! I could’ve easily picked double the amount. It was so hard to be choosy, and I’ll definitely make some changes next time I teach it, though it will be hard to cut some of these!