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Fairytales and Social Codes

Fairytales and Social Codes. Vulnerability, Imagination, and the Transition from Childhood to Adulthood. The Tales. The Brothers Grimm wrote, in the introduction to one of their books:

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Fairytales and Social Codes

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  1. Fairytales and Social Codes Vulnerability, Imagination, and the Transition from Childhood to Adulthood

  2. The Tales • The Brothers Grimm wrote, in the introduction to one of their books: “. . . Every society, and every age, produced its own version of the same tales.” (John Connolly, The Book of Lost Things, 343)

  3. Tales for Children • Tap into childhood awareness: • Life is likely to have pain and loss • Humans are powerless against mortality • Children know they are vulnerable

  4. Tales for Children • Affirmative stories: • Challenges can and must be overcome • Transition from childhood to adulthood • Facing fears • Understanding ourselves and the world

  5. Common Elements • Animals • Childhood fears • Symbolic references • Fantastic elements • Another world

  6. Common Elements (continued) • Riddles/rhymes • Helpers (often magical) • Lessons learned • Tricksters

  7. Elements of Fairytales: The Trickster • Creator, transformer, joker, truth-teller, destroyer • Shape-shifter: All things to all people • Rule-breaker: Theft, trickery • Mischievous, sometimes malicious • Tears things down but often builds them back up, or enables others to do so • Often folktale animals • Roots in ancient myths

  8. The Trickster • Creator, destroyer • Loki: Norse god; tricks the blind Hod into killing his twin brother, Balder, with an arrow of mistletoe • Punished by having poison dripped on him • Will help bring about Ragnarok, the return of the gods

  9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Loke_og_Sigyn_by_Eckersberg.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Loke_og_Sigyn_by_Eckersberg.jpg

  10. The Trickster • Folktale animals and • Reynard the Fox (France): William Caxton printed the story in late 15th century • Always in trouble; talks his way out • Causes trouble, often malicious; rule-breaker

  11. The Trickster • Creation • Raven creates the world in Inuit and Northwest native traditions • Maui of the Thousand Tricks captures the sun to slow it down, but does it so his mother has more time to cook for him; it is a side effect that humans benefit

  12. Bringer of Culture • Prometheus brings fire, but so do Loki, Anansi (African), Raven, Coyote, and Maui (Maori) • Anansi brings stories to man by tricking Nyankopon the Sky-God • Qat (a spider, Banks Island, northern Canada), teaches humans to sleep and brings death

  13. The Trickster • Cunning AND foolish sometimes: • Coyote steals a horse in one story, and nearly drowns trying to eat berries in another • In just one collection of coyote stories, coyote dies of a snake bite, gunshot, an arrow wound, a broken heart, a rock fall, and a drowning (Roadrunner?)

  14. The Trickster What Crow Would Say to the Dalai Lama    Do you come to this bloated madhouse,this bedlamto offer us palliatives or do you come hereto help usbreak out of the asylum   So become a crow, Your Holinessthat's right, become a crow Make noise,make noise and wake the inmates of thisvast corporate paradise Flap your wings,flap your wings and startlethe wardenStrike with your beak,for sure, strike with your beak,and warn of dangerwarn of danger That's what I have to say  - Steven Raskin

  15. Trickster role • Those who encounter him must face their own deficiencies, or those of society • In destruction, leads to creation of better structures • Human psyche: unrestricted by convention, imagination, confronting and overcoming our problems

  16. Fairy Tale Tricksters • Robin Goodfellow (Puck) • English sprite or fairy • Made famous by Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night’s Dream Welsh Version, Medieval Period William Blake, 1785

  17. Fairy Tale Tricksters • Shakespeare’s Puck “That shrewd and knavish spriteCall'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you heThat frights the maidens of the villagery;Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quernAnd bootless make the breathless housewife churn;And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,You do their work, and they shall have good luck:Are not you he? “

  18. Fairy Tale Tricksters • The not-obviously-charming prince stories • A king poses trials for young men to win his daughter’s hand in marriage • All the usual suspects apply • No one has the “right stuff” • A young man who appears to be a peasant (sometimes royalty in disguise) tries

  19. Fairy Tale Tricksters • The not-obviously-charming prince stories (continued) • Avoids or defeats monsters, villains, and assorted dangers not through power but by unorthodox means • Uses cleverness and wit to win the princess, and they all live happily ever after

  20. Rumpelstiltskin • Variation of a trickster • Benevolence? • Some versions allow him to escape at the end • Other characters are greedy; he is at least up front with his demands • Feels some pity for the girl

  21. Modern Tricksters • Q from Star Trek • Wisakejak and Pookah (Ghost Master) • Aang (Avatar) • Bugs Bunny • Impossible Man (Fantastic Four) • The Mask • The Pink Panther • Mr. Mxyzptlk (Superman) • Wiley Coyote • The Roadrunner • Bart Simpson

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