Do Fairy Tales Really Come True?
After viewing the montage of cartoon clips, I would like all of you to think about the characters and storylines from all the cartoons you can remember watching. Choose a feature-length cartoon you think you might enjoy writing about. Re-watch the movie. Only this time, you must view this film with a critical eye. For the purpose of this assignment, I would like all of you to use your feminist lens (you know-the one we talked about in class). You will use this lens to examine the works you choose.
In addition to selecting one film, you will also choose two fairy tales (works by The Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, Hans Christian Anderson, Frank L. Baum, and Madame d’Aulnoy is a great place to look). Once you have chosen your three works, you will write a literary analysis comparing and contrasting the representation of traditional and/or non-traditional gender roles in your selected pieces. Your paper should attempt to analyze how the depiction of gender in these works impacts the larger world. In other words, can cartoons and fairy tales have an effect on the world we are living in today?
You paper should be 5-7 pages. This is a formal composition; therefore, 1st and 2nd person pronouns are unacceptable. Do not forget to always use present tense when referring to any literary work (this includes film). Also, please provide an MLA formatted works cited page for your three selections.
All papers must be typed (I will reserve one day in the computer lab so everyone will have the chance to type their work). Your work must also be double spaced using Times New Roman font. The paper will be due 10 days from today. Good luck and have fun!
Suggested Films:
Cinderella
Aladdin
Alice in Wonderland
Sleeping Beauty
The Little Mermaid
Mulan
Pocahontas
Shrek, Shrek 2
The Fox and the Hound
Finding Nemo
Beauty and the Beast
Teaching Rationale
This assignment could be given at either the 11th of 12th grade level, but the standards addressed for this particular task will be for a 12th grade World Literature class. I will use the video clip as a sponge activity that will, hopefully, elicit the interest of my students. Moreover, the clip will help them to brainstorm ideas for the composition assignment that will be handed out after the clip is shown. The students will have already been taught several lessons on feminist literary theory as part of a ten week critical theory unit. We will have read Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and analyzed the text using feminist literary theory. Because of this, students will have a conceptual framework on which to base their writing. The composition assignment is my way of assessing whether or not the students grasp the concepts inherent in using critical theory to explore all different kinds of texts.
I chose this specific clip because I think it is funny. Additionally, I believe it will get the students thinking about all the other “innocent” images that, despite their seeming innocuous, have a subtext that have implications, some very negative, on the greater world around us.
