Annotated Bibliography
“Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture” by Peggy Orenstein
Peggy Orenstein’s book explores a first time mother’s experiences raising a daughter in the highly gendered society in which we now live. She delves into the issues of females being put into the box of being princesses from the day that they are born, and of little girls being valued for their looks over any other characteristic by most of society. Orenstein discusses topics such as popular television shows in her daughter’s age group, popular toys, stories, and other products targeted toward susceptible young girls. She wonders what this kind of culture is teaching the future young women of this country and the world, and whether or not there is a way to avoid any negative impacts. She talks about her parenting techniques and cases of families that have raised their children as far outside this gender divided society, and the different types of reactions and results that come of them.
“Ella Evolving: Cinderella Stories and the Construction of Gender- Appropriate Behavior”
“This article considers the cultural messages embedded in the patriar- chal canon of fairy tales and their implications for the construction of gender-appropriate behavior ” This article breaks down the different themes and how stories revolving around the Cinderella theme teach readers, specifically female readers, different values and morals in their own life. The stories the author, Linda Parsons, looks closely at are Cendrillon, Aschenputtel, Ella Enchanted, Just Ella, the traditional and adapted Cinderella, and new feminist perspectives on these stories. One quote reveals how different the recent interpretation of Cinderella makes body image more important than inner beauty: “Perrault’s Cinderella shows us that we should be submissive, passive, and beautiful. Grimms’ Cinderella shows us that we can be agents in our destiny, that we can use our voices in powerful ways, and that there are severe consequences for cruel intentions. It also shows us that we can experience a full range of emotions and that our appearance is secondary to our inner being. “ The text wants teachers to be able to identify any theme and understand how their students construct meanings and establish discourse.
Folklore in the Oral Tradition, Fairytales, Fables and Folk-legend
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1984/4/84.04.01.x.html
This site is also great for future teachers because it includes sample lessons regarding oral traditions, fairy tales, fables, and folk-legend. It is published by Julie Carthy and provides readers with her definition of both oral tradition and folklore, which states, “The term folk can refer to any group of people whatsoever who share at least one common factor. It does not matter what the linking factor is it could be a common occupation, language, or religion but what is important is that a group formed for whatever reason will have some traditions which it calls its own.” This article states that in order for folklore to be retold throughout generations, in must be accepted by an in-group because it fills a need they might have. Carthy also lists the functions of folklore and their different objectives amongst each one, specifically focusing on the folktale and the folk-legend. This article also includes themes to look for in each story and how to go about teaching these sample lessons and themes to students.
This website contains over six-hndred interpretations and translations of fables with included morals. In addition to this, the site contains “Real Audio narrations, Classic Images, Random Images, Random Fables, Search Engine and much more” The site also includes lesson plans built around these fables formulated for elementary school students all the way up to high school students.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/
This website is a compilation of translations of the stories gathered by the Grimm brothers. It contains 209 stories, many far more gruesome than their more popular modern counterparts. Not only are there the more well known stories, like “Hansel and Gretel” or “Rapunzel”, but there are some very obscure ones, like “The Wishing-Table, The Gold-Ass, and The Cudgel in the Sack”.
https://www.literacyshed.com/the-fairy-tale-shed.html
This blog not only contains great ideas, it contains resources and suggestions about teaching fairy tales to students. The first post as this annotation is being written is a suggestion that children create a background story, prequel, or follow-up story to the tale being taught. It also includes an example of one such story written by an eleven-year-old that was emailed to The Literacy Shed. This blog also has similar pages for alternate genres and areas of interest that may aid teachers in getting their students engaged and involved, such as Sci-fi, superheroes, poetry, animators, and many more.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/index2.html
“Looking for a sweet, soothing tale to waft you toward dreamland? Look somewhere else. The stories collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the early 1800s serve up life as generations of central Europeans knew it—capricious and often cruel. The two brothers, patriots determined to preserve Germanic folktales, were only accidental entertainers.”
This is a webpage put together by National Geographic with beautiful illustrations accompanying the Grimm’s Fairy Tales. This page also highlights the Grimm’s themselves, and teaches readers about their mission in collecting these stories from around their homeland
First grade teacher, John Bourke, provides a reflection about teaching his first grade class skills in critical literacy through the reading and writing of fairy tales. Bourke explores the way in which fairy tales mold a child’s view of themselves, the concept of right and wrong, and how they perceive the world. He then exams how a child’s view of themselves, the world, and literacy can change while using the lens of critical literacy while reading fairy tales.
This site is a useful resource for teachers to refer to if they need help, inspiration, or a little enlightenment when teaching their students about fairytales. This site actually began as a class project, but has grown into a large educational website. This site has it all, from the definition of a fairytale, to guides for teachers. The site includes essays, guides, links, blogs, discussion boards and annotated tales of original fairytales. It includes over 1,500 illustrations, and 1,200 full texts. If you need a good resource to help with any project relating to fairytales SurLaLune.com would definitely be a site worth looking at. It has immense information, and is easy to navigate.
http://www.virginiabonner.com/courses/cms3340_disney/readings/Hurley_WhitePrincesses.pdf
Dorothy Hurley provides an examination of White privilege and binary color symbolism in both the classic and Disney adaptation of fairy tales, including Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Little Mermaid. Hurley discusses the influence fairy tales has on the formation of identity, especially for students of color, and the importance of developing critical literacy skill and providing students with a multicultural education, including transcultural literature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx8RRIiP53Q
In this TedTalk Colin Stokes addresses the influence movies have on societal views and treatment of women, especially during childhood. Stokes moves for a new definition of manhood, as defined by movies, in which men can work with women, as heroes and heroines, to conquer evil.
Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins
http://emmadonoghue.com/books/short-story-collections/kissing-the-witch.html
Written by Irish author Emma Donoghue, this book is a collection of connected fairytales, narrated from the characters of various famous tales. They are based on original classic fairytales, changed and altered to affect the morals, gender dynamics, and basic plots. The stories are filled with recognizable themes from old fairytales, with new twists to fit more modern views and values. There are thirteen stories, based on fairytales like Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid, Grimm’s Rapunzel, and Madame le Prince de Beaumont’s Beauty and the Beast.
