128110 VO Popular and Media Cultures VO / Cultural Studies - MA M01 (2022W)

Fairy Tales and Popular Culture

Why are fairy tales so popular and why are the original fairy tales so dark? How have gender stereotypes been portrayed and perpetuated in fairy tales and their film adaptations? This course will give an introduction to the origins and evolution of fairy tales with a focus on contemporary retellings in literature, film, graphic novels and other media. A variety of fairy tales will be examined, ranging from early adaptations to contemporary subversive and feminist retellings. Fairy tales have been adapting to their sociohistorical context since their origins; we will explore how this is reflected in the evolution of cinema even within the Disney corporation. From traditional, submissive Sleeping Beauty (1959) to empowering Maleficent (2014) Disney has gone a long way in terms of representation, which is significant as the Disney brand is reflecting mainstream ideology. Special focus will be given to the forest as geographical and metaphorical space. The students will learn different approaches of text, film and media analysis, including comparative criticism, feminist and psychoanalytic interpretations.