Tales of the Brothers Grimm

This course Investigates the folk and fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm in literature and film, as well as in their cultural, historical, social and ideological contexts. Specific focus is on the retelling and rewriting of these tales -- both by the Brothers Grimm from older French and Italian tales and by Walt Disney and modern Hollywood -- in order to study the similarities and differences in narrative structures, themes, and layers of meaning, as well as the implications such retellings have on social and familial relationships, class structure, race relations, the phenomenon of nation building, the performance of gender and sexuality, orientalism and consumerism.