Fairy Tales
How to Read Literature Like a Professor: Chapter 8
Please take notes!
Chapter 8: Hanseldee and Greteldum
- In chapter eight, the author, Thomas Foster, talked about how all literature grows out of other literature.
- Recent resources.
- Literary Canon.
- Children's literature for parallels, analogies, plot structures and references.
- Students should learn this because it will help become better readers and also help them become stronger writers.
Refrences!
- When using old literature as a reference, like Homer or the Illiad, people might not get the message.
- Using a reference like Shakespeare might turn off some readers who feel you're trying too hard.
- All stories come from other stories, so when referencing another story make sure readers will understand that concept or idea.
- Students should know this because it can also help their readers relate to the story and understand the message they are trying to send.
- In the novel Snow by Tracy Lynn, she references the original "Snow White".
- "Gazing out at the wintry landscape she would add, 'with skin as fair as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as shadow'." (Lynn 7)
- Lynn references the original "Snow White" to bring some of the original version into her story and also to help readers relate to the re-told version.
Using a Literary Canon!
- A literary canon is canonical resources.
- A literary canon can be something or someone.
- What gets studied in college courses?
- Try not to use something that is too diverse.
- One problem with the diversification of the canon is that modern writers can't assume a common body of knowledge on the part of their readers.
- Students should know this because it can help them find useful references that are meaningful to the text.
- In the novel Snow by Tracy Lynn, The play Hamlet by Shakespeare is shown in the text.
- In "Hamlet" we see how Hamlets father is murdered by his brother, Claudius, and how Claudius takes over as the new king and marries Hamlets mother.
- Just like in the novel Snow, Hamlet has had a parent taken away from him and a person he hates has replaced them.
Fairy Tales!
- Can use children's literature for parallels, analogies, plot structures, and references.
- Hansel and Gretel.
- The story has a lot of appeal to people and almost everyone knows the story.
- By stopping the story where the drama normally kicks in, the author forces us to see how our responses- anxiety, trepidation, excitement- are conditioned by our previous encounters with the original fairy tale.
- You do not need the story because you have already internalized it so completely.
- Thats one thing writers can do with readerly knowledge of source texts, in this case fairy tales.
- You can turn a fairy tale into something more modern that people can relate to.
- Depending on what you want to accomplish, you may choose some prior tale and emphasize what you see as corresponding elements in the two tales.
- Instead of trying to recreate the fairy tale, rather try to make use of details or patterns
- Add portions of some prior story to add depth and texture to your story to bring out a theme, to lend irony to a statement, to play with the readers deeply ingrained knowledge of fairy tales.
- Students should know this because it can help them when building a plot structure for a story and also when trying to understand a text.
- In the novel, Snow by Tracy Lynn, The duchess Jessica's childhood starts with a tragedy; her mothers death. Her father gets married to another woman, who overtime becomes wildly jealous of Jessica. Jessica escapes to London to become a part of a makeshift family of outcasts.
- Lynn recreated the fairy tale of "Snow White" into a more modern story.
- Lynn used the original story of "Snow White" to create a plot structure for a new story.
Summary of the chapter!
- Using references in texts.
- Literary Canon.
- Using children's literature.
Works Cited!
- "Carousel." Theatre in the Park. Theatre in the Park, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.
- "William Shakespeare Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.
- "Snow: A Retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (Once Upon A Time Fairytales)." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
- Lynn, Tracy. Snow. New York, NY: Simon Pulse, 2003. Print.
- Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature like a Professor: For Kids. N.p.: Harper, 2003. Print.
- Maguire, Gregory. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. New York, NY: Regan, 1999. Print.
Carousel
- Students will receive an excerpt from one of the texts I have chosen.
- Students can work in partners to analyze the excerpt to see which concepts were used from Chapter 8 in the text.
- Students will stop after a couple minutes of analyzing the text.
- After students have finished analyzing, they will pass the excerpt to the next group and anything they missed the new group will add onto the excerpt.
- What concepts did you see in the text?
- Can you make any comparisons to other texts?