Looking Back

Looking back on the semester, I got more out of the class than I was expecting. Before starting the class I had presumed that it would focus solely on European folk and fairy tales. I was pleasantly surprised to find material from all sorts of cultures, from China to Native Americans.

Overall I enjoyed the materials. Seeing folk and fairy tales from other cultures that I had never seen before was an enjoyable experience. It was interesting both to see tales I am familiar with in greater depth and to see unfamiliar ones. The different classifications of story motifs and narratives was one of my favorite parts, as it provided an interesting glimpse into the core functions of folk and fairy tales and how they influence stories today.

Logistically, it was somewhat challenging to approach the stories with different interpretational styles. The Freudian approach we used early on was particularly frustrating for my, as I am in general not a fan of its simplistic "everything is sexual" interpretations. In terms of reading it wasn't so bad. The amount of reading required was comparable to the average class and didn't pose too much difficulty, though a few rereadings were needed for certain works in order to get all the details.

All in all I greatly enjoyed this class. I learned a lot about stories I already knew and stories I'd never read before, in the process learning about greater cultural contexts and derivative ideas.