Creative Writing: Once Upon a Time, Fairytales is designed to engage in interdisciplinary literary and cultural analysis through the critical lenses of cultural and historical influences that have shaped the "classic" tales and how modern storytellers have adapted and reclaimed these texts. Students will read and watch various classical and contemporary fairytales, engaging in comparative analysis by examining gender roles and relationships, psychological concepts presented symbolically and metaphorically, and how worldview, time and place, and culture create the stories. We will investigate the key elements in crafting fairytales such as setting, character, plot, story arc, moral lessons, and overarching ethical questions through existing fairytales and in the rewriting of fairytales.
This is a reading and writing intensive course. Students will be drafting and workshopping their own reimagining of fairytales. Student led seminars, weekly reading reflections, and weekly creative writing assignments are requirements for the course.
Class meets on Wednesdays 6pm - 9:15pm, primarily in person but will have 3 classes held on zoom. Access to Canvas is required.