Galton/Kierkegaard & Fairy Tales

Period 1: (until 8:00)

Classwork: Continue to work/research your chosen pantheon and your documentary project. Your project should include a creation myth, a legend or story from your researched myth cycle, and a short explanation of the major gods/goddesses within that tradition/culture (3 basic elements to your documentary). Or continue to write your myth poem/story draft. 

8:00 - 8:30: Let's read about Galton and Kierkegaard.

Use Kierkegaard or Galton's ideas to play around with the idea that we are shaped either by our genetic code (nature) or our environment (nurture). Where do you stand on the idea? Are we influenced more by our genes or our environment and experiences? Are children fat because of their genes, or because they grow up in a household where their family is overweight? Are children more violent because they are genetically psychopathic, or because they play violent video games or are abused? Do we learn only from our environment (good schools) or will good schools and access to education do little to help a child who just isn't capable of higher thought based on their IQ? Play around with these ideas.

In groups of 3-4, discuss how Grendel embodies Kierkegaard and/or Galton's ideas. Is Grendel a product of his environment or was he born that way? Did he find his "true self" or find his "gold and sit on it?"

Period 2: Fairy Tales

Let's read Anne Sexton's poems from her book Transformations.

Take 5 minutes. Brainstorm your favorite fairy tales. Which fairy tales were your favorite (or are your favorite)? Why do you like these stories? Discuss a favorite fairy tale with a partner or neighbor. Together discover how the stories might be similar or have similar elements. Be ready to share out what you discussed. I will ask each pair to share out.

The Archetypal Fairy Tale

• Stories, often told to children, to entertain, instruct or teach

• Often used to illustrate the problems that children and young people face as they become adults
--What might be some of these typical problems?

• The characters in fairy tales represent part of our own “psyche” or inner self

Common themes in fairy tales include:

• Metamorphosis

• Transformation

• Imprisonment

• Love

• Good versus evil (overcoming obstacles)

• Death or transition

• Illusion or misunderstanding

• Rules or authority

There are often boy and girl fairy tales. These differ in plot.

• Boy fairy tale plots focus on exploration, discovery, and include a climax which separates the boy from his childhood. Usually by the end, the boy has grown into a man.
• Girl fairy tale plots focus on discovery as well, but also abduction, outside threats, powers beyond their control, and falling in love. Usually by the end, the girl has grown into a woman.

Think, Pair, Share (5 minutes): knowing this, apply what you've just learned to the fairy tales you know. What kinds of fairy tales have these been? Were your favorite fairy tales boy or girl fairy tales? Discuss.

Fairy Tale Characters

• Often good, innocent, or sometimes foolish.

• Often instructed by an older person or character (sometimes a mystical creature)

• Often fairy tale characters have to face great odds

• Often fairy tale characters are given an item(s) that allows them to discover who they are

Fairy tale form:

• Usually written in 3rd person point of view with an omniscient narrator

• Usually begins with “Once upon a time…” and ends “happily ever after.”

• Usually include the rule of 3 (the first two times a character tries something, it usually doesn’t work)

Writing Task:
Read this short article: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20130801-too-grimm-for-children
Then check out these websites: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimmtales.html

German: The Brother's Grimm
Danish: Hans Christian Andersen
French: Charles Perrault 

• Choose a fairy tale that you want to work with (consider your favorites--or strike out into the unknown with a story you are not familiar with and read it. Be unique and consider one that is not as well known)
• Write a narrative or prose poem or a story or scene or an essay in which you explore gender and fairy tale themes. Use the archetypes and characteristics of a fairy tale to tell your own.

Use whatever time we have left writing (or read Grendel).

HOMEWORK: Continue writing what you started in class today. Keep reading Grendel. Note the major characters and follow the plot. Bring your books back with you to next class. Aim to finish reading the book by the beginning of next week.