Hauptseminar The Brothers Grimm Anniversary Year Fairy Tales Revisited A Comparative Language Awareness Approach

The Brothers Grimm, German linguists, cultural researchers and authors, are considered to be the most well-known collectors of German folk tales. Fairy tales not only are a significant part of German but also of global culture. On the one hand traces and influences from other languages and cultures can be found in the Grimm tales and on the other hand the Grimm tales have been a spring board for translations, adaptations and implementations across the world. Furthermore, fairy tales have become most popular feature films in the cinematic genre of fantasy. In this class we will focus on the role of language, culture and gender. We will investigate how language and culture play together and what impact they might have on the construction of gender. We will follow and apply the Human GPS approach (Finkbeiner, 2009), a multi-perspective comparative approach, that allows us to put a specific lens on the varied international versions and interpretations. We will also consider the specific time frame of the versions. As experts in the workplace and teachers alike we need to develop language awareness and cultural awareness in order to better understand and teach fairy tales as a specific text. Fairy tales are an ideal playground to trigger language awareness. Teaching fairy tales can be a cognitively challenging activity once teachers take account of the deep layers hidden in the tales. Furthermore, as fairy tales seem to be common knowledge they are used as a popular topic in marketing and business strategies around the world. We will consider these aspects and specifically look at gender as portrayed in the different versions of the fairy tales, such as the role of the -witch”, the -step mother”, the -princess”, the -prince”, and the -wolf” etc. and apply critical discourse analysis. You will need this book: Grimm, J. & Grimm, W. (1997). The Brothers Grimm: The Complete Illustrated Fairy Tales. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions. You ought to purchase this book at Uni Buch starting October 1st, 2013. The books will be pre-ordered and ready for pick-up. A reader will be provided at the beginning of the cou rse. Bemerkung This is a highly interactive and creative seminar. It will include: - face to face classes - self- access learning classes (online) with detailed assignments - fairy tale excursions to the Grimm Museum and to the most important fairy tale locations around Kassel. Regular and active participation is expected. Presentations as well as a number of assignments as course achievements are mandatory for successful completion of the course. This complies with the regulations of the university and fully serves curricular needs of the modularized study order. Work load has been calculated precisely. Students who could not participate in summer 2013 and who are still on the waiting list will be chosen first. Voraussetzungen Precondition: - Successful participation in -Introduction into Foreign Language Teaching Methodology- for teacher candidates - Successful participation in all other introductory courses and -Proseminare- for all candidates Leistungsnachweis Succcessful participation (Teilnahmeschein): - Due to the project-oriented and action-oriented classroom design active and regular participation is mandatory -Mini presentation and assignments as described in class and online sessions Successful Modularized Exam (Leistungsschein) (paper): - development of an action-oriented fairy tale project or - comparative critical discourse analysis of fairy tales or fairy tale related texts, e.g. in business and marketing, such as ads, etc. Lerninhalte 1.) Texts: Top 6 out of the most frequent top ten list of the Grimm Fairy Tales: - Cinderella - Rapunzel - Sleeping Beauty - three out of ten: student choice 2. )Methodology: - action oriented holistic approaches - language awareness and cultural awareness approaches - critical discourse analyis - gender studies - Human GPS Zielgruppe Alle Anglistik/Amerikanistik-Studierende im Hauptstudium Studierende der gender studies FB 02 Institut für Anglistik / Amerikanistik Precondition: - Successful participation in -Introduction into Foreign Language Teaching Methodology- for teacher candidates - Successful participation in all other introductory courses and -Proseminare- for all candidates Succcessful participation (Teilnahmeschein): - Due to the project-oriented and action-oriented classroom design active and regular participation is mandatory -Mini presentation and assignments as described in class and online sessions Successful Modularized Exam (Leistungsschein) (paper): - development of an action-oriented fairy tale project or - comparative critical discourse analysis of fairy tales or fairy tale related texts, e.g. in business and marketing, such as ads, etc. Uni Kassel WiSe 2013/14 English and American Studies Prof. Dr. Finkbeiner Claudia