Term 1: September 2023-December 2024
GERN 301: Advanced German I
MonWed: 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM in BUTO-997
GMST 121: German Fairy Tales and Popular Culture
Meeting Times/Location: Asynchronous/Online
This course examines selected folk and fairy tales from the German-speaking tradition, primarily those collected by the Brothers Grimm, and their adaptation in popular culture. We will locate the texts in the 18th- and 19th-century cultural contexts of their origins and then follow how they have evolved into perennial favourites internationally across various media, including film, video games, board games, and comics. Students will thus explore how fairy tales have changed over the centuries to meet new political, cultural, and social demands while adopting innovative formal and narrative strategies with the emergence of new technologies.
Course readings will be supplemented by short introductory video lectures on a variety of disciplinary approaches to fairy tales, such as feminist and critical race studies perspectives as well as media studies theory.
In addition to weekly course readings, online class discussion, group work, and short Learning Journal Entries, students will complete a Midterm Assignment (1000 words) that examines a contemporary fairy tale adaptation, a creative Group Project fracturing a classic Grimms’ fairy tale, and a Research-based Revision of the Midterm Assignment as student’s Final Essay (2000 words).
Term 2: January 2024-April 2024
GERN 301: Advanced German II
MonWed: 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM in BUTO-997
GMST 121: German Fairy Tales and Popular Culture
MonWed: 12:30 PM to 2:00 PM in TBD