Sunday, September 26, 2010

Little Red Riding Hood


The “little red riding hood” themed cartoon I chose was created by Mark Parisi and can be found on www.offthemark.com.  This little red riding hood depiction is defiantly a social cartoon. It is kind of a modern illustration of the classic fairy tale story. In the cartoon little red riding hood is talking to the wolf through instant messaging. My interpretation of it relates to how nowadays people have conformed to technology and have become rather dependent, especially socially. This cartoon still retains the same vibe of the original tale and alters a well known line from the classic story. Instead of writing “what big ears you have” or “what big teeth you have” the modern adaptation replaces it with “big typos”. Additionally this cartoon can be interpreted as an image of how technology has taken over the world of entertainment through its popularity over classic literature and methods of communication. Overall I think this cartoon is pretty funny and is successful at relating it to our modern time period. What really stood out and captured my attention was the phrase “the classics, updated”. Showing how many works of art from the past have been transformed and altered to conform to modern societal desires.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Fairy Tales and Psychology

For years psychologists have used fairy tales in an effort to understand the human mind. The connections between the two are through archetypes, id, ego, super ego, collective unconscious, and the psychosexual stages of development. Psychologists claim that the uses of fairy tales are symbolic images that reflect insight into the human unconscious. Carl Jung the father of analytical psychology interprets fairy tales by using his theories of collective unconscious and archetypes. The collective unconscious is basically an experience or memory that we all as a specie share. Archetypes are basically defined as an ideal person or personality type, examples of archetypes in fairy tales consist of wise old man, great mother nature, eternal child and the trickster. Another influential psychologist was Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. He used his theories of id, ego, superego, dreams and psychosexual stages of development to analyze fairy tales. He thought that fairy tales and dreams could possibly be derived from the same place, so fairy tales like dreams may provide insight into the unconscious. Additionally in the story of Hansel and Gretel, there is evidence of psychosexual stages of development, in the tale there are many indications of the oral stage, shown through the constant use of bread. The id, ego and superego are also visible psychological aspects of fairy tales. The id is basically the primal desires of man that do not think about morals or what is socially acceptable. An example in fairy tales would be when a family is on the brick of starvation the parents often decide to take their children out to the woods and leave them so they don’t have to share their food anymore. In these situations the family is acting primarily on the id. They ignore the ego and super ego that would tell them that that particular action is immoral. What really stood out for me in Dr. Mazeroff’s lecture would be the use of fairy tales in psychotherapy. He spoke of using fairy tales to bring out our repressed memories. One example was when he once asked a patient to recite a well known fairy tale, in doing so the patient blindly left out one key section of the tale that included the mistreatment of a child. Then when Dr. Mazeroff asked the patient why he left it out the patient realized that he himself once was mistreated as a child and he unknowingly repressed that particular memory. Since fairy tales can supposedly provide insight into the unconscious they are capable of locating and resurfacing repressed memories. 

Sunday, September 12, 2010

What is a fairy tale?

What is a fairy tale? For centuries fairy tales have sparked the imaginations of people of all ages around the world, these stories have been passed down from generation to generation verbally and are one dimensional. We all grew up listening to fairy tales and letting our imagination take over. Fairy tales are not just stories but a literary art form, one in which the origin is unknown. They do not contain depth, they posses archetypes, structure, history, religion, motifs, and even psychoanalytic views. They can be applied to anyone from any country and in each individuals interpretation they can derive meaning and apply that meaning to their own lives.
Orally transmitted folk literature is seen in only a few types of narratives. Legends, Saint’s Legends and folktales have all existed side by side. But folktales are unlike these, they are bound neither to reality or dogma. Folktales survive without the support of the church and continue to exist when faced with opposition. In its own way folktales provide answers to the questions of human existence. Additionally, folktales do not interpret or explain, they merely observes and portrays a dreamlike vision of the world. The characters are provided with opportunities not things and gifts appear right at the moment when the hero and task collide, they do not reward the hero but instead impel him into the adventure and allow him to fulfill his destiny. It is almost as if the folktale wished to give us assurance, even if you’re not sure what you’re doing or where you’re going it provides assurance that your apart of something meaningful. It says no more than it knows and it knows only what it perceives. Individuals read folktales and either unconsciously or consciously regard the images as being not just pictures but as metaphors. In this sense they are not symbols that conceal but rather reveal. 

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Introduction

I chose the class “Once Upon a Time – Folk and Fairy Tales Around the World” basically because I thought it would be a very fun and interesting class. In English class I would get so bored reading books that lacked excitement and were rather dull. To me reading and analyzing fairy tales will be much more enjoyable and amusing. From this seminar I hope to gain a lot more knowledge about the origins of fairy tales and am very interested in how different fairy tales from around the world compare with each other, discovering how each origin differs in style, context and form. I want to analyze fairy tales as a whole genre and discover how they were developed and how they have been kept alive for such a long time. Additionally, just about all of the fairy tales I know are the most commonly known ones, such as Snow White, the Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. I know there are hundreds of fairy tales and I would like to expand my knowledge of them and to learn about many that are not as widely known and recognized. As of right now I honestly do not have a favorite folktale or fairytale but hopefully after taking this class I will discover one.