Week 13 Folk and Fairy Tales from Bangladesh

        This week in class we had physics professor Dr. Shabbir Mian, originally from Bangladesh, guest lecture about folktale traditions from his home country.  He lectured on “Rupkotha” is Bengali and translates literally to English as “beautiful words.”  Rupkotha are fairy tales told to children.  While many characteristics of Bangladesh folk tale traditions are similar to western traditions, there are also some significant differences.
        One difference is that Bangladesh stories do not have “fairies.”  There is magic in the tales, but there are no magical helpers such as fairy godmothers.  The magic simply happens because of some prior cause.  For example, in the tale “Blue Lotus and Red Lotus,” the two step brothers are eaten by the evil queen and are transformed into a golden and an iron egg.  Even though no “fairy” intervened, the magical even still occurred.  Rupkothas also contain some different dramatis personae than western tales.  A few examples of characters that Rupkothas have are demons, ghosts and sons of ministers.
        Another characteristic that separates Bangladesh tradition from western tradition is how far back the literary form of the tales go.  The “Panchatantra” (the five books) was written circa 550 A.D.  This may seem in the distant past until it is compared to an even earlier story book.  The “Jataka” was written in the 5th century B.C.  This is remarkable when one considers that most of the popular western tales took literary form in the 17th and 18th centuries A.D.

Week 10 Jewish Folktale Tradition

In class this week we read numerous Jewish folktales and after discussing them we found that Jewish tale traditions differ from western tales in several distinct ways.  Firstly the Jewish tales, much like the American deaf culture’s tales, poke fun at the majority.  The Jewish culture uses folktales as an instrument of empowerment by making fun of the majority population.  It is commonly known that the Jewish people have been made scapegoats throughout history, so they use stories as a form of release.
This leads us to another distinction between Jewish tales and western tales: humor.  Jewish folktales contain a lot more humor than western tales do.  For example, in “A Dispute in Sign Languages” a wicked priest summons the chief rabbi and gives him an ultimatum: either present a Jew for a dispute in sign language in 30 days or he will have all the Jews killed.  Just when the thirty days are about to run out, a Jew takes up the challenge and has a dispute in sign language with the wicked priest.  The priest goes through a series of signs and the Jewish poultry dealer answers to the priests satisfaction and thus passes the test.  After the dispute, it is revealed that the poultry dealer translated the priests signs using logic and reason and thus mistranslating the priest’s intended meaning.  The poultry dealers signs were still accepted by the priest because the priest mistranslated the Jew’s signs.  The whole dispute was a complete miscommunication that ends up saving all of the Jews.
Another distinction of the Jewish folktale tradition is that the main character is commonly a Rabbi.  This departs from the western tradition of having children or young adults as the main character.  The Rabbi by definition must be an adult.  Having a Rabbi is also different because it involves religion directly in the story.  Western tales mainly use religion in the form of motifs.
Jewish folktales are also more realistic than western tales.  They contain little or no magic or enchantment. Rather, the characters in the tale use intelligence to accomplish what magic does in other tales.  In the Jewish tale “The Rabbi and the Inquisitor”, the town judge tries to falsely persecute a Rabbi for murder by tricking him.  After losing in argument, the judge forces the rabbi to put his fate up to chance.  The judge decrees that the Jew must pick his sentence from a hat, that contains two slips of paper: one with “guilty” written on it and one left blank. However, the judge secretly writes “guilty” on both  so that the rabbi must be found guilty no matter which paper he picks.  The rabbi guesses the judge is going to do this and eats the slip of paper he chooses so that no one can read it.  Since the only slip left in the had says guilty on it, every thinks that the one the rabbi ate must have been blank so they had to release him.  This is a much more realistic story than are seen in western tale traditions, where magic and enchantment are common tools for achieving one’s goals.

Week 9 Bluebeard

Out of the four versions of “Bluebeard” we read I enjoyed Charles Perrault’s tale the most.  His version was the first one I read, so the others did not captivate me as much because I had a general idea of what was going to happen.
I think this version makes more of an impression on the reader due to its more believable beginning.  Instead of capturing women with magic, as in a Brothers’ Grimm version, Bluebeard marries them in traditional fashion.  “One of his neighbors, a respectable lady, had two daughters who were perfect beauties.”  When they refuse, he throws them a party to show that even though he has a blue beard, he is still a good guy.  Eventually he proves to the youngest daughter that he is in fact a decent man and she agrees to marry him.
I also think Perrault’s version is the best because of its emphasis on the moral lesson.  Perrault uses strong language when the daughter betrays Bluebeard’s orders. “So tormented was she by here curiosity that, without stopping to think about how rude it was to leave her friends, she raced down a little staircase so fast that more than once she thought she was going to break her neck. When she reached the door to the room, she stopped to think for a moment about how her husband had forbidden her to enter and reflected on the harm that might come her way for being disobedient. But the temptation was so great that she was unable to resist it. She took the little key and, trembling, opened the door.” I italicized the words myself to show how much he focuses on the moral of resist temptations and curiosity if it is forbidden, for disobeying can lead to a bad end.
I also thought it was interesting that this was the moral.  Bluebeard murders all of his wives for their disobedience, but the focus of the story is on the disobedience rather than the murders.  Perrault downplays the monster that is Bluebeard and amplifies the disobedience of the women, making them seem just as wrong as Bluebeard.  This might be done in order to keep focus on the tales intended lesson, but it is possible that gender biases could have had an impact as well.  

Week 8 Cinderella: Rags to Riches

“Cinderella” is a classic example of a “rags to riches” story.  Rags to riches stories are stories in which someone, through means of hard work or good fortune, climb the class ladder from poverty to extreme wealth.  In fairytales, the advancement through society is mostly achieved through the good fortune.  The fairy tale “Cinderella: fits perfectly into this category.  Cinderella is a poorly treated stepdaughter, who with the help of magic and marriage (good fortune), becomes a wealthy princess.  In fairytales, rags to riches is a common motif.  There are many different paths to wealth throughout fairytales however.  In “Jack and the Beanstalk” by Joseph Jacobs, it is achieved through theft.  In “Cinderella”, it is though magic and marriage.

“Cinderella” unrealistically uses magic as a tool to gain success.  This gives children the wrong idea that they can be successful though passivity.  Success and riches is much more likely to be obtained though the methods of hard work and innovative ideas.  Marriage as a path from rags to riches is more realistic than magic.  Real life examples of people marrying into wealth do exist and thus should be treated as more realistic than magic, but still unlikely.  For fairytale purposes such as “Cinderella” however, magic and marriage are both perfectly acceptable and realistic.

Week 7 Storytelling in Deaf Culture

This week we had Deaf Studies professors Dr. Mark Rust and Dr. Ricky Rose give a presentation on storytelling in ASL.  It was interesting to see the difference between  the deaf and hearing cultures.  The deaf storytelling is much more animated.  The story is told with the entire body.  Emotion can be seen on the face and in the intensity of the body movements whereas in hearing cultures emotions can only be indicated with voice and facial expressions.  It took me a little bit to adjust to the new style of performing, but once I did I found that I enjoyed it more than hearing it regularly.  It became more of a play with the narrator as the actor than someone just reciting a story.  Dr. Rose also changed the place he was standing when he was reading as different characters.  This visual really helped to make the story come to life.
This lecture gave me an appreciation for the use of body and facial expressions in storytelling.  One of the characteristics of a fairytale is that they are depthless.  The main character doesn’t experience much emotion, if any in tales.  The facial and body expressions adds some depth to the character and thus makes the story more gripping than one with no emotion.

Week 6 Snow White

“Sonne” by the band Rammstein is a music video that tells an interesting verion of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.”   Rammstein puts a unique spin on the tale however.  Instead of a wicked stepmother that repeatedly tries to kill Snow White, they use gold to symbolize a number of things found in the traditional Brothers Grimm version.
Both stories start off the same.  Snow White lives with the seven dwarves in the woods and the dwarves are gold miners.  This is where the Rammstein version drastically changes course from the Grimms’ tale.  In the music video, Snow White is a ruthless dictator who uses the dwarves to obtain gold.  Snow White then uses the gold to get high.  The gold is what ties the stories together.  It simultaneously represents drugs, greed, and the wicked stepmother.  In the video, Snow White is seen snorting gold dust through a straw, an obvious reference to cocaine.  A little later, Snow White overdoses from injecting gold into her veins.  The gold helps to play the role of the wicked stepmother.  In the Grimms’ version, the stepmother is the one who kills Snow White.  The gold is the physical item in the Rammstein version that kills her.  However, I think that Snow White herself also helps encompass the stepmother role.  Snow White is greedy for the gold while the stepmother is greedy for beauty and the admiration of the people.  In both tales, this is what ultimately leads to Snow Whites death.
I like the Rammstein version better because it is more modern and thus I can connect with it more.  I also thought that it was a very unique and clever take on the story and that the music video itself was well done.

Comparing Beauty and the Beast to Cupid and Psyche

When comparing it to Beauty and the Beast, Cupid and Pyche, written by Lucius Apuleius is most like Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s 1756 version.  Both stories have three daughters, one of who’s beauty stands out among the rest.  In both stories, the daughter is chosen to leave the comfort of home and family to live with a stranger.  An important part of the comparison is the character and attitude of the heroines Beauty and Psyche.  Both leave their previous lives willingly and with a determined attitude.  Psyche and Beauty are cherished by the townspeople for their beauty, but they are too virtuous and humble to become egotistical and vain.  Both heroines end up at a magnificent castle full of lavish niceties and devoted servants.  Both have sisters who are full of jealousy, but whom they love anyway.  The similarities between the two heroines is uncanny.  One could put Beauty in Psyche’s place and Psyche in Beauty’s place and the tales wouldn’t miss a beat.
Another similarity is the lesson both stories tell.  Beauty marries Beast because of the goodness of his character, despite his appearance.  Cupid asks Psyche not to look at him because he wants their marriage to thrive on love alone, not his godlike looks.