Teaching with the Grimm Fairy Tales

Robert Godwin-JonesWorld Studies, VCUrgjones@vcu.edu

Presentation & resources from this session:godwinjones.com/grimm

Interest in Grimm Tales Popular culture

Raft of movies; for ex, in 2011-2012 versions of Snow White Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman, Schneewittchen (ARD) TV shows: Snow White one of the major characters in ABC series

Once upon a time, "Snow White Re-imagined in NBC series Grimm Others: Tangled, The Princess & the Frog, Red Riding Hood Likely familiar to students, easy gateway to German culture

Grimm anniversaries 2012: 200 years since Kinder- und Hausmrchen 2013: 150 years since death of Jakob Grimm New editions in German & English (Philipp Pullman), e-books ARD Mrchenfilme, continuing series begun in 2009 http://grimm2013.de: special events in Germany

Grimm Fairy Tales in Lit/Film courses Short readings

Component in lit survey, romanticism, childrens literature Course focusing on short fiction or folk literature

Great variety of films available, in English & German Many on YouTube, from a variety of periods and styles Short films, animated versions, feature films Contrast different film interpretations of a story (Snow White)

Contexts for discussing tales Biographical and literary historical (romanticism) Development of the tales over time (1810, 1812,1857) Wide interpretive approaches:

Comparative, psychological, social, feminist

Grimm Fairy Tales in German Civ courses

Folk literature Important current in German culture back to Middle Ages Compare to Schwnke, Volksbcher Regional distinctions including dialect

Shift from Enlightenment to Romanticism New interest in folk lit at end of 18th cent. (Herder) Connection to currents of thought in romanticism (Fichte)

Social-political context French occupation and rising nationalism Grimms connection to major historical events: Gttingen 7,

Nationalversammlung 1848

Grimm Fairy Tales in Language classes Stories popular with children have plots

Some fairy tales already familiar to students, others new Everyday situations but fantastic twists - good for

discussion Designed for easy understanding

Linear narrated stories, often with repeating events Simple vocabulary, sentence structure

Multiple uses in teaching Re-purposing stories: plays, puppets, grammar, Web

projects Writing: students create their own or update or continue

stories

Grimm Fairy Tales and learning German

Read titles in German - see if students can tell what the story is (i.e. Dornrschen, Aschenputtel)

Vocabulary about settings, events, characters typical of fairy tales

Work with sayings, proverbs, idiomatic expressions Structured conversation, using vocabulary or

grammatical structures

Grimm Fairy Tales and learning German

Read titles in German - see if students can tell what the story is (i.e. Dornrschen, Aschenputtel)

Vocabulary about settings, events, characters typical of fairy tales

Work with sayings, proverbs, idiomatic expressions Structured conversation, using vocabulary or

grammatical structures

ResourcesSPECIAL RESOURCES FOR 2012-2013

Librivox (audio of first edition 1812)http://archive.org/details/kinder_hausmaerchen_1206_librivox

Text of first editionhttp://www.zeno.org/Literatur/M/Grimm,+Jacob+und+Wilhelm

200 Jahre Kinder- und Hasmrchen der Brder Grimm (42 new books)http://www.ekz.de/uploads/media/18_200_Jahre_Grimm.pdf

ARD Mrchenfilme (all new versions of popuar tales)http://www.rbb-online.de/maerchenfilm/index.html

Special Events in Germany in 2013http://grimm2013.de

Grimm-Orte (Hanau, Steinau, Marburg, Kassel, Gtteingen, Berlin)http://www.grimm2013.nordhessen.de/de/grimm-orte

Conferences 2012, 2013 (Lisbon, Kassel, London)http://surlalunefairytales.blogspot.com/2011/07/grimm-in-lisbon-2012-conference-grimm.html

Mrchenland Deutschland (Variety of resources Goethe Institut)http://www.goethe.de/lrn/prj/mlg/mad/gri/deindex.htm

OTHER RESOURCES

Grimm Brothers' Home Page (D. L. Ashliman - links to Eng & Ger versions)http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm.html

Grimms' Fairy Tales (according to Aarne-Thompson classification)http://www.grimmstories.com/en/grimm_fairy-tales/classification

Household Tales (annotated)http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms.html

Fairy Tales Around the World (lesson ideas from Edsitement)http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/fairy-tales-around-world

Grimm Brothers @ National Geogrpahic (mutlimedia versions)http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/article.html

19th-century German Literature (VCU)http://www.fln.vcu.edu/menu.html

Ausgerechnet Rumpelstitzchen? Grimms Mrchen im DaF-UnterrichtUnterrichtspraxis , Vol. 33, No. 1,(Spring, 2000), pp. 24-35

Teaching the Concept of Childhood and Nineteenth-Century German Children's Books in an Intermediate German CourseUnterrichtspraxis , Vol. 31, No. 2, (Autumn, 1998), pp. 110-115