Twice a week, a small classroom of 16 students escapes from the rigors of their other language classes to explore the world of fairy tales.
The setting for this exploration of childhood favorites is “The Culture of Fairy Tales,” a course taught by French professor Christine Jones, who received the University Distinguished Teaching Award earlier this year.
The class has a prerequisite of Intermediate French II, which may partly explain why only a limited number of students are enrolled in the course. However, the size doesn’t diminish from the valuable principles and perspectives that those students take from the class.
For French students searching for a class to add to their schedules, a French course on fairy tales may be a surprise, but many of today’s popular fairy tales, such as “Sleeping Beauty,” “Cinderella” and “Little Red Riding Hood” emerged as a new literary genre in 17th century France. Jones warned, however, that the original fairy tales didn’t always have the storybook endings that many people know and cherish today.
“Spoiler alert: the prince does not kiss the princess in the 17th century ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ ” she said.
As students in the “The Culture of Fairy Tales” quickly realize, there is a lot to learn about fairy tales beyond what most people are already familiar with.
“[Fairy tales] need to be interpreted. Disney has done that for us with a lot of stories, but that’s just one way to look at them. I like students to see their ambiguity, be surprised, question what they know and go digging around for what other ideas they might come away with that Disney never told them,” she said.
Jones said our understanding of fairy tales has an effect on how people perceive and interpret the world around them.
“Fairy tales are important to study, from my perspective, because they are taken for granted as cultural lore. When we ingest them without thinking about them, they can play a role in perpetuating stereotypes and appearing to dictate moral behaviors,” Jones said.
The students spend the first half of the semester studying different works of literature and then finish the semester by acting out the fairy tales. Wendy Katter, who graduated from the U with a degree in International Studies and a minor in French, enjoyed the different approach Jones took while teaching the class.
“It actually was a really good experience for me as a student because I’m very hands-on. Sitting in hour-long classes taking notes and trying to pay attention to a lecture has always been a struggle for me,” she said.
She added that Jones was very engaging and animated.
“She was always enthusiastic about our classroom discussions and very encouraging about our thoughts and ideas,” Katter said.
In addition to her academic involvement with fairy tales, Jones has researched and published articles on other topics in French culture, including the development of porcelain and the medicinal qualities of hot beverages such as coffee, tea and chocolate.
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