The Lady of Shalott, by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Valerie's presentation reminded me of how much I love this poem! I can picture Anne Shirley drifting down the river in the old fishing boat reciting this poem as clear as day. Everyone should read! Here's part One, if you want the rest go to http://charon.sfsu.edu/TENNYSON/TENNLADY.HTML


PART I

ON either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road runs by
To many-tower'd Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.

Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Thro' the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four gray walls, and four gray towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.

By the margin, willow-veil'd,
Slide the heavy barges trail'd
By slow horses; and unhail'd
The shallop flitteth silken-sail'd
Skimming down to Camelot:
But who hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?
Or is she known in all the land,
The Lady of Shalott?

Only reapers, reaping early
In among the bearded barley,
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly,
Down to tower'd Camelot:
And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers ''Tis the fairy
Lady of Shalott.'

Day Two of Individual Presentations

Bridgett started us off with her paper about the role of the imagination in Haroun, Through the Looking Glass, and Wind in the Willows. She discusses the belief in things unknown, unseen, and forgotten and the power of the imagination to give characters potentials that they would never have known otherwise. Aside from just the characters in the books, the language and imagery have the power to transport the reader or listener into a world "outside" the "real". I'm always suspicious of mirrors now...they're tricky if you get too close.

Lindsay Beck's presentation was about women and the art of weaving and storytelling through history. She discussed Penelope's tricky weaving as an example of a way that women were given a voice in societies where they were usually silenced because of their gender. I thought that her reference to the Fates was perfect for her topic. These women had the ultimate say in the events and lives in the world. Important ladies!

I loved Cindy's topic! She discussed the connections between fairy tale and myth using "Rapunzel" as the reference point to Persephone and Demeter story, the Tripartite Goddess (maiden, mother, crone), Thompson's cosmological interpretation, and the motif of male as intruder. She should post her paper because I'd love to read it.

Allison rocks! I love this! She discussed the Pied Piper of Hamlin and how that figure, a guy who leads children away with his music, is like Jim Morrison (Mr Mojo Risin') from The Doors. They play hypnotic music that frees youngsters from the confines of adult rules. I think that a lot of pop culture people could be viewed in this light. How many millions of people are obsessed with bands/singers. Their fans would follow them anywhere. It's crazy.

Drew focused on the role of the elderly in fairy tales (and maybe just stories in general...I can't remember). His categories of the elderly were the hermit, the healer, the shaman, the sage, and the witch. He argues that these characters are pretty central to most of the fairy tales that we read. I agree. There is almost always a wise older person to lead the younger, innocent and inexperienced generation through their life journey.

Sarah Peila refutes Alex Robbins' assertion that fairy tales adversely affect young children. She thinks that kids know what's a story and what's not and that they can distinguish between the parts that are applicable to life and the parts that are not. I agree that kids are smarter than we tend to give them credit for but I do understand that fairy tales, movies, stories can be scary. My sister used to be terrified of the witch in Disney's "Snow White". She would cry and scream when she cam on the screen. For that kind of fear to come out of a kid there must be some part of them that believe that the figure they are scared of is REAL and a real threat.

Fallon's paper has a similar focus as Kristen's in that they both look at gender roles. Fallon's paper argues that feminist signatures, like "Paperbag Princess" are nice but that the signature shouldn't demolish the archetype. She cites "Ever After" as a good example of a signature on "Cinderella" that both sticks to the story while making it more feminist in the process.

Michelle Humber's paper is kinda like Lindsey's in its focus on women and weaving and their role as the primary storytellers, but Michelle put much of her emphasis on refuting Zipes essay and supporting Rowe and Warner. She disagrees with Zipes' claim that there is no proof that women were the primary storytellers citing their weaving and role as home makers(and therefore childcare givers, children's encyclopedias, and entertainment) along with Rowe and Warner as her main support for that claim.

Megan's central topic is that of the Hero, how his quest is the same or different in the children's lit we've read than the traditional/classic hero quests. Alice, Haroun, and Catcher in the Rye are the texts she uses. She claims that these archetypes are different in that they do not need prodding to begin their quest following the call to adventure. They follow almost without thinking.

Jason uses the crtic/philosopher/thinker (?)Mircea Eliade to examine "Little Red Riding Hood" and its connections to sacredness and religion. I can't really remember where darkness came into the equation, but it was something about mysticism and symbolism.

Serena compares and contrasts Perrault and Grimm versions of "Little Red Riding Hood" to see what's different and what the difference might say about the tales' meanings. Grimm sugar-coats the ending and places an emphasis on the child and family, whereas Perrault's version does none of these things. I wonder if the Grimm Bros were more in tune to the existance of the story for children and maybe Perrault wasn't. Otherwise, why wouldn't the child be the focus of a children's story? That doesn't make sense.

Kelby's paper looks at what he feels is the central theme of children's lit: self-examination ritual. He argues that fairy tales do not offer an accurate representation of this ritual and that Catcher is much more realistic.

Wes talked about the book The Horse and His Boy from the Narnia series and focused not so much on the Christian influences, since evrybody talks about those, but more about the connections with the tales we've read in this class and other children's stories. There are parallels with the Arabian Nights in the character Aribus (he's a storyteller like Schehrezade), references to Norse mythology, and the motif of the bildungsroman in Shasta and Aribus' journey.

Brian's paper is about The Catcher in the Rye and Holden as the anti-hero. He is critical of others just like him (hypocrit), immature, and has an obsessive fixation with the phoniness in others. But, he is interesting because he's so young and he's trying to find a meaning in his life. Brian argues that Hodlen is the best example we've read of a character in the process of the transition from childhood to adulthood. Sexson asks us in respone...what is the value of a negative role model??

Emily's rather depressing but interesting topic is the real-life illustrations of the fairy tales "Bluebeard" and "The Little Mtch Girl". Bluebeard's legacy lived on in Ed Geene the serial killer who is actually reminiscent of Buffalo Bill in "Silence of the Lambs" and, apparently, the deranged killer in the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre". Nice, huh? "The Little Match" girl highlights the number of homeless people who freeze to death. This is sad and scary. I think that making the connections back to ral life makes everything seems worse. I wasn't freaked out by the "Bluebeard" story because I thought of it as just a story. Now, I'll never look at it the same.

Liz's paper discusses women and their passivity within the story, but Liz put a little twist on it all saying that although she may seem passive and dim-witted, it's all an act. Passivity is her strength because it is unexpected that she'll do anything else. The women are also often treated badly but they perserver through it all until the right time to go.

Jeremy talked about the Bildungsroman motif specifically thinking about the effects of industrialization and urbanization of the 18th century on Wordsworth and Blake (those crazy Romantics). HE talked about the rather grim outlook on life and Blake's "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience". Jeremy also mentioned a need to revert back to childhood and escape, but I wasn't sure exactly what that would mean. Isn't reverting back to childhood reverting back to the ignorance that comes from lack of experience? Any way there are four realizations to get through in order to be experienced, 1. Evil of the world 2.Time 3. Sex 4. Death.

Valerie's topic is really interesting and I've been thinking about it everytime I'm in front of a mirror. She argues that the mirror functions as a window for women who are confined, using "The Lady of Shallot" "Beauty" "Alice in Wonderland" and "Snow White" queen as her examples. The mirrors hold the key to magic worlds and real worlds that the women can experience through the mirror. Valerie's epiphany was that looking into the mirror is looking into one's self which, in the end, proves fatal for the Queen and the Lady of Shalott.

Wisdom

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
---Eleanor Roosevelt


"It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end."
---Ursula LeGuin


"Our children's children will hear a good story. "
--- Richard Adams, Watership Down
(I think that we have an obligation to make
our lives good stories...and, after all, we are
in charge of our own fairy tales. )

"This world is but a canvas to our imagination."
--- Henry David Thoreau

The Last Day

I have to say that I, like many others I'm sure, am sad to say so long to this class. I will miss the subject matter of course. How often are we allowed to read books that don't seem like a chore and give us such imaginative people and places? I will also miss my classmates! Everyone in Children's Lit was brilliant, carefree, fun, and, of course, entertaining. To those of you graduating or moving away to begin new chapters in your lives, good luck! Especially to Michelle and Libby (and any others that I don't know about) who are going on to teach young minds the importance of literature. Remember these words of wisdom future teachers...

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." --Henry Brooks Adams

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn." --John Cotton Dana

Our last little lecture at the end of class today was a great wrap-up of the semester. I hope that you've all had as much fun as I did and I hope to see you in other classes while we're still at MSU. Have a wonderful holiday break!

Day One of Individual Presentations

Wonderful job to all who presented today. There were some really interesting papers and I think that we should post them on our sites. I'll do it if other people do. :O) I've decided that although I want to finish this tonight, my exam tomorrow is more pressing. However, I will do my best to continue updating it until all the information and my responses are up.

I think that Lindsey's presentation intrigued me the most because there was math involved and math is always mystifying. It reminded me of when I used to read those TeenBop magazines or whatever they were. In the back near the Horoscopes was always a "Numerology" page where you'd figure out using your birthday numbers what number you are. I was always a 9 I think. I've always wondered though, what about nicknames. I feel much more comfortable being called "Jennie", in fact, "Jennifer" is something I rarely even think to respond to. So does it make sense to factor my name using "Jennifer" when I feel like "Jennie" is more my self? "How am I not myself?" (Anyone seen I (Heart) Huckabees???? Great show....Existentialism rocks and so do Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman) I will NEVER finish this at this rate....

Tristan was the first to present to us and his paper explores the differences between two versions of "Iron Hans", one by the Grimm Bros and the other by a guy named Friedmund von Arnim. He concluded that the Brothers added the sex, contrary to their normal action of deleting sex. They also added the key, the golden hair and the ownership of the golden ball to the effect really changing the story entirely.

Sam made an interesting comparison between our good friends Hamlet and Holden. Sam thought that these characters understood that there was something wrong in human nature and each had to confront that. I think that if any of us truly thought about what evil goes on in the world, we might end up in a mental institution, too. It was bad enough to hear about Emily's serial killer example, there are hundreds of others.

Jamie's paper sounds really interesting. She examined the role of the imagination in "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Little Mermaid" (I think she used the books and movies of each) I hadn't thought of the fact that, at least in the movies, the girls end up wanting to be out of the imaginative world and back to "reality". And why does Ariel desire the human world? After all, "It's a mess...life under the sea is better than anything they got up there..." :O) I would never leave a world of talking fish and colorful coral, but, I suppose, it's all relative. If that was my reality, I might want to see something else.

Jillian decided to critique the feminist alterations of fairy tales. I agree with her that changing the stories often ends up "oppressing" or devaluing the male gender and that's not fair. Or is it? Should men get their turn to be silenced and written out of history? :O) Probably not. Just putting it out there.

Charlie: He wrote that the Bible is similar to the evolution of oral stories. I really would like to read this paper. I just wrote a paper in me Ancient Greek History class refuting the commonly held notion that Herodotus was the first historian in the Greek world. I said that it was actually the bards and Homer (and/or his transcribers) who were the first historians because oral stories are history. My professor liked it and I found it to be a really interesting topic overall. I'd like to do more with it, but yeah, this paper was interesting.

Heather talked about the violence in "Snow White: A Tale of Terror" actually being closer to the Grimm brothers version of the story. I thought that that was interesting because it seems like when Heather was describing some of the scenes that we were all pretty grossed out. However, in reading the story I wasn't grossed out at all. I think that there is something very powerful about the visual images of events described in stories. If I were to read about Cinderella's stepsisters and their decision to hack toes off or whatever, I wouldn't really cringe, but to see that on film...I doubt I could look at it. It kind of ties into something that Northrop Frye talks about in his "Educated Imagination". He says that being exposed to a human truth like evil through a story is easier on a child than actually witnessing evil in people first hand. I think that this applies to the differences between film and stories, too.

Tyler's paper was a great topic! Sibling roles in fairy tales. Interesting...I kept thinking of my self and my sisters as he described the characteristics associated with youngest, middle, and eldest children. I think that Tyler's overall conclusion was that the youngest is always superior in some way than the older siblings. Often more beautiful or handsome, more kind, more intelligent, more hard working. I think though, that it would be interesting to expand this topic and look at sibling studies. I think that the results might be quite different. Often, the oldest are the most dedicated and responsible, where as the younger are more carefree. I did a project on it a year ago. I'll see if I can find it....probably won't but I'll look.

Libby took an approach similar to Jillian's in refuting the feminist rewrites of classic fairy tales. She argues that Cinderella is a more realistic female role model than the Paper Bag Princess because women will never simply reject men...if they do, they might end up lonely and that's no good. Cinderella show girls that if you want a Prince, don't give in too easily but show him that you're good enough for him.

Kristen's paper is about gender roles in fairy tales. One of the things she talked about that I thought was really interesting was the Beautiful=good and Evil=ugly rule and the huge focus that fairy tales put on apperance in general. She said that in one Grimm story physical apperance was mentioned over a hundred times! That's incredible. I wonder if women back in the Grimm Bros days were self-concious about things like hair and body image. Probably not, but then, why the preoccupation with it?

Kelly had to preface her talk today with a little speech about her "devil's advocate" position. I think she was nervous about the wrath of a class full of people that have really embraced fairy tales. She argues that the violence in fairy tales is gratuitous and that it makes the fairy tales have very little value for kids. Now, on the surface I think most of us disagree because of all the wonderful things about fairy tales, but, in thinking more deeply, what is the point of all that violence? Does it add anything to the story besides a descriptive sentence? Is the point that the physical wound is a punishment and kids will abstaine from the negative behavior if they're afraid of having thier eyes pecked out? and if that's the case, is it ethical to make kids afraid?

Michelle O's presentation was really great. I love it when people combine disciplines to make a full argument. I, too, had to read The Moral Animal for BIOL104 and I think that Michelle's application of it to marriage anf amily in literature, especially, fairy tales is well done.

Hali's presentation was about "Calvin and Hobbes" being the modern signature on "Puss in Boots". She argues that both the comic strip and the cartoon have similarities in the characters' witty rearks and their shrewdness in helping themselves and their partners in crime.

Rebecca did a really great job breaking "Cinderella" down into the crucial and complex part that are in every version. The three major components she found were the presence of union and fraction, the faith of a character in a material object, and the transformation. I really thought that her discussion of union and fraction was interesting. She argues that Fraction in the story is the death of the mother. The new mother is an attempt at re-union but because she treats Cinderella horribly, it really desn't work. So, then, is Cinderella's quest for a husband (and the family that will come with it) a search for her own union of family? Also, as far as tranformation, Cinderella goes through a lot in the story. I think she goes from innocence to experience in what seems to be a four day period. Talk about a tumultous adolescence!

And finally for Day One's presentations, Clint discussed Horatio Alger's book "Ragged Dick" which contains the archtypal "good" boy. He argues that Ragged Dick is a forgettable character compared to Holden even though they are both considered literary icons. I've never read Ragged Dick so I'm not really sure where to go with this, but, I can definitely see how Ragged Dick would be a character you'd forget because there's so little chance that you will ever be like him. Holden has faults and questions like we all do so we remember and embrace him. Good argument. I concur.

So that's it for the first day. I think that most of these people have posted their papers on their sites..Check 'em out.

It's almost over!!!!

I can't believe that the semester is almost over! I've had so much fun! I am going to try to get these term paper ponderings finished before Thursday evening, but, if I don't, I'll at least put the theses up with my entry of websites a little farther down the page.

I've decided that I think I'll continue doing this blog thing even when I'm not taking a class from Shaman Sexson. I've really enjoyed it an it's nice to be able to look back at your thoughts in such a nice, clutter free way. :O) However, next semester I will be taking Oral Traditions. For those of you not taking that class, keep checking my journal out if you'd like to live out the experience vicariously through me. :O)

Term Paper Progress

I'm hard at work on the paper. It's coming along quite well but I keep getting off track and leave the thesis that I am working on. I think that Children's Literature has become another of myfavorite areas of study. If I decide to go to Grad school right away, I might think about diving in more deeply to the issues that we have discussed in this course.

Anyway, I'm excited to be enlightened by my classmates tomorrow. It should be fun. :O)

Reading List According to Sexson

I was looking through my class notes, and I thiught that it'd be cool to have a list of all the books/essays/articles/stories that Dr. Sexson has given us over the semester. So, I have compiled them here for their potential use in term papers and future scholarship. They all sound really interesting...maybe they'd be good Christmas presents. :O) Sorry for any mistakes in spelling of names or titles...I've done my best.

Don't Tell The Grown-Ups: The Subversive Power of Children's Literature Alison Lurie
Pipers at the Gates of Dawn: The Wisdon of Children's Literature Jonathan Cott
The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales Maria Tartar
Imaginary Landscapes: Making Worlds of Myths and Science William Irwin Thompson
The Madwoman in the Attic Sandra Gilbert
Transformations Anne Sexton
The Hero with a Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell
"Petrified Man" Eudora Welty
The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light William Irwin Thompson
Folk and Fairy Tales Ed. Martin Hallett and Barbara Karasek
Iron John Robert Bly
"Night Sea Journey" from Lost in the Funhouse John Barth
Text Book: An Introduction to Literary Language Robert Scholes, et al
The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth Robert Graves
Fairy Tale in the Ancient World Graham Anderson
Orality and Literacy Walter Ong
At Play in the Fields of the Lord Peter Matthiessen
Fairy Tales and After: From Snow White to E.B. White Roger Sale
"Little Gidding" T.S. Eliot poem
The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales Bruno Bettelheim
Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature Eric Auerbach
"An Event in 1946" Ted Flicker
Only Connect: Readings on Children's Literature Sheila A. Egoff et al
The Sorrows of Young Werther Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Stories and books by GioiaTimpanelli
Stories and Poems for Exteremely Intellegent Children of All Ages Harold Bloom (That's quite the title...)
Bluebeard's Egg: Stories Margaret Atwood


Suggestions of classmates...
Jabberwocky Graeme Base
Bridge to Terabithia Katherine Paterson
Wise Child Monica Furlong
Anne of Green Gables L.M. Montgomery
Jacob Have I Loved ALSO by Katherine Paterson....interesting, I never put those two together!
The Giver Lois Lowry
Number the Stars Lois Lowry
Are you There God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume
Where the Red Fern Grows Wilson Rawls

This one isn't from class, but I thought that it sounded interesting...
Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears Ed. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Day Two of Group Presentations

Once again...an excellent set of presentations for the "Bluebeard", "Hansel and Gretel", and Hans Christian Andersen groups. I enjoyed them all just as much as the ones we saw on Tuesday.

The "Bluebeard" group has permanantly changed my thoughts on Dr. Phil and Oprah. Bridgett and Drew were superb in their portrayls of these televeision icons (do you think they're icons? Oprah is, what about Phil???) Michelle's character was a little bit harder to love because she was a misogynist, but Michelle's performnce was brilliant despite the words that were coming out of her mouth. Lindsey, Brian, and Hali were wonderful as their characters. It was interesting that they tied Adam and Eve into their presentation...thinking about it now, the curiosity motif is obvious, but in my reading of it at the beginning of the semester, it didn't occur to me. The group also taught me the word "sparagmos" through its discussion of lost body parts, etc.

"Hansel and Gretel" had some Oscar worthy performances! Cindy ROCKS as the crazy, child-eating old lady. I loved the little touches of the shoe in the pot of water. I again really enjoyed the displacement of the tale and how they made it into a parody of the "Unsolved Mysteries" series. Brilliant! The little breaks from interviews by the dinner and a fairy tale sections were nice too because they tied in the motifs (Lucky Bumpkins & Neglected Daughters) and how the group saw them influenceing the "Hansel and Gretel" story. The gingerbread houses were a cute was to tie the two parts together. Liz and Valerie are awesome as the rebellious teens who escaped from evil Cindy. Excellent job.

The Hans Christian Anderson group had the most difficult topic, I think. They had to focus not only on 6 motifs but also one multiple stories. Finding a way to tie all those things together would have been difficult but I think that the way they did was really cool and it made sense. I loved the little mentions of "Finnegan's Wake" and John Kerry that snuck in there, nice touch Jeremy. I could definitely see parallels between the stories that this group did with the other groups we've seen and the other stories we've read in the class.

Awesome job everybody! This has been a really fun week and I can't wait to hear what people do individually as well. :O)

By the Way...

Just in case anyone was interested at all...at the beginning of the semester I couldn't remember the name of one of my favorite childhood books and because it was loved to death, we no longer own it. Well, with the help of www.abebooks.com and their "book sleuth" I found it! It is written by Stephen Cosgrove and it's called "Cranky". Its main character is a creature named Moonbeam and when he wants to stay up all night like the grown-ups, the Switch Witch gives him a magic light so he can stay awake. This, of course, makes him dreadfully cranky. To hear the end, you'll have to read it. (Doesn't this remind you of a "Reading Rainbow" segment. :O) ) Anyhow, I was excited.

Day One of Group Presentations

Awesome job groups 1, 2, and 3! I had a ball watching and listening to everyone! We have so many clever and talented people in our class. We're going places.

"Red Riding Hood"...definitely the most subversive of the groups. What exactly was going on with Mr. Fox and Grandma anyway? Allison should think about changing her major. Dr. Frang-Freud (did I spell that right) was a great character for her. It's obviously a sign that after literature she needs to go on to conquer the mysteries of the human mind. I loved the musical accompaniment :O) so fun, and all of you acted very well! Grandma and Little Red were unafraid to really embrace their roles and Jason, well, the wolf nose was genius. :O) Bridgett (the hairy man in the disco) also gave an inspired performance to be proud of. Overall, I think that I most informative part was the explanation of the map that was drawn on the board, but, Allison's discussion of signature and archetype in deciphering Jamie's dream was great, too. GREAT WORK!

"Snow White" was kick ass...Somebody put a lot of time into that editing process. Brilliant who ever you are! Lindsey as the young Snow White was excellent. Great costume! I loved that you made it like an E! True Hollywood Story of "Snow White". The documentary style rally added to the humor, especially because no one shared the same story. The Mirror Monologue was well done and a nice touch to include the mirror. After all, it was around most of the time, and it's all-seeing. The addition of Prince was excellent! In the right light, he actually looks like Prince Charming. :O) You guys were great and I can't wait to see the director's Cut, complete with bloopers. :O)

"Cinderella" was the group I was in so I don't feel that I can offer an unbiased critique. After all, usually we are our worst critics, right? I will say though, that this is the most elaborate presentation I've ever done for a class but also, the most fun and the only one that I've ever done that I was not at all nervous for beforehand. I loved the assignment and I'm psyched to see what the other groups do tomorrow!

Also...I'm working on my thesis. It's coming...

Class Journal sites

I'm reposting these in case people still need them. :O)
I've also added each person's term paper thesis or topic.

Abbie http://www.abbiej.blogspot.com/
Allison http://thegoldenkey.blogspot.com Thesis: Didactic fairy tales have typically been seen as the exclusive provenance of children, but these displaced myths have an equally important message for parents: protect your children from hedonism or lose them. This is evidenced particularly in the classic tale "The Pied Piper of Hamlin" and the real life example provided by The Beatles.
Brian Davis http://goumtcats.blogspot.com
Bridgett http://www.geocities.com/bmpaddock82/childlit.html Thesis: Haroun, Alice and The Wind in the Willows all deal with the art of forgetting. By moving into the state of a dream, these texts are capable of showing us the immense power of the imagination to teach about life.
Cindy http://Cinbad.blogspot.com
Clinton http://shearouse.diaryland.com
Drew http://www.livejournal.com/users/drewpogge Thesis: Despite numerous stories regaling the wisdom of elderly characters, fairy and folk tales overwhelmingly display a distrust of the old, infirmed, or deserted.
Dustin http://dythonchildrensliterature.blogspot.com
Emily http://eaknodle.blogspot.com
Fallon http://fallonross.blogspot.com Thesis: There are many major differences between the Grimms version of the Cinderella story and that portrayed in the movie "Ever After." A lot of this can be attributed to the chaning ideals of our society, and because of such we re-tell the story in a way that more fits the current time.
Ginnell http://www.livejournal.com/users/ghalstad/
Hali http://www.livejournal.com/users/halijc_kids/
Heather http://barkerhl.blogspot.com
Jamie http://thefirebird2004.blogspot.com
Jason "Red Riding Hood" http://english304jaw.blogspot.com/
Jeremy http://www.adamlamb.com/jamesjoyce/Child%20lit Thesis: The bildungsroman theme in children's literature is a story that builds the bridge from innocence to experience.
Jillian http://www.geocities.com/jilliebaby04 Thesis: Due to societal demands for women's rights, many authors have decided to revise classic fairy tales with a smart, powerful heroine and non-traditional family situations. I do not, however, agree with the revision of classic fairy tales to suit our ever-changing and often misinformed society.
Jody http://www.2punk.com/~mecca Thesis: Modern romance novels function as a fairy tale by, introducing women to sexuality and marriage, as well as reinforcing traditional gender roles.
Kelby http://kfischer.blogspot.com
Kelly http://www.galacticgerbil.blogspot.com
Kristen Paterson http://tailsandfairies.blogspot.com/ Thesis: Fairy tales contain within themselves messages on how each gender is supposed to behave. Women are to be beautiful (not so easy), meek, charming, modest and humble. Men are portrayed as strong, bold and willing to inflict themselves on women in order to marry.
Kristen Smith http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=klsmith
Libby http://libbyhellekson.blogspot.com/ Thesis: The feminist revisions of fairy tales, such as The Paper Bag Princess and others, do not represent reality and the actual sturggles and curcumstances that women and girls will face.
Lindsay Beck http://www.livejournal.com/users/lbeck/ Thesis: While both sexes undoubtedly have contributed a geat deal, the art of story-telling is intimately linked to a matrilineal history through the association of females with weaving.
Lindsey Moos http://www.livejournal.com/users/lindseymoos/ Thesis: In Grimm's fairy tales, the common recurances of certain numbers, particularly of the number three, can be contributed to and interpreted through the principles of gematria.
Liz http://lizkendallonlinejournal.blogspot.com Thesis: The fairy tale tradition places strong emphasis on the female character and her voice, and quite often the power of the female is hidden within a weak, unintelligent "girl" figure; however, may she be outwardly strong or not, the female character is inevitably placed in the tale for a vital cause.
Megan http://www.student.montana.edu/~mhelgeson Is going to focus on the archetype of the hero in "Harry Potter", "Where the Wild Things Are", and "Alice in Wonderland". (This is subject to change)
Michelle http://www.student.montana.edu/~mhumber Will discuss the role of woman as the primary "original" storyteller. (There's more to it, but it's too long to post here) :O)
Michelle Osman http://www.livejournal.com/users/mosman
Patty http://www.cs.montana.edu/~nolop/304journal.html
Rachel http://trex2.oscs.montana.edu/~rds/eng304.html
Rebecca http://rebeccaruthlee.blogspot.com
Sarah Peila http://sarahpchildlit.blogspot.com Thesis:The fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" is at the basis of several common romance novels today; these novels, including Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, have been based on B&B but stand as a model for the era in which they were written.
Sam Taylor http://sbtchildlit.blogspot.com
Serena http://renasay.diaryland.com
Tristan http://theblackforeststudios.blogspot.com
Tyler http://tysthoughts.blogspot.com
Valerie http://firebird2004.blogspot.com Thesis/Topic: My paper will discuss the roles mirrors play in fairy tales and children’s literature, mainly Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, and Alice in Wonderland, as windows and catalysts; first showing the characters an entrancing world and then compelling them to leave their own secure life for a world that is dangerous, confusing and sometimes ultimately fatal to the characters themselves.
Wesley http://www.livejournal.com/users/wesleyfriske/