Dr. Laurel Amtower
Office Hours: MW 3:30-5:00
e-mail: lamtower@mail.sdsu.edu

Comp Lit 470: Folk Literature
MW 2-3:15, HH 210

Required Texts:

The Prose Edda (Snorri Sturlusson)
The Mabinogion (anonymous)
King Arthur and His Knights (Sir Thomas Malory)
Classic Fairy Tales (ed. Tatar)
Preludes and Nocturnes (Neil Gaiman)
Coursepack (Cal Copies)

Course Requirements:

Grades:

Midterms (3) 300 points
Paper 100 points
Oral Performance/participation 50 points

Exams:

The exams will include multiple choice items, short answers, and longer essay questions, and will include all the material covered in the reading assignments and class lectures. Questions will range from the historical to the literary; you will be expected to know titles, authors, and (approximate) dates of composition, as well as main characters, themes, major issues and concerns. You may also be asked to identify major passages and to comment upon them. Essay questions will generally require a passage analysis, asking you to not only explain what's going on in the passage, but also to show its relevance to the larger work, its significance to the larger contextual themes and issues at work in the text, etc. Exams may not be made up, unless advance notice and an acceptable, documented excuse are provided.

Paper:

A five-page paper on a text or character from the "Legendary Heroes" section of the syllabus will be due during finals week. Topics will be open, as long as you write on one of the texts specified. Papers must be typed, double-spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides. No sources are necessary, but if you use any outside sources, ideas, or quotes, you must cite them.

Oral Performance and Participation:

This class is a seminar/discussion, which means that you are expected to be in class and to participate every day. Your overall contribution to the class will be assessed and graded at the end of the semester. Basic expectations include the following: that you will have read and prepared in advance all materials to be covered that day in class; that you are ready to discuss core problems or issues; and that you maintain standard rules of politeness: i.e. no eating, sleeping, chatting, reading extraneous material, leaving and re-entering the classroom, etc.

Late policy:

Work turned in 1-2 days after the assigned date and time will be marked down 5%. Papers turned in 3-7 days late will be marked down 10%. No assignments will be accepted after seven days beyond the due date. Exception may be granted only with a valid, documented excuse from a medical authority. No exceptions.

Schedule:

Children's Folk Tales

Week 1:

M: Preliminaries
W: Discussion: Maturation narratives. Reading:"The Struggle for Meaning" (in coursepack); "The Pig King," "The Frog King," "The Frog Princess," "The Swan Maiden" (in Tatar: Classic Fairy Tales)

Week 3:

M: Discussion: Maturation narratives cont. Reading: "Rapunzel" (coursepack); "Beauty and the Beast" (Tatar)
W: Discussion: Maturation narratives. Reading: "Little Red Riding Hood" collection from Classic Fairy Tales, pp. 3-17.

Week 3:

M: Discussion: Folktale morphology. Reading: "Three Sleeping Beauty Tales"( in coursepack); "Types of Folktale," "Folklore and Literature," and "Morphology of the Folk Tale" (in Tatar)
W: Discussion: Morphology cont. Reading: "Snow White" collection from Classic Fairy Tales, pp. 74-95

Week 4:

M: Discussion: Morphology. Reading: "Breaking the Disney Spell" (Tatar)
W: Discussion: Morphology and the reinvigoration of folk motifs. Reading: "Cinderella" collection from Classic Fairy Tales, pp. 109-121.

Week 5:

M: Discussion: Morphology and the reinvigoration of folk motifs. Reading: Cinderella, cont.
W: Midterm

Folklore and Horror

Week 6:

M: Topic for discussion: the nature of fear. Reading: "The Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was"; "Godfather Death"; Boccaccio ghost story (coursepack)
W: Discussion: The origins of evil. Reading: Genesis 4; Prose Edda

Week 7:

M: Discussion: The origins of evil cont. Reading: Prose Edda
W: Discussion: Transgression. Reading: "Bluebeard," "Fitcher's Beard," and "The Robber Bridegroom" (Tatar)

Week 8:

M: Discussion: Family dysfunctions. Reading: "Brother and Sister" (packet); "Hansel and Gretel," "The Juniper Tree" (Tatar)

Week 9:

M: Discussion: Bogeymen. Reading: Preludes and Nocturnes.
W: Bogeymen cont. Reading: Preludes and Nocturnes.

Week 10:

M: Bogeymen cont. Reading: Preludes and Nocturnes cont.
W: Midterm.

Legendary Heroes

Wk 11:

M: "The Four Branches of the Mabinogion," Mabinogion pp. 45-117
W: Mabinogion pp. 119-191

Wk 12:

M: Robin Hood Ballads (in coursepack)
W: Robin Hood cont.

Wk 13:

M: Arthur in the Latin Chronicles, the Historia Brittonum of Nennius, Arthur in the Early Welsh Tradition (coursepack)
W: History of the Kings of Britain, by Geoffrey of Monmouth (coursepack)

Wk 14:

M: Prologue and Lanval (coursepack)
W: King Arthur and His Knights, pp. 1-39; 51-70

Wk 15:

M: King Arthur and His Knights, pp. 113-226.
W: catch-up, etc.