Julia A Durant
Intro to Folklore
Professor Jill Belli
Final Project Proposal:
For my end of term project I would like to examine closely the roles of women in fairytales as well as their feminist revisions. I would like to focus on the revisions of Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. My research will pay close attention to the changes each stories heroine has undergone according to the background the story is coming from. In my research I wish to learn about the ideas about social class differ. This includes sex roles and expectancies based on women’s social standings. Women in fairytales are often portrayed to extremes, this is especially true in the Disney revisions. I ill focus on the positive and negative results of this as well as ask the following questions
1. Why is it socially acceptable for women to be portrayed like this? I will also poll women and men in my research in order to find out what their ideas of a fairytale heroine was or is.
Secondly there is the issue of sexuality in both revisions and the original tales. My research will examine sexual taboos in fairytales as well as the appropriateness of certain behaviors. Polling will continue. Will also invite a group of people to give their opinions on any sexuality they may see in movies related to fairytales.
Will apply the stories of the heroines to modern situations and examine them. My main ojective is to find out why these women and their stories continue to be so popular when they are in some cases immoral and sexist.
2. Are the revisions that are available today helping to bunk the stereotypes and norms in fairytales? How has the heroine changed?
3. Are fairytales positive ways of explaining social and sexual behaviors? Do they make certain things more acceptable? (Example of some questions being asked to people polled.)
4. How do the roles and ideas of heroines differ based on backgrounds?
Text that I may consider using
The Grimms Brothers Complete Stories.
Her Stories Virginia Hamlilton
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julia, this proposal was due 3/29 (you submitted it on 4/4).
ReplyDeletealso, this is a very broad topic, encompassing huge areas such as gender stereotypes, sexuality, and heroes/heroines (also, as essay #2 is on fairy tales, it might be productive to explore a different area of inquiry).
additionally, it seems like most of the research you plan to do is traditional academic research (text-based) rather than ethnographic fieldwork. is there a way that you can re-shape this project so that the focus is more on an exploration of people's views of fairy tales rather than a study of the fairy tales themselves?
Please see my earlier blogs as mentioned in the blog title.
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