ADDITIONAL ASSIGNMENTS FOR SNOW WHITE

Sanjay Sircar

The following assignments are suggested by Dr. Sanjay Sircar from Australia.

ASSIGNMENTS

Compare and contrast Snow White with Sleeping Beauty and any one other insensate/sleeping princess or princes in IndoEuropean folktales. How far does it seem to you that the tales depict a cultural image of passive femininity?

Or, an alternative assignment:

What are the differences among the ways in which a folklorist, a literary critic, a teacher, and a librarian would approach Snow White? Can these be brought together? If so, why and how? If not, why not?

Or, an alternative assignment:

What are the arguments for and against Disneyfication of folktales for children? Define the words "kitsch" and "camp" as used in literary criticism and argue whether these can be applied to the film and picture books of Snow White.

Or, an alternative assignment:

Compare and contrast the image of the Mother in Snow White with that of mothers in two other IndoEuropean folktales (either retold for children, or from folklore sources). What are the arguments for and against Bettelheim's psychological interpretation of such folktales for children?

To send mail to Kay E. Vandergrift

Created January 25, 1997 and is continously revised