A Review of the Semester

I absolutely loved this. It was one of my favorites this semester. Unfortunately this semester was a pretty difficult one so I wasn't able to focus on the class like I would have hoped. But I still had a lot of fun. Having walked into the class not really knowing anything about fairytales I'm very glad that I had the opportunity to learn so much. I was even able to bring my knowledge into my other classes. For instance, in my Cinema class, I wrote a paper using a lot of what I learned throughout the year. (As you can see, I tend to mention Cinema a lot in this blog too.) And I'm even in ASL, so it was interesting to have the ASL department come into class and do a bit of storytime. I really enjoyed that.

I think I had to most difficulty with Aanre and Thompson Classifications, just because they seemed so weird for me and I'm not great with memorization. But I loved listening to how the different cultures around the world use fairytales and folktales. I also liked to analyze the tales. That was amazing. It's strange to think about how there is so much more that you can take out of the stories. I really liked this class and would definitely recommend it to any literature or arts major.

Rama's Influence on the World

When we started with this particular section, I was absolutely floored by the fact that there have been full trials that last for decades on what is commonly accepted as a fictional tale. I am still trying to decide how the story of Rama is considered a fairytale. It may contain elements that are found in fairytales, but seems to me to be much more of a cultural epic, like that of Homer and the Iliad or the Odyssey. The actual events of the stories do not seem to indicate a fairytale either. While the main characters are fighting their way through a series of troubles, most of their problems come from very outside influences, and not people that are much closer to them. (In the majority of fairytales, the antagonist is a family member or someone of personal acquaintance to the protagonist.) But here it seems that most of the troubles arise from fairy creatures.

It is after hearing some of the stories of Rama and his bride Sita that I realize in one of my favorite movies, they tell the stories of Rama. (I had originally thought these to be the 1001 Nights...) One of the most beautiful renditions of the tales of Rama (looking at them as a Cinema major), though sadly brief, is when they were depicted in Alfonso Cuarón's A Little Princess. Here they illustrated some of the tales (though they were mostly of the Indian influence, they still contained many of the Arabic elements.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11mPJP89zFo

I hope that one day I will be able to go through and actually read these stories. Having been so influential on the Indian community is amazing. Even in the US, those of Hindu faith still hold tight to these stories as cultural gems.