Ritualcravt Class: Witches and Wise Women in Fairy Tales
Register for Zoom Class Here!
Class is 8-10:30pm EST; For those in MST (where Ritualcravt is located) class is 6-8:30pm.
Those familiar with classic fairy tales are well aware of the kinds of roles witches have played. In fact, fairy tale critic Maria Tatar in The Hard Facts of the Grimms Fairy Tales explains that the Grimms’ tales feature 3 distinct types of ogres: “beasts and monsters”, “social deviants”, and “women”, with women (perhaps unsurprisingly) making up the largest category. In this group are witches and wise women, mothers’-in-law, and stepmothers, all of whom walk a villainous path and are cast as “evil” characters. However, contemporary fairy tale writers have deconstructed this pattern. This class will offer a sampling of modern-day witches and wise women in fairy tales by introducing participants to stories that feature witches in more complex, nuanced roles. The class will cover a brief history of the classic fairy tale witch and then move to a discussion of the changing contemporary views, with time available for discussion of the works provided.
TO THE REGISTERED STUDENTS (OR PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS): The following are the links of the pieces I’d like you to read over before class if you are able to familiarize yourself with tales you’ve probably not read before!
"The Witch's Life" by Anne Sexton
"The Tale of the Shoe" by Emma Donoghue (Please note with this one, you need to click the center option of the 3 tabs that come up with Google docs. I HIGHLY recommend purchasing this book if you like the story, not necessarily for this class but just to have as a book of fairy-tale retellings)
"Prince Amilec" by Tanith Lee (Please note with this one, you need to scroll it back a few pages to get to the beginning of the story. This is also a very good book of fairy-tale retellings but it also contains non-fiction criticism, so it is not the same type of book as the prior text, and might be what you’re interested in or it might not depending on whether you like reading literary criticism)
WHY ATTEND THIS CLASS??
Well, I have nearly 30 years of experience as a former college professor, and one of my specialties is fairy tale studies! I’m a published fairy tale scholar with a published book of literary criticism (it’s over on my Favorite Books page as well as some articles and reviews of fairy-tale scholars’ works out, plus I’ve worked as an editor and peer reviewer with fairy-tale scholars. I can tell you from experience that there are very few colleges and universities that offer classes in fairy-tale studies and even if they do, they fill up quickly and often require a bunch of prerequisites. So one of my goals as a small business owner is to offer ways for people to engage with this material easily, without gate-keeping, without grades, at a fraction of the cost! This class is a great introduction to fairy-tale studies (which you can undertake on your own with some guidance from me!) and it’s on witches and wise women, so what’s not to love!!
READY TO JOIN ME? Buy Now!