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Housekeeping:

• I've commented on your final paper material! The material that was posted looked remarkably good! 

Agenda:

Princess Trials 

Disney has made the French and German princess tales into staples of the American narrative-diet. We grow up with Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White. 

This SNL skit is borrowed from another student in this class! 

Real Housewives of Disney Discussion Questions:

• How does this SNL skit apply fairytale expectations to our culture today? 
• Where do we see these expectations?
• How do we support (literally "buy into") these expectations?
• How does this SNL skit invert these expectations?
• Where do these expectations end?
• What commentary does this make on the cultural impact of Disney Princess Stories?
• How does this commentary depend upon the prevalence of these narratives in our lives?

"Griselda" 

• Who wrote this tale?
• Where was it published?

Discussion Questions:

• How does "Griselda" set the pattern for the princess trials with which we are already familiar?
• How does "Griselda" differ from our expectations for princess trial tales?
• How is the explicit abuse in "Patient Griselda" sublimated (and resurrected) in the princess trial tales?  

Taking It Further:

Compare Boccaccio's "Griselda" with Perrault's later version "Griselda." 

"Sleeping Beauty"

• Who wrote this version of "Sleeping Beauty"?
• Where was it published?

While Arthur Rackham brings us to the moment when Sleeping Beauty awakens, most images emphasize her death-like sleep. Why is this the moment that captures the visual imagination?

How do these pictures of the sleeping Sleeping Beauty compare with the glorified "dead woman" of the nineteenth-century?

John Millais' famous "Ophilia"

This is Cabanel's "Ophelia" (a little more active that Millais'). 

This is Waterhouse's "The Lady of Shalott" (another doomed woman celebrated by the Pre-Raphelites).

"The Lady of Shalott" (1873) Notice the connection between the dead woman and the swan - beautiful, white, not-human! 

Discussion Questions:

• How does "Sleeping Beauty" shape gender expectations?

• Can we related this to what we know about Germany in the early-mid 1800s (see Bottigheimer)? 

• How does Letitia Elizabeth Landon respond to this narrative?

• How does this commentary critique fairy tale expectations for women?

• How is sexuality figured in "Sleeping Beauty"? 

• Female sexuality? 

• Briar Rose's sexuality?

• The queen's sexuality?

• Male sexuality? 

• The princes who cannot get past the briars? 

• What does the spinning wheel symbolize (if anything)? 

• How is power constructed in this narrative?

• Who is allowed to have power?  

• What kind of power is acceptable?