FRS 002 — Sec. 008 — (2 unit) — CRN 26015 — T 8:00-9:50am — 144 Olson
Beyond Perrault: French Folk Tales and Fairy Tales

Instructor: Simone Clay, Department of French & Italian, College of Letter and Science

Description: During the 10 two-hour meetings of this course, several French folk tales and fairy tales would be discussed. We would read several tales and discuss their multi-cultural interpretations (differences of interpretations by various authors) as well as their cultural value. Also, we would discuss the adaptation to film of several fairy tales.

The study of fairy tales has a great pedagogical value. Tales offer the opportunity to introduce students to a familiar literary form that is multidimensional. Through comparisons and contrasts and, in some cases, the understanding of character transformation, the course would allow students to reach beyond the surface of tales that may be familiar to them.

Format: The assignments would be as follow: Selected readings would be based on the book Folk and Fairy Tales by Martin Hallett and Barbara Karasek (a selection of classic-fairy tales) as well as a reader combining various folk tales of Brittany.

The selected texts would lead to a new perspective in the reading of tales as well as an introduction to French culture: Each tale would be placed in context and we would discuss some of the issues that have inspired their creation, their various interpretations and their adaptation to film. Grading: Students would be responsible for: Class Participation (40%); Two written assignments, approx. 500 words each (40%) and One report / oral presentation (20%).

About the Instructor: Simone Monnier Clay has been a Lecturer at UC Davis for over fifteen years in the Department of French and Italian, where she supervises the second-year language program and teaches advanced composition and translation courses, Business French, Selected topics in French Literature and Literature and the Arts. Her interests include the cognitive development and critical thinking abilities of student in writing and debating. She has an M.A. in musicology and a Ph.D. in French literature. For her courses, she has also researched extensively French culture and history. Simone Monnier Clay has published several textbooks.