- 5 pages, not including Works Cited page
- 3 scholarly sources required (one should be the ORIGINAL version of the fairy tale)
For this paper you will choose Grim Brothers Hansel and Gretal . You will analyze this text by viewing it through any critical lens/es (no more than 2) you believe most appropriate or interesting and comparing it with another version of itself from the same period using the same lens/lenses.
For example, in the case of Little Red Riding Hood. My introduction and thesis might look something like this:
The fairy tale, “Little Red Riding Hood,” collected by the Brothers Grimm, shows the protagonist as a weak and naïve girl/woman who can only be saved from the evil wolf by a male hero. In contrast, in the Mongolian version of the story from approximately the same period, “The girl who saved her grandmother,” the protagonist fights her way through a jungle to reach her sick and starving grandmother to save her life. Each story reflects the historical view of women in the society in and period in which they were written, whether as victims of their own weaknesses or as potential heroes in their own right.
I might continue with a discussion of the way women were seen in the Grimm’s world (new historical view with maybe a feminist reading as well), then apply the same lenses to the Mongolian version.
Note that I never directly refer to the lens I am using, rather, I simply apply it myself. Please do NOT say that this is a feminist story. It was not written as such. The only feminist thing here is the perspective with which I approach the paper.
I might then go to the questions that feminist critics apply to a text and use them to help me decide where to go with the paper.
If you choose to use more than one lens, you might say: “Whereas a feminist critical perspective might do (a, b, c), a postcolonial reading provides an entirely different perspective (etc.).
Supplement your analysis with 3 scholarly sources.
Remember to cite your sources correctly according to MLA format.
