Title: Once upon a time…and questionably ever after.
Grade: High School
Length: 40 Minutes
Purpose:
To explore the relationship between culture and the illustration of fairy
tales.
Learning Objectives:
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Introduce the history of Fairy Tales
Examine movements in Fairy Tale illustration.
Examine the relationship between art, technology and
culture.
Provide the students the opportunity to express their
cultural view of a “classic” Fairy Tale.
Examine the influence of consumerism on art.
Introduction (3 ½ minutes): Ask students: How many of you have heard of Sleeping
Beauty? Have students listen closely as the following excerpt is read. Afterwards they
will be given the opportunity to create an illustration.
Read pg. 98 from, “She wandered around the castle…” to pg. 102 ending with “…then
they closed behind him to form a hedge.” from The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales Ed.
Maria Tatar.
Cue: Have paper and pencil ready to hand out.
Activity (6 ½ min): Fairy Tale Illustration: Part One
1. Hand out pencils and paper.
2. While materials are being handed out give the following instructions:
a. Choose a scene, image, or character from the excerpt of Sleeping Beauty
that you just listened to.
b. Either draw a pencil illustration or write out a description of the
illustration.
c. Remember:
i. This is not a final product- just a time to sketch out an idea.
ii. You will get the opportunity to work on it more toward the end of
class.
iii. Just follow your instincts and express yourself.
Transition: Thank the students for sharing and let them know that we will be returning
to these illustrations towards the end of the period.
Cue: Make sure computer with screen and PowerPoint are ready for the lecture material.
Transition: Turn lights off and PowerPoint on. (Slide 1, click for title)
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Lecture (4 minutes): Fairy Tale History Part One
Utilizing Power Point, provide students with the following information:
So where do fairy tales come from? (Click; Slide 2, click for title)Well, they began as folk
tales as a part of the oral tradition. The purpose of these tales was “communal harmony”
that “explain(ed) natural occurrences such as the change of the seasons and shifts in the
weather or to (Double click) celebrate the rites of harvesting, hunting, marriage, and
conquest” (Zipes, 1995). Historically, examples of fairy tales have existed all over the
world. (Click; slide 3) The first known recorded version of “Cinderella” -“Yeh-Shen,” is
from (Click for title) China dating around 850 AD (Tatar, 2002). (Click) With the
invention of the printing press in 1440 these tales were altered to fit the mores and values
of the literate class. (Click; Slide 4)
Italy and then France played prominent roles in establishing the fairy tale. With the new
technology of the printing press, folk tales were then sub categorized into “legends,
myths, fables, comical anecdotes, and, of course, fairy tales.” (Zipes, 1995) So what is
included in the fairy tale genre? These are the “magic” tales. Generally they begin with,
“Once upon a time…” and end in, “…happily ever after.” More particularly they are the
group of tales that were revised and published to appeal to (Click for title) court society.
Meaning they “reflected” that culture- the tastes, experiences, and concerns.
Because fairy tales came out of the oral tradition, and as fairy tales were published
throughout the 17th and 18th centuries they continued to exist orally there is no
documented “original” version. (Click; Slide 5) It was in 1812 and 1815 that the brothers
Grimm- perhaps the best know compilers of fairy tales- published fairy tales in two
volumes in order to (Click) “celebrate German culture”. (Zipes, 1995) They had
collected many of these stories from the merchant class who probably heard them from
their nanny’s and other servants. (Tatar, 2002) Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm wrote and rewrote many versions of each tale in an effort to create a definitive product. The initial
version however was not drafted for children. It was in the republication they revised it
to make it ore suitable for a younger audience; this meant removing images of sex and
pregnancy from the tales. On the other hand they still retained strong violent imagery
and moral consequence (Tatar, 2002).
As a consequence of shifting from the oral tradition to the literary, the tales were
“privatized”, the central characters were made aristocratic, and one had to read and have
money to purchase the texts. Overall this meant that fairy tales became a movement on
how to be “civilized”.
So you may be wondering, during the transition from oral to printed, what occurred
artistically with Fairy Tales? (Click; Slide 11) Although there are several examples of
Aesop’s fables being illustrated in the 17th and 18th Century it was not until the (Click;
Slide 6) 19th century when the illustration of fairy tales and children’s books as a whole
really exploded. (Click; Slide 7), (Click; Slide 8), (Click; Slide 9)
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Cue: Be ready with several books that have fairy tale examples in them, some with pages
marked if necessary so students can find illustrations quickly.
Transition: Turn lights on and place a variety books on each table.
Hands on Time (3 minutes): At this point we are going to give you the opportunity to
get your hands on some examples of this illustration explosion. Take about three to four
minutes just to browse through the books. When the lights go off it will be your signal to
return your attention up here for more on our bedtime tale, Sleeping Beauty (Hand out
illustrated books with Cruikshank, Parish, Crane, Rackham, Burne-Jones, Dore, and
Dulac) For those of you who are interested we are going to let the slide show run with
some interesting facts about the illustrators in the background. When the lights go off
we’ll collect the books and return to Sleeping Beauty.
(Purpose: to acquaint students with the names and works of fairy tale illustrators and to
provide a pause in the lecture in order to refocus their attention as the lecture transitions
in a new direction.)
Transition: After three minutes, turn lights off and collect books. Power Point on slide
10)
Lecture (5 minutes): Fairy Tale History Part Two (Click; Slide 11)
The version of Sleeping Beauty that was read to you at the beginning of class was written
by the brothers Grimm in 1812. Here is how the excerpt fits into the story as a whole:
When the King and Queen are unable to have a child, a frog crawls out of the pond to
tell the Queen that within the year their daughter will be born.
At the feast to celebrate her birth, one of the 13 “wise women” was not invited
because they only had twelve gold plates.
As gifts the “wise women” gave her virtue, beauty, wealth, and everything a girl
needs (court needs) until all but one had bestowed their gift.
Suddenly the uninvited “wise women” appears out of nowhere and says, “when the
daughter of the king turns fifteen, she will prick her finger on a spindle and fall
down dead.”
Then the twelfth “wise woman” bestows her gift- instead of death she will fall into a
sleep that last 100 years.
The King orders that all the spindles are burned to ashes.
When she turns fifteen she wonders the castle and pricks her finger. The princess and
the rest of the castle fall asleep.
Princes try to find her but are killed by the thorns that cover and grow to hide the
castle away. When 100 years has passed a prince overhears a man talk of the story
and decides to search for the princess despite the old man’s warnings.
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Because the hundred years is up the thorns have turned to flowers and the prince
easily.
When he found and kissed the princess she awoke and so did everyone else. Then
they married and lived happily ever after.
Two earlier versions of the Sleeping Beauty story are Giabattista Basile’s “Sun, Moon,
and Talia” (1636) and Charles Perrault’s “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” (1697). (Click;
Slide 12) In “Sun, Moon, and Talia” it is a piece of flax under her nail rather than the tip
of a spindle that is Sleeping Beauty’s downfall. While she sleeps a King who finds her
impregnates her and she wakes up to the birth of her twins- Sun and Moon. Then the
Queen discovers what has happen and tries to have them murdered, but instead dies in the
fire herself, while the others live. (Click; Slide 13) In “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”
Sleeping Beauty is awakened by a prince. They then produce two children Aurora and
Day. The prince leaves to fight in battle and Aurora, Day, and Sleeping Beauty are left
with his mother, a descendent of ogres, who tries to kill them, but they are saved by a
steward, and the mother eats animals instead, is discovered by her son and “flings herself
headfirst into a vat filled with ‘toads, vipers, adders, and serpents.’” (Tatar, 2002)
Ask students: How many of you recognize Grimm’s version from your childhood?
Perrault’s? Giabattista’s? Who associates Sleeping Beauty with someone else? Who?
(Several of you mentioned Disney…which is exactly what we want to talk about next.)
(Click; Slide 14)
Beginning around 1920 Disney dramatically altered the media of the fairy tale. Rather
than education and increased literacy being the devise that made fairy tales accessible to
the masses, animation made fairy stories a household product. Other film makers besides
Disney also have produced these fairy tales, but no one with greater success and duration
than Walt Disney.
Some ways in which the animation created by Disney has influenced the fairy tale (Zipes,
1995): (Click; Slide 15)
1) Image becomes the vehicle through which the story is told.
2) The role of visualization conceptually is removed fro the audience.
3) There became one voice rather than that of each individual story teller.
4) Credit for the story is usurped by the animator.
5) Portions of the story become focused on new techniques or spectacles in
animation. (Click; Slide 16, click again for animation)
6) Characters are branded. (Double Click; Slide 17)
7) Books are published to support the animation. (Click; Slide 18)
8) Culturally Disney’s fairy tales continue to reinforce patriarchical notions- that of a
male controlled society. (Click; Slide 19)
9) They also reinforce that through the hard work of society justice is restored to
society. (Double Click; Slide 20)
10) The fairy tale also becomes vehicle for self glorification. (Click; Slide 21)
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11) The fairy tale “colonizes”- what is good for America is good for the World.
(Click; Slide 22)
12) Rather than community, or even privacy, public “diversion” is the new role.
(Click; Slide 23)
13) The role of reflection is taken out of fairy tales to be replaced with role-play.
(Click; Slide 24)
Now in some respects Disney accomplished something remarkable in terms of illustration
(even if you discount his explorations into new technology). (Click; Slide 31)He took
what had once been an oral tradition and had become a literary tradition, and Disney
succeeded in defining a new set of rules and transforming it first into a visual art and then
into a commodity. (Click; Black Screen)
Ask students: So how do we respond to the cultural implications of this?
Cue: Pause and allow a few students to share some thoughts. (1 minute)
People have criticized fairy tales as euro-centric, gender stereotyping, anti-feminist, and
classist. Although many of the “original” versions remain popular- in particular Disney,
children’s authors/illustrators have retold or created fairy tales which are more racially
diverse or feature a strong female able to rescue herself. How as an illustrator can you use
fairy tales to translate, introduce, establish, or reinforce your own cultural, political, and
individual values and customs?
Transition: Turn lights on and start to pass out the worksheet titled “Revising the Fairy
Tale” as you describe the task.
Worksheet (3 min): Now you will have a chance to reflect on how you can bring your
own values, culture, and expression to sleeping beauty. Briefly answer the questions on
the worksheet that in being handed out. You will have about three minutes to work on
this. You will know that time is up when the lights go off.
Transition: Turn lights off and then on when everyone is paying attention up front.
Activity (7 min): Fairy Tale Illustration: Part Two
1. Hand out colored pencils, scissors, glue sticks, and grease crayons.
2. While Materials are being handed out give the following instructions:
a. You can use any of the materials in front of you.
b. Revise your illustration using the ideas you thought about on your
worksheet to assist you.
c. Remember:
i. It isn’t supposed to be perfect.
ii. Use it as a vehicle to express how you feel society or yourself is or
should be. Take ownership of the fairy tale.
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iii. The point is to revision or change.
3. You will have seven minutes to work on your revision.
Transition: (Click; Slide 25) Turn lights off and then turn power point back on with first
Disney character.
Ask students: who knows who this is. (Sleepy) (Click for name)
Conclusion (5 min): We are going to finish up the remaining five minutes with a quick
game. When each image flashes on the screen call it out as soon as you recognize it.
Let’s see how many fairy tales we recognize just by the illustrations.
Cue: Move to PowerPoint slides for this game. Click through each slide until end of
slide show. Each slide will show character on first click, then name(s) on second. Show
will end with “THE END” on a red curtain background.
Thank you for the experience we have had here today, we have really enjoyed ourselves.
Supplies:
20 pencils
100 sheets of paper
10 pair scissors
10 glue sticks
Grease Crayons/colored pencils (supplied by classroom teacher)
20 copies of current media magazines (Rolling Stone/People/Time)
10 Fairy Tale Books with illustrations
100 copies of student work sheet: “Revising the Fairy Tale”
Power Point slides (photos and lecture information)
References:
Andersen, Hans Christian. Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen. Hodder &
Stoughton, 1924.
Compiled by Edens, Cooper. Tales From the Brothers Grimm: A Classic Illustrated
Edition. Chronicle Books, 2007.
Dore, Gustave. Stories, Puss in Boots & Other. Groilier Book Club, n.d.
Dulac, Edmund. Perrault’s Fairy Tales. Folio Society, 2000.
Grimm, Jacob, et al. The Annotated Brothers Grimm Ed. by Maria Tatar. W. W. Norton
& Company, 2004.
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“The Oregon Arts Content Standards” obtained from the Oregon Department of
Education. Search subjects then arts then standards (www.ode.state.or.us). 2008.
Perrault, Charles and Gustave Dore. Perrault's Fairy Tale: with thirty-four full page
illustrations. Dover Publications , 1969.
Perrault, Charles and Madame d'Aulnoy. The Sleeping Beauty and Other Classic French
Fairy Tales. Gramercy , 1991.
Quiller-Couch, Retold by Sir Arthur and Illustrated by Edmund Dulac (Author). The
Sleeping Beauty & Other Fairy Tales From The Old French. London: Hodder &
Stoughton, 1981.
Rackham, Arthur. Fairy tales from many lands. Viking , 1974.
—. The Arthur Rackham Fairy Book. J.B. Lippincott Company , 1974.
Tatar, Maria (Editor). The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales. New York City: W. W. Norton
& Company, 2002.
Zipes, Jack. “Breaking the Disney Spell.” From Mouse to Mermaid. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press. 1995.
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Name
Date
Revising the Fairy Tale
1. Where is your illustration set?
2. When is your illustration set?
3. What theme is your illustration portraying? For example, love, violence, jealousy.
4. What value would you like your illustration to portray if any?
5. What do you want your drawing to communicate about society?
6. What does it communicate about you-the artist- personally?
7. List three ways you can do this (example: colors, setting, icons, line, references,
expression, you tube, stick figures, animation, graphic novel format, sculpture,
etc.)
1.
2.
3.