This course introduces students to the study of fairy tales as 
a means of learning about culture and society. Students will 
continue to develop their German language skills by reading, 
discussing and writing critically about fairy tales and they 
will learn to read fairy tales in the social and cultural 
context of early 19th century Germany. Students will learn 
about the didactic, social and political significances of fairy 
tales at this point in Germany's history.

In this course, students will begin by reading traditional folk 
fairy tales by the Grimm brothers in the original German. The 
selection of folk fairy tales will include commonly known and 
less commonly known fairy tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. 
Students will also read some secondary literature about the 
fairy tales and their psychological and cultural 
interpretations. These readings will be organized in thematic 
units:

Folk Fairy Tales

Week 1 – stepchildren/stepmothers
•	Aschenputtel
•	Sneewittchen

Week 2 – naïve girls and dangerous wolves
•	Little Red Cap
•	Red Riding Hood (Charles Perrault)

Week 3 - the power of love and patience
•	Dornröschen
•	Rapunzel

Week 4 – siblings/team work
•	Hänsel and Gretel
•	Brüderchen und Schwesterchen
•	Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten

Week 5 – spinning/hard work
•	Die drei Spinnerinnen
•	Rumpelstilzchen
•	Frau Holle

Week 5 – violent husbands
•	Der Räuberbräutigam
•	Blaubart

Weeks 6-7: secondary literature about folk fairy tales and film
Bruno Bettelheim: “Little Red Cap and the Pubertal Girl”
Jack Zipes: “’Little Red Riding Hood’ as Male Creation and 
Projection”
Linda Worley: “The Horror! Gothic Horror Literature and Fairy 
Tales: The Case of ‘Der Räuberbräutigam”
Film: “Red Riding Hood”; TV series: “Grimm” 

Weeks 8-15

Students will also read one or more longer literary fairy tales 
that were inspired by the Grimm brothers and their narrative 
style. Literary fairy tales will include one or more of the 
following:

Ludwig Tieck: Der blonde Eckbert; Der gestiefelte Kater; Der 
Runenberg
Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué: Undine
Clemens Brentano: Geschichte vom braven Kasperl und dem schönen 
Annerl 
E.T.A. Hoffmann: Der goldne Topf

The university's academic honesty policies will be enforced. 
The UGA Office of the Vice President for Instruction defines 
academic honesty as follows: “Academic honesty means performing 
all academic work without plagiarism, cheating, lying, 
tampering, stealing, receiving unauthorized or illegitimate 
assistance from any other person, or using any source of 
information that is not common knowledge.”  All academic work 
must meet the standards contained in “A Culture of Honesty” 
accessible at 
http://www.uga.edu/honesty/ahpd/culture_honesty.htm