Week 8 ( Mar 25 - 29)

This week, we had a guest presentation from Dr. Ochieng' K'Olewe- a Kenyan storyteller. I really enjoyed this presentation because the stories were new stories to me and they were relevant to the information that he was trying to teach to the class. This put in perspective for me, just how convenient storytelling could be for parents and village elders who are trying to convey a particular message to young children and even young adults. I don't feel as though I would see any type of connection between the hardships I have faced in my life and the fairy tales that I was exposed to as a youth; However, I can imagine had I grown up in a community, such as the one Dr. K'Olewe, that I would have made a lot less error because I would have more applicable stories to refer to. 

I feel like an important factor of what makes Kenyan storytelling so unique is the fact that every time the story is told, the storyteller claims ownership and can tweak the story to fit the message THEY want to send. Second most important factor would have to be the fact that the events, characters and implicit messages are constantly being modernized so the same story can be made relevant to people of  all ages and in different time periods. Aside from these two factors, Kenyan stories are also different from the other stories that we've read about because they also don't necessarily have a set structure to them (whereas the fairy tales we've read in class include certain motifs and functions) and these stories would be a lot harder to classify.

Week 5 (Feb 25 - Mar 1)

In "Sonne", Snow White is portrayed as a dominant, promiscuous bad-ass, who needed more R-rated methods of poisoning. On the other hand, in all the "Snow White" versions listed in Maria Tatar's book as well as they Disney version, she is more naïve and plays more into society's expectations of women. Similarly, they all have a character being poisoned and placed in a coffin to be admired, and ends with the character awakening.

In The Young Slave, the niece of Baron is put under a spell at birth and before she is cursed to die, her mother places her in a glass coffin to spare her. Eventually the mother dies and the wife of the Baron eventually finds her and makes her into a slave. When the Baron overhears the story recollection of the slave, she is hidden for several days and then asked to recall her story yet again to an entire banquet of people which eventually runs the wife off.

In the Brother's Grimm edition of Snow White, the stepmother tries to kill Snow White three times, but each time the dwarfs come home and undo the damage. Finally she is given a poisonous apple that causes her to die before anyone can try to help her. When the dwarfs come home, they build a glass coffin for her, where she sat until the prince demanded to house her. However, the jolting getting from up top of the mountain caused the bitten apple piece to fall out of her throat causing her to wake up yet again.  When she awoke she instantly fell in love with her Prince and they got married, at which the invited stepmother attended and was forced to walk over hot coal in iron shoes until she died.

In Lasair Gheug, the King of Ireland's Daughter, the daughter is framed by her step mother for three crimes. Her dad cuts off one finger for each crime committed and sends her into the woods with two poaches of currency.  While in the woods, she ran into twelve cats and a one-eyed cat, whom had been put under a spell by the leader cat's step mother. The daughter is able to manipulate the twelve cats using the currency she was given and therefore the leader cat decided she would be allowed to stay for supper. After the spell was loosened, the two got married and had three unchristened children. Meanwhile the stepmother send twelve of her maids to deliver a spell-filled box for the daughter and her kids. Anxiously, she opened the box alone and therefore only killed herself. The Prince's second-wife brings the "Snow White" back to life and she tells her story which rekindles the relationship between her and her father.

My favorite version of Snow White is The Young Slave because it tells a more complete story as to where the biological mother is and has a more realistic ending- instead of the step mother dying or any other mythical alternative, she simply is cast away due to shame and embarrassment. I honestly felt that this might also be teaching children that there are alternative ways to deal with problems aside from stooping down to the other person's level.