Kay E. Vandergrift

This Snow White resource is designed to incorporate many pieces of information about this tale and to encourage different users to explore alternative paths for their own teaching and learning. Both adults and young people interested in children's literature, folklore, cultural studies or illustration will find many opportunities to pursue those interests here. A tale of this kind provides a focus for solid inquiry, but class time does not permit sufficient exploration. A student may be encouraged to use this site and explore independently, thus increasing overall knowledge of the traditional tale in children's literature.

Snow White has been developed as an opportunity for scholars, teachers, and students to explore a detailed compilation of resources on a specific folktale. Using an 1898 edition of the Grimm tale, the user can compare the highlighted text to over thirty editions of the tale representing more than a century of re-tellings. Because the story is very much a part of a childhood canon, illustrations have accompanied many of the published editions. I have selected a series of incidents in the story and then matched illustrations to the incidents. To some extent this is limiting. The images selected reflect "fair-use" doctrine, that is, only one image for any work still in copyright has been used. It is essential in using this site as a teaching/learning opportunity to have as many of the selected books available to compare and contrast. Additional examples of the Snow White story may be used as well, since the intent is to grow in understanding of why texts and illustrations vary. On both the textual pages and the illustrations pages a number of questions have been inserted to prod the user into thinking creatively and imaginatively. It is intended that users will raise additional questions during the course of their study.

Sections on context, issues, and criticism offer a range of views from scholars and writers that help to frame Snow White for the user. Those interested in films and videos will find a number of items that might offer alternative interpretations. A linkages page offers many divergent paths to the user. One might want to pursue information on mythology, fairies, or Disney; and this page offers these opportunities.

ASSIGNMENTS

For those who might find it helpful, I include the handouts prepared for my graduate students. Some portions, hopefully, may be exactly what is wanted to explore a particular tale with greater depth in this created environment than normally possible in a children's literature course.

  1. You may find it feasible to work in a team, of no more than five persons, while exploring the Snow White site. Part of the purpose of team work is the inevitable exchange of views and studying of alternative perspectives and interpretations. If you are working alone, you will need to continue discussion with others whenever the time allows.
  2. Use the interactive form to respond to the various categories as you and the group raise new questions and draw conclusions after reading various pages. If the group wishes, a message may be sent directly to the professor using my email address.
  3. For the convenience of the group, the computer lab will have various videos and other objects to examine. You will need to exchange your driver's license for security purposes in order to obtain such materials. I may also schedule the showing of a film(s) for mutual convenience.
  4. Each group should develop a search strategy to be sure that at least ten of the books are available for the team to examine. If more can be located, that is even better. Note that the illustrations used in the Snow White pages do not replicate the actual art, they are as close as a scanned image can be, but size and colors are not always rendered accurately on various platforms and through various browsers.
  5. Part of the task of the team is to learn the context for this tale but also come to understand the context for most fairy tales and for folklore in various cultures.
  6. Various issues or controversies are raised and these should be looked at to add further definition to the understanding of this story.
  7. Literary critics offer many perspectives that help in our interpretation of this tale. Feminists have, in the past, attacked this tale along with many others. You might study the critical commentaries and discuss your personal views in response to this tale.
  8. The team may wish to develop a series of questions to use in working with an audience of young children. (Or, the team might choose to develop a range of answers to frequently asked questions from children and parents/teachers about folk and fairy tales.)
Or an alternative assignment is as follows:

Select a particular story from the folk or fairy tale tradition or other story that has been illustrated by a number of artists and examine at least ten different visual interpretations of that work. Go back to the earliest version of the story you can find so you will be able to see changes over time. Visit the Snow White pages and examine the approaches used in its design.

Prepare a set of slides which compares and contrasts the various interpretations of the story you have selected to be used in a presentation of your findings. Alternatively you may use color photocopies. Include a brief annotated bibliography.

For your presentation, consider such questions as the following:

  1. What are the differences among the textual interpretations of the story?
  2. Are the different versions intended for different audiences?
  3. How do these versions compare with the earliest available written form of the story?
  4. What are the differences among the visual interpretations of the story?
  5. Is the specific content of the story altered in any way by the illustrations? If so, how? (character, mood, plot, etc.?)
  6. What is the relationship, if any, between illustrative technique and mood in the story? Between color and mood?
  7. How are the visual details of setting used in the storytelling?
  8. Is the number of illustrations and their placement in relation to the text appropriate to the story?
  9. Do visual and verbal points of view correspond and complement each other?
  10. Is the format of the book as a physical object part of its affective statement as story?

How do the works selected conform to the recommendations made by Hearne in: Betsey Hearne. "Cite the Source: Reducing Cultural Chaos in Picture Books, Part One," School Library Journal. 39 ( July 1993): 22-27; "Respect the Source: Reducing Cultural Chaos in Picture Books, Part Two," School Library Journal. 39 (August 1993): 33-37.

Or an alternative assignment:

Please take a few minutes to think about these questions to help focus your attention on the topic of folklore and fairy tales in a child's life and literature.

  1. Are there folk and/or fairy characters or tales that were important to you in your own childhood? If so, can you remember how and why they assumed importance in your life? If not, do you know why not? Do you think you were unusual in this respect?
  2. Were you exposed to a wide range of folk literature as a child? If so, who shared this literature with you?
  3. Do you recall any examples of folk or fairy tale from your childhood that frightened you?
  4. How important are folk and fairy tales to today's children? How much should we (as parents, teachers, librarians, etc.) do to encourage the child's appreciation of such stories?
  5. Are there any dangers in a child's belief in fairy tales?
  6. Is there such a thing as "creative violence," that is, violence that helps to resolve rather than heighten fears and tensions? Is this the violence of the fairy tales?
  7. Do you really believe that many of the favorite fairy tales deal with oedipal conflicts and sexuality?
  8. Who are the mythical heroes for today's children? Where do they come from?
  9. If folktales were the television of a printless society, is television now the folk literature of our media-saturated society?
  10. Give at least two descriptors for each of the following: Step-mother, God-mother, Prince, Princess, Mother, Fox, Youngest Son, Hare, Castle, Forest, Sword, Spell and Fairy. Who are some of the other recurring characters of folk literature?
  11. How is language used as an important factor in the telling of tales? Do you feel that it is critical?
  12. What collections of fairy tales would you recommend to children and/or parents/teachers?
  13. Are the Jacobs and the Lang editions viable today?
  14. What fairy tales would you suggest to anyone interested in storytelling?

Or, an alternative assignment:

How have the contemporary tellers of tales for young people used the traditional folk and fairy stories in their work? How does the current social and cultural context alter our interpretations of both the traditional tales and modern variants of those tales?

Select from the following list of titles or any others approved by the professor:

Brooke, William J. A Telling of Tales: Five Stories. New York: Harper&Row, 1990.
Brooke, William J. Untold Tales. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
Brooke, William J. Teller of Tales. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.
Geras, Adele. The Tower Room. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992.
Geras, Adele. Watching the Roses. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992.
Geras, Adele. Pictures of the Night. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1993.
Jones, Diana Wynne. Fire and Hemlock. New York: Greenwillow, 1985.
McKinley, Robin. Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast. New York: Harper & Row, 1978.
McKinley, Robin. The Door in the Hedge. New York: Greenwillow, 1981.
Napoli, Donna Jo. The Magic Circle. New York: Dutton, 1993.
Napoli, Donna Jo. Zel. New York: Dutton, 1996.
Willard, Nancy. Beauty and the Beast. Illus. by Barry Moser. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992.
Yolen, Jane. Briar Rose. New York: TOR/Tom Doherty Associates, 1992.

ASSIGNMENTS SHARED BY COLLEAGUES

  1. An additional assignment contributed by Dr. Hilary S. Crew.
  2. An additional assignment contributed by Michael Joseph.
  3. An additional assignment contributed by Professor Ariko Kawabata.
  4. Additional assignments contributed by Dr. Sanjay Sircar.
  5. An additional assignment contributed by Constance Vidor.
  6. An additional syllabus contributed by Professor Jack Zipes.

CONCLUSIONS

The act of teaching is one of creating environments in which students will be confronted with knowledge and ideas and presented with a mosaic of opportunities to achieve skillful performances. Websites such as this can serve as virtual environments in which users can interact with others in discussion about issues and ideas.

The use of exciting teaching materials as technological means of instruction is not a move away from our responsibilities as teachers. In fact, the orchestration of a range of materials to provide the best possible learning for students with various learning styles is a far more complex and more time-consuming form of teaching than our own presentation of content in a lecture or demonstration.

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Created January 6, 1997 and is continuously revised