Over the course of five weeks students will be given an in-depth overview of some of the most essential genres in the oral to written story telling tradition. By understanding the historical and cultural context that a story is told in, we will see how stories evolve to interact with other forces that impact our lives. Whether you are a musician, visual artist, writer or a person who wants to experience art in a more informed way, you will learn how your story is connected to multi-cultural folklore and literary fairytales.
Using a Jungian arts-based research approach, we will start with origin stories and Mother Goose; followed by dilemma stories that have enigmatic endings; cautionary tales and The Brother’s Grimm; the doppleganger motif and Jung’s concept of anima/animus; then finally we conclude with a session on instructive stories that explore mending, hope, and joy. This is a multi-disciplinary course using music, film clips, art historical and literary references. Readings of both folklore and fairytales as well as scholarly texts are provided for our discussions, but not required, as all resources will be discussed during my presentation.