Course Schedule

Note: All due dates reflect North American eastern time (ET).

Note: The due dates for the assignments are noted in the Course Schedule section of this syllabus, below. Deadlines will be defined as 11:55 p.m. Eastern Time on the last day of the lesson timeframe, unless noted differently.

Note: If you are planning to graduate this semester, please communicate your intent to graduate to your instructor. This will alert your instructor to the need to submit your final grade in time to meet the published graduation deadlines. For more information about graduation policies and deadlines, please refer to Graduation at the Chaiken Center for Student Success.

Lesson 1: Course Introduction

Readings:	None.
Assignments:	Contribute to the threaded discussion. Create a student home page. Practice using course e-mail (optional). Practice using the drop box (optional).

Lesson 2: Overview: Fantasy Literature for Children

Readings:

Sheila Egoff, “The Matter of Fantasy” [in:] Egoff, Worlds Within: Children’s Fantasy from the Middle Ages to Today, pp. 1-20. (Library Reserves) Tamora Pierce, “Fantasy: Why Kids Read It, Why Kids Need It,” pp. 179-183 (Library Reserves). Marek Oziewicz, "Introduction" [in:] Oziewicz, One Earth, One People, pp. 3-12 (Required textbook) Peter Hunt, “Introduction,” [in:] Hunt & Lenz, Alternative Worlds in Fantasy Fiction, pp. 1-41 (Required textbook) Fantasy Literature for Children - Overview: To access, you should go to go to the Activities link on the left menu, the Fantasy Literature Overview folder, and select the Fantasy Literature for Children Overview. (Please note that it will only be available online at the beginning of this lesson.)

Assignments:

Contribute to the threaded discussion.

Lesson 3: The Literary Fairy Tale

Readings:

Hans Christian Andersen. (You can find all of Andersen's writings and much biographical information at the H.C. Andersen website.) "The Ugly Duckling" ""The Little Mermaid" "The Steadfast Tin Soldier": "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" "The Nightingale": "The Nightingale" "The Red Shoes": "The Red Shoes" "The Shadow": "The Shadow" Jack Zipes, “Hans Christian Andersen and the Discourse of the Dominated,” pp. 80-110 (Library Reserves) Waller Hastings, “Moral Simplification in Disney’s The Little Mermaid,” pp. 83-92 (Library Reserves)

Assignments:

Contribute to the threaded discussion. View Disney’s Little Mermaid DVD or video (optional).

Lesson 4: Reworked Fairy Tales

Readings:	Donna Jo Napoli, Zel (Required textbook) Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, "Rapunzel" Hilary Crew, “Spinning New Tales from Traditional Texts: Donna Jo Napoli and the Rewriting of Fairy Tale,” pp. 77-96 (Library Reserves) Margaret Meek Spencer, “What More Needs Saying about Imagination?” pp. 546-551 (Library Reserves) Jane Yolen, “Turtles All the Way Down,” pp. 164-174 (Library Reserves)
Assignments:	Contribute to the threaded discussion. Submit Biweekly #1. View Disney’s 2010 reworking of “Rapunzel” in the movie Tangled (optional).

Lesson 5: Animal (Talking Beasts) Fantasy

Readings:

Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Required textbook) Maija-Liisa Harju, “Anthropomorphism and the Necessity of Animal Fantasy” [in:] Marek Oziewicz and Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak (eds.), Towards or Back to Human Values: Spiritual and Moral Dimensions of Contemporary Fantasy (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006): 173-184. (Library Reserves) Marek Oziewicz, “‘We cooperate, or we die’: Sustainable Coexistence in Terry Pratchett’s The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents” [in:] Children’s Literature in Education 40.2 (2009), pp. 85-94. (Library reserves) Ursula Le Guin, “Introduction.” [in:] Le Guin, Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences Santa Barbara CA: Capra Press, 1987: 9-13. (Library Reserves)

Assignments:

Contribute to the threaded discussion. Submit and post Testimonial #1.

Lesson 6: Ghost (Suspense and the Supernatural) Fantasy

Readings:

Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book (required textbook) Jeanne M. Walker, “High Fantasy, Rites of Passage, and Cultural Value” [in:] Ed. G. Sadler, Teaching Children’s Literature: Issues, Pedagogy, Resources, pp. 109-120. (Library reserves) Shelley Chappell, “Contemporary Werewolf Schemata: Shifting Representations of Racial and Ethnic Difference” [in:] International Research in Children’s Literature 2.1 (2009), pp. 21-35 (Library reserves) Karen Coats, “Between Horror, Humour, and Hope: Neil Gaiman and the Psychic Work of the Gothic” [in:] Eds. Coats et al., The Gothic in Children’s Literature: Haunting the Borders, pp. 77-92. (Library reserves) Dean Schneider, “It Takes a Graveyard to Raise a Child: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman” [in:] Book Links (March 2010), pp. 6-8. (Library reserves)

Assignments:

Contribute to the threaded discussion. Submit Biweekly #2.

Lesson 7: Science Fiction

Readings:

Nancy Farmer, The House of the Scorpion (Required textbook) Hilary S. Crew, “Not So Brave a World: The Representation of Human Cloning in Science Fiction for Young Adults,” The Lion and the Unicorn 28 (2004): 203–221. (Library Reserves) David Whitley, “Fantasy Narratives and Growing Up,” pp. 172-182 (Library Reserves) Susan Greenfield. “The Future: What is the Problem?” pp. 1-9. (Library Reserves)

Assignments:

Contribute to the threaded discussion.

Lesson 8: Magic Adventure (Extraordinary Worlds, Magical Powers) Fantasy

Readings:

J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Required textbook) Nicholas Tucker, “The Rise and Rise of Harry Potter,” pp. 221-234. (Library Reserves) Roni Natov, “Harry Potter and the Extraordinariness of the Ordinary,” The Lion and The Unicorn 25 (2001): 310–327. (Library Reserves) Courtney B. Strimel, “The Politics of Terror: Rereading Harry Potter,” Children’s Literature in Education 35.1 (March 2004): 35-52. (Library Reserves) Richard Abanes, “The Enduring Battle: Choosing Sides”, pp. 177-202. (Library Reserves)

Assignments:

Contribute to the threaded discussion. Submit Biweekly #3. View any of the Harry Potter movies, preferably Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (optional)

Lesson 9: Light (Humorous, Word-Play, Allegorical) Fantasy

Readings:

Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Required textbook) Janet M. Ellerby, “Fiction Under Siege: Rushdie’s Quest for Narrative Emancipation in Haroun and the Sea of Stories,” The Lion and the Unicorn, 22.2 (1998), pp. 211-220. (Library Reserves) Meenakshi. Mukherjee, “Politics and Children’s Literature: A Reading of Haroun and the Sea of Stories”[in:] Ariel: A Review of International English Literature 29:1 (Jan. 1998): pp. 163-177. (Library Reserves) Lloyd Alexander, “The Grammar of Story,” pp. 3-13. (Library Reserves)

Assignments:

Contribute to the threaded discussion. Submit and post Testimonial #2.

Lesson 10: Mythopoeic (Christian, Traditional Quest) Fantasy

Readings:

C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Required textbook) C.S. Lewis, “Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to Be Said” [in:] Walter Hooper (ed.). On Stories and Other Essays on Literature (Orlando, FL: Harvest/HBJ, 1982): 45-48. (Library Reserves) Marek Oziewicz, "Mythopoeic Fantasy as a Modern Genre" [in:] Oziewicz, One Earth, One People, pp. 65-90 (Required textbook) Margaret & Michael Rustin, “Narnia: An Imaginary Land as Container for Moral and Emotional Adventure,” pp. 40-58 (Library Reserves) John Goldthwaite, “The Chronicles of Narnia” [in:] Goldthwaite, The Natural History of Make-Believe (New York: Oxford UP, 1996), pp. 220-244. (Library Reserves)

Assignments:

Contribute to the threaded discussion. Submit Biweekly #4. View any of the Narnia movies, preferably The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (optional).

Lesson 11: Mythopoeic (Secular-Humanist, Modern Quest) Fantasy

Readings:

Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass (Required textbook) Philip Pullman, “The Republic of Heaven,” pp. 655-667 (Library Reserves) Wendy Parsons & Catriona Nicholson, “Talking to Philip Pullman: An Interview,” pp. 116-134 (Library Reserves) Naomi Wood, “Paradise Lost and Found: Obedience, Disobedience, and Storytelling in C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman,” pp. 237-260 (Library Reserves) Margaret & Michael Rustin, “Where Is Home? An Essay on Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights,” pp. 93-105 (Library Reserves) Daniel Hade and Marek Oziewicz, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell? Philip Pullman, C. S. Lewis, and the Fantasy Tradition” [in:] Mythlore 28.3-4 (Spring/Summer 2010), pp. 39-54. (Library Reserves)

Assignments:

Contribute to the threaded discussion. View The Golden Compass movie (optional).

Lesson 12: Mythopoeic (Taoist-oriented, Female Quest) Fantasy

Readings:

Ursula Le Guin, The Other Wind  (Required textbook) Ursula Le Guin, “Foreword,” “Dragonfly,” “A Description of Earthsea” [in:] Le Guin, Tales from Earthsea, pp. xiii-xvii, 184-247, 249-280. (Required textbook) Ursula Le Guin, “Earthsea Revisioned,” pp. 163-180 (Library Reserves) Millicent Lenz, “Ursula Le Guin,” [in:] Hunt & Lenz, Alternative Worlds in Fantasy Fiction, pp. 42-85. (Required textbook) Marek Oziewicz, "Rediscovering Harmony: Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Sequence (1964-2001)" [in:] Oziewicz, One Earth, One People, pp. 118-143 (Required textbook)

Assignments:

Contribute to the threaded discussion. Submit Biweekly #5. View Goro Miyazaki’s adaptation of Earthsea called Gedo Senki (optional).

Lesson 13: Wrapping Up

Readings:	Re-read threaded discussions and look for themes that cut across lessons.
Assignments:	Post final thoughts on the discussion forum. Submit and post Testimonial # 3.