Author: Stephanie Couey
Peer-Reviewers: Kathryn McClain and James Fleury
Website Developer: Kristen Figgins

Syllabus Overview

Designing and teaching “The Modern Fairy Tale” was one of my favorite teaching experiences, even with it being an asynchronous online course. One of the benefits, and challenges, of this course was that each student came into the class wanting to talk about fairy tale adaptations in ways that connected to their own exposure and experience; at the same time, I personally was the most invested in how fairy tales are circulated and adapted across cultures as well as how fairy tale adaptations reflect the values adherent to a specific time, place, and/or community.

So, in taking advantage of the asynchronous modality, I took my then-teaching supervisor Dr. Teresa Nugent’s advice and decided to try out a “cafeteria-style” approach to readings and films. This means that there were required materials (a “main course”), referred to on the syllabus as “Column A,” a la Genie from Aladdin, while “Column B” (akin to a selection of cafeteria “sides”) was comprised of various materials to choose from—most often films. This approach carried the benefit of allowing students to customize and broaden their own learning experience, while also remaining engaged in the same core conversation as their classmates.

To illustrate, in “The Little Mermaid” Unit (Weeks 6 and 7), I wanted students to focus on bodily transformation as a key concept. To this end, the required “Column A” readings included not only the “original” Hans Christian Andersen story from Denmark and a critical overview by preeminent folklore scholar Maria Tatar, but also transnational theoretical and fictional texts explicitly focused on bodily transformation. “Column B” then included contemporary transnational filmic adaptations.

This selection menu allowed students to either engage with a familiar favorite (such as Disney’s The Little Mermaid) in a critical context, or to unpack a less familiar international film (that either is either adapted from or loosely inspired by the tale of that unit), such as The Lure, Ponyo, and The Shape of Water. Of these films, The Lure, a Polish rock opera horror film—wherein the “little mermaid” acquires her legs, not from magic, but from a crude and bloody surgery—ended up being a class favorite because it significantly expanded our discussion of bodily transformation and its varied meanings in fairy tale adaptations across time and space.

The materials I selected reflected my own interests in critical feminist theory, queer studies, disability studies, and critical race theory, and I’m glad to say that this was a strength of the course. Students enjoyed being invited to revisit the tales they loved (and would continue to love!), while also critically unpacking the ways that popular adaptations (especially from Disney), often uphold colorism, ableism, heteronormativity, and unrealistic beauty standards for contemporary audiences. In this vein, students expressed and reflected upon how certain adaptations either did or did not align with their own values. They also asked meaningful questions about what certain tales and their variants “teach” their respective audiences, especially given that fairy tales were originally, and continue to be, instructive.

Author Bio

Stephanie Couey is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Program for Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Colorado Boulder. She has a PhD in English and an MFA in Creative Writing. Stephanie has experience designing and teaching upper- and lower-division composition, English literature, and creative writing courses across genres, and she especially values teaching in ways that bridge critical analysis and creative processes. She prioritizes developing engaging, inclusive courses that appeal to student interests. She structures her classes in ways that give students opportunities to experiment with several approaches to writing, reading, and critical analysis. Her own academic scholarship merges studies in postcolonial women’s literature, critical theory, and studies of embodiment, and her creative work also centers the body. Her course designs across subjects often reflect these areas of focus, with “The Modern Fairy Tale” particularly emphasizing the body and body politics in fairy tales as well as their modern adaptations.

About the Adaptation Today Pedagogy Series

Adaptation Today is a free, accessible resource for all academics and students who are interested in adaptation, especially graduate students, contingent scholars, and early career researchers. The pedagogy series creates a space of community and resource-sharing, with rolling deadlines for submission. See our CFP page to see how you can submit your own syllabi, lesson plans, assessments, and blog posts for publication.