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Comment
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brandy2
Unregistered User
(11/28/01 5:05:38 pm)
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cross cultural issues
I am taking a class on cultural issues and I have to answer the following question: "Relate a folk tale from another culture. What cultural values does it convey? Compare it to one from your own culture. Do they stand in opposition to each other, or are they similar?"
I have a korean folktale conveying the value of duty to your parents. Can anyone think of a fairytale involving the way a child relates to their parents?
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summersinger
Registered User
(11/28/01 5:23:04 pm)
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Re: cross cultural issues
There are an awful lot. Any of the "wicked stepmother" stories from Grimm, to begin with - Snow White, Cinderella, White and Black. There's "The Princess in Disguise", a frightening variation on Cinderella involving incest. Hansel and Gretel is one where the parents abandon the children. Actually, I can't think of any in which the parents and children have a good relationship. Either they don't like each other to begin with, or the mother dies and the children are abused by their stepmother. The only time I can think of when a positive mother figure survives is in "The False Princess", but she only has a little part in the beginning. Hmmm. Surely there's some fairy tale in which neither parent is evil or dead?
-Julia
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Kate
Unregistered User
(11/28/01 5:30:14 pm)
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Also
There are some versions of Red Riding Hood that stress the maternal warning 'Don't stray from the path,' and Red Riding Hood's flouting of it. If you want to stress the risks of not obeying, that might be a good example (could be used that way at least).
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CoryEllen
Registered User
(11/28/01 9:58:27 pm)
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Critical Questions
I have to question the assumptions being made here, that the Grimms' tales or Red Riding Hood are somehow closer to the poster's culture than a Korean tale. If you look at brandy2's post, (s)he doesn't actually say whether the Korean tale is an example from a "foreign" culture or his/her own.
Also, why is the Korean story a "folk"tale, as opposed to a Western "fairy"tale? Let's take a critical look at our terms here. The Grimms' collection practices were a nationalist endeavour that were meant to "document basic truths about the customs and practices of the German people" (Zipes preface to Complete Fairy Tales (ahem) of the Brothers Grimm). People. Folk, in fact.
I hope Brandy2 takes these issues into account when writing that paper. Culture is a tricky thing.
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(11/29/01 4:48:28 am)
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My book (again)
In MIRROR, MIRROR: 40 Folktales for Mothers and Daughters to Share, there are good mothers, bad mothers, good daughters, bad daughters.
Have fun.
Jane
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Nalo
Registered User
(12/3/01 7:18:54 pm)
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Re: cross cultural issues
Little Red Riding Hood has a good grandmother/granddaughter relationship; at least, the version where they both put stones into the wolf's belly and sew him back up again. For years I've had this vision of the two of them giggling together while they did it.
-nalo
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Kate
Unregistered User
(12/4/01 2:11:14 pm)
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Well,
I feel I should speak up, just quietly, that I fail to see anything in any of the posts that make assumptions about the poster's cultural heritage. If suggesting Red Riding Hood as an example of an "other" culture's story of parental warning was somehow offensive, I apologize. I was offering it as "other" than the story example the original poster had offered, which was a Korean example. I in no way made any assumption as to his or her own cultural heritage. I assumed only he or she needed tale versions that were other than Korean, since that was the only example offered by him or her.
(Admittedly, I tend not to post to these homework questions. At the very least, it helps me avoid this sort of confusion!)
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CoryEllen
Registered User
(12/4/01 5:12:48 pm)
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meep
Kate -
rereading, I think you're totally right. I swear I saw something that made me think that when I first posted, but now I can't find whatever it was I thought I saw :-) At any rate, it wasn't meant to be either hostile or an attack, just a critical question, as the subject heading said.
I still agree with the second half of what I said, though. But I haven't eaten all day, so once I get some food and my brain starts working again I may discover that the second half was wrong as well.
Embarrassed and going to hide now,
Cory-Ellen
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Kate
Unregistered User
(12/4/01 6:06:26 pm)
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no, don't hide!
Don't hide! I just wanted to clarify things. No offense taken at all. I think the original question was a bit vaguely worded. Perhaps it is just me, but sometimes I feel that when homework questions are posted on the board, we ought to press the poster for a bit more information and their ideas, before responding. I probably responded too quicky to the original poster, and you had a different idea about how to respond which was equally valid! Completely! It is probably more that the question was a bit unclear as to which cultures would constitute 'different' cultures. What 'different' would mean . . .
And eat something! Eat! (My yenta's voice coming out of me, here . . .!)
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isthmus
nekoi
Registered User
(12/5/01 11:01:18 am)
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Re: cross cultural issues
Maybe this is opening a whole new can of worms but even looking at different fairy tales from the same country at different times can reflect the different values of different cultures - contemporary fairy tales address different issues b/c contemporary culture is different from even just a few decades back. I'd say that Western medieval society is a totally different culture than what we see in Europe today...
As to a child relating to their parents, summersinger's right: there are a lot of evil parent ones! I can think of two w/living parents ^_^...
The Peach Boy is an interesting Japanese fairy tale
The Gingerbread Boy although the kid is edible!
Hope this helps!
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