The Final Blog: A Bittersweet Goodbye

One of my favorite fairy tales: The Swan Maiden

Hi, guys! I can’t believe it’s already been fourteen weeks. We’ve grown so much in a short period of time, and, while I can’t say I’m not excited about the prospect of summer, this ending is bittersweet: it’s sad to say goodbye. I have enjoyed my time in this class, reading and analyzing these stories. But I think I’m also ready to move on. At the beginning of class (the first blog), I said I hoped to learn more about different versions of fairy tales and different cultures from different perspectives. I’d say I have successfully accomplished these goals. I have read countless stories, and I can honestly say that I spent enough time with them - I read them thoroughly. I know so much more about stories in general, more than just their plot structures and similar patterns of events. I know more about different cultures through their stories, including Kenyan, Jewish, Native American, Indian, Arabian stories and more. My knowledge-base has grown exponentially, in many different ways.

Arabian Tales: Stories Full of Suspense and Intrigue

One of the aspects of Arabian tales that I found to be unique is the tradition of having a frame story, where one story spins off into a web of tales (“stories within a story”). This can be seen through one of the most popular group of tales: 1,001 Arabian Nights. In this book the frame story is the tales of the women-killing sultan, his brother, and Shahrazad, an amazing storyteller who outsmarts the king by telling suspenseful and mystical stories every night. The stories blend into each other which is part of the girl’s wit - ending the stories at the perfect time so that the king would be compelled to not kill her in order to hear the rest of the story. The movie version transitions between tales and Shahrazad telling them, only to reveal that the entire movie is her telling the stories to her children. Another aspect of the frame story is the idea of repeating characters like Joha/Djuha and Bablul which keep different tales linked together.