Blog entry 1: Introduction

I chose to enroll in Folk & Fairy Tales to push myself beyond the courses I already take and have taken for my majors. As a Spanish major, I read and analyze plenty of literature. However, I rarely read folklore or fairy tales in those classes because the focus is mainly on historical texts or poetry. Additionally, as a Business Administration major, folklore and fairy tales are completely absent in my studies.

Don Quijote de la Mancha; a famous Spanish folklore

For this reason, I hope to incorporate my knowledge of the Spanish language into my analysis of folkloric texts. My goal is to find a piece of folklore or a fairy tale in Spanish that I really enjoy and analyze it for my term paper. While poetry and fictitious novels carry historical context, the same is true for folklore, although it is often overlooked. My hope is that it would help me achieve a more holistic understanding of Hispanic or Latina history and tradition that is not strictly historic text.

My favorite folktale is The Jungle Book, which was originally an Indian folktale. I even named my cat Bagheera after my favorite character. I have read the book and watched multiple cinematic adaptations of the tale and I am fascinated by how the styles differ, especially the wholesome Disney version versus Rudyard Kipling’s more graphic book.