Life like a fairy tale : fairy tales as influence in the life and works of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

The purpose of this study is to establish fairy tales as a major influence in the life and works of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and, further, to show how fairy tales helped shape Freeman\u27s literary evolution. Primary and secondary sources are analyzed to show how trends developed in Freeman\u27s children\u27s literature continued to evolve in the adult fiction she produced both simultaneously with the children\u27s literature and later independently throughout her career. A close exploration of her work and the scholarship on her life, along with fairy tale scholarship, demonstrates that Freeman\u27s life itself had many fairy tale elements. Further analysis suggests that Freeman\u27s children\u27s literature uses fairy tale themes and motifs in two distinctly different ways: to instill a Christian pedagogy within children or to suggest that magic is an accepted part of a child\u27s imagination. Also, Freeman\u27s use of fairy influences in her work places her in the great feminine tradition of tale-weaver. Finally, Freeman can be considered a proto-feminist fairy tale revisionist as well, linking her to yet another literary tradition. The thesis concludes by demonstrating that Freeman might have manipulated her literary market to make the most of her early influences and shows that Freeman was more aware of the fairy tale aspects of her work, to her distinct economic advantage, than ever before thought

Reading Graphic Novels in School: texts, contexts and the interpretive work of critical reading

This paper uses the example of an extra-curricular Graphic Novel Reading Group in order to explore the institutional critical reading practices that take place in English classrooms in the senior years of secondary school. Drawing on Stanley Fish's theory of interpretive communities, it questions the restrictive interpretive strategies applied to literary texts in curriculum English. By looking closely at the interpretive strategies pupils apply to a different kind of text (graphic novels) in an alternative context (an extra-curricular space) the paper suggests that there may be other ways of engaging with text that pupils find less alienating, more pleasurable and less reminiscent of 'work'

Rationale for Saga of the Swamp Thing, Volume 1

A rationale for teaching Alan Moore\u27s set of stories collected in Saga of the Swamp Thing Volume 1

Introduction: Teaching the Works of Alan Moore

A few words from the editor about the second issue in the first volume of SANEjournal

Introduction: Visualizing and Visually Representing

An introduction to the third issue of SANEjournal:sequential art narrative in education, with guest co-editing from Professor Katie Monnin

Everything I Learned About Teaching in the Contact Zone I Learned From Charles Xavier and the Uncanny X-Men

The article asserts that reading and studying comics via the lens of the contact zone help illuminate comics\u27 literary and literacy value and helps illuminate notions of comics art and notions of schooling

Introduction: Context and Content (The Contact Zone in Historical Curricular Context and Relation to Contemporary Literacies)

An introduction and situation of the contact zone in terms of literacy and comics studies. An introduction to the first issue of the journal and exploration of its contents. An introduction and situation of the contact zone in terms of literacy and comics studies. An introduction to the first issue of the journal and exploration of its contents

Princes, Beasts, or Royal Pains: Men and Masculinity in the Revisionist Fairy Tales of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

lustrated that the stories of late-nineteenth-century and early-twentiethcentury American author Mary E. Wilkins Freeman contain much more than implied by the “regional realism” and “proto-feminist” labels so often applied to them. Freeman’s strong use of fairy-tale themes and tropes is examined in selected short stories. Special attention is given to tropes of masculinity and Freeman’s interaction with them in her role as fairy-tale revisionist to illustrate that Freeman’s understanding of masculinity matches current critical notions and is much more complex than has been considered to date