Red Riding Hood On The Rapid Ride

a Discovery Core Experience

BCORE 104 (Arts & Humanities)

About This Course

This course, “Red Riding Hood on the Rapid Ride: Storytelling, Fairytales, Folktales and Fantastical Literature,” delves into the fascinating oral traditions, literature and history of fantastical stories in their many guises. We’ll examine how stories filled with wonders, horrors, tricksters, heroes and supernatural beings have been told and transformed through the ages.

Once familiar with traditional story forms from a variety of cultures, we will look at how modern storytellers and artists have reinterpreted these stories for modern audiences and how meaning is transformed in the process.

Finally, we will connect these tales to our own stories —stories we create, stories we connect with, and stories we find in our own communities. We’ll use these stories as a way to reflect on our own challenges and life journeys. With a bi-weekly storytelling café as part of the course work, this interdisciplinary learning experience will also build community, confidence as new university students and critical thinking, research and presentation skills.

Professor Louise Spiegler (she/her/hers)

Education

  • B.A. International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
  • M.A. Creative Writing and English Literature, Temple University

Contact

Email: spiegl@uw.edu

I see stories —those we read and listen to, as well as those we tell ourselves — as a powerful way of becoming. I believe that storytelling provides a unique possibility of creating community and deepening our understanding of ourselves and others.

Professor Spiegler