Reeves, 1 Alanna Reeves Dr.

Christine Garlough Gen/WS 310 Final Paper Due: May 18, 2012

Seeking Truer Forms of Folklore Subversion Through Creative Drama

Fairytales and folktales have been used for hundreds of years to indoctrinate children, sometimes with values that are not in their best interest. Taking a closer look at a story like Beauty and the Beast for instance, one could make the argument that it reads like an allegory for submitting to domestic violence. Because Belle is patient and kind enough to the Beast, he eventually changes, and the implicit message to those hearing the tale is, and maybe your Beast will change, too. Some theorists and authors have proposed subverting traditional folk and fairy tales by presenting them from a feminist (or otherwise liberal/emancipatory) lens, but I find that these tales can still be problematic. While these tales claim to be emancipatory by providing an alternative outlook on the world, I argue that no fairytale can be truly emancipatory for children as long as adults are the ones who are doing the re-writing. I believe that instead of providing children with a different answer for lifes troubles through unorthodox fairytales, we would better prepare our children to tackle lifes struggles by asking them provide their own alternative to folk and fairy tales. By pairing creative drama and forum theatre practices with folklore, we can use these popular stories

Reeves, 2 to help children build empathy, develop multiple points of view on traditional stories and find their own alternative solutions to the problems presented in the tales.

A SHORT HISTORY OF FOLKLORE, FAIRYTALES & SOCIAL INDOCTRINATION In his book Fairytales and the Art of Subversion, Jack Zipes explores the ways that fairytales and folktales are far from harmless stories we tell our children (56). He claims that these tales have been told and retold throughout the ages as part of a civilizing process that is educational at the same time that it is entertaining (31). Zipes notes that the while the tales have their roots in the folk cannon, they have been appropriated and changed over time by elite classes to reflect the social mores of those who hold power. Because of this appropriation, Zipes says that his foremost concern is how fairy tales operate ideologically to indoctrinate children so that they will conform to dominant social standards that are not necessarily established in their behalf (33). He goes on to demonstrate how the aristocratic-bourgeoisie used fairytales to indoctrinate children to reflect their particular social attitudes and morals. These morals were often gendered, classist, and repressive as they sought to influence both the inner feelings and outward behavior of children (Zipes 43-44). Zipes argues that during the post-1945 period, West German authors and critics became aware that the nationally lauded Brothers Grimm folktales and fairytales were not merely harmless bedtime stories, but tools used for social indoctrination of children in a bourgeois society. In the 1960s, there was a backlash against the traditional fairytale and authors began writing tales that pushed back against the racist, sexist and classist overtones in the classics by subverting these tales to create stories that were more

Reeves, 3 emancipatory for children (Zipes 58). These tales sought to understand how the messages in fairytales tend to repress and constrain children rather than set them free to make their own choices (Zipes 59). As quoted by Vanessa Joosen in her article, Fairy-tale Retellings between Art and Pedagogy, children learn behavioral and associational patterns, value systems, and how to predict the consequences of specific acts or circumstances through fairytales and folktales (129). As such, many feminists have pushed back against the gendered lessons that are both implicit and explicit within many traditional stories. Many authors of subversive or emancipatory fairytales do not question the didactic nature of the tales, but instead use them to convey their own ideology and, in doing so, some of these tales may carry messages that are just as harmful and prejudicial as many of the traditional tales are. As a case study for the ways that these tales may still contain harmful messages for children, I use Jane Yolens story, Sleeping Ugly. In this story, Yolen (rightly, I believe) attacks the so-called beauty contest that is characterized in many traditional folk and fairy tales. In the traditional tales, beauty is often equated with kindness, meekness and industry, while ugliness is equated with the evils of the world. Yolen reverses this trope in her story; however, she may be instilling other prejudicial attitudes in her young readers. In the story, two young girls, Princess Miserella and Plain Jane (an orphan) have fallen under a fairys spell and both have fallen asleep. When a Prince arrives many years later and must choose which girl to wake up, the tale reads: The prince looked at Miserella [] Even frowning she was beautiful. But Jojo knew that kind of princess. He had three cousins just like her. Pretty on the outside. Ugly within (as quoted in Joosen 132). The

Reeves, 4 prince makes this judgment solely based on appearance and chooses to awaken the uglier princess. I argue that, far from creating a more equitable and understanding world, this retelling may, in fact, simply be indoctrinating children with a different kind of bias. Joosen briefly makes this connection in her article, but defends it by saying that simply exposing readers to this kind of alternative retelling teach[es] children and adults to be critical of their own reading by revealing a position that bucks the traditional discourse (134). She argues that because the tale will very likely be read against a knowledge of traditional fairy and folk tales, readers will be critical of both the original tales and Yolens tale as they reading the alternative text. While I understand the argument, I do not completely agree with it. Even if one agrees that Yolens story, when compared to traditional tales, can help readers to develop a critical eye and multiple points of view, Yolens tale still equates outer appearance with an inherent inner personality which does not buck traditional fairy tale tropes and may reinforce damaging lessons about appearance. While fairytale retellings like Yolens often claim to be emancipatory, they are rewritten and subverted to represent the morals and politics of yet another community of adults. Throughout history, fairytales have been appropriated and rewritten by the bourgeoisie, by socialists, by the Nazis, by feminists and by a whole slew of other political and social groups. While I personally find some of these tales and the ideologies they forward to be more problematic than others, most tales (regardless of the authors best intentions) run the risk of over-simplification and stereotyping. I argue that a better way forward may be to ask children to unpack the messages in folk and fairy tales and to facilitate them in subverting the genre in the way(s) they choose.

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CHILDREN AS AGENTS According to Tadesse Jaleta Jirata, children are absolutely capable of analyzing and interpreting folktales that they hear and tell. In his research, Jirata followed children in Southern Ethiopia and listened to the ways they told tales and discussed them with one another. While folktales in this culture still serve a didactic purpose when adults are narrating for children, children are able to relate to the stories differently when interacting in peer groups (Jirata 273). When children are performers of the tales rather than just the consumers, they can practice agency by choosing the tales they feel are most valid. Furthermore, in the context of peer-performed tales, the children can actively engage in a discourse with the narrator and argue for or against points raised by the storyteller, discuss the moral of the story, and explore the storys implications for their lives (Jirata 270). From Jiratas research, it is clear that children are capable of much more than subconsciously absorbing and accepting fairytale indoctrination- they are capable of unpacking the messages in a folktale and debating their legitimacy (275). As these children tell each other stories, they are active in their own socialization. As such, Jirata argues that it is important to encourage children to participate in local expressive cultures (289). Facilitating spaces where children can interpret their own folk culture can help them to explore their own opinions and help them to learn from, and perhaps even change their own social environments (Jirata 289).

THE BENEFITS OF PAIRING DRAMA WITH FOLKLORE

Reeves, 6 Beyond simply performing and discussing folk and fairy tales, students can enact their discourse through drama. In her article, Crossroads of Folklore and Eduaction, Paddy Bowman speaks to the ways that folklore can help teachers to achieve important educational goals. She quotes Bert Wilson who says, Folklore can help us learn what it means to be human and likens it to taking the pulse of anothers soul, dissolving time and placing oneself in anothers shoes. (67). Similar arguments have often been made about theatre. Theatre practitioner Augusto Boal says that theatre is the art of looking at ourselves (15), and many theatre practitioners have argued that theatre and dramatic play can teach us about the human condition and foster empathy and understanding in ways that more traditional forms of learning cannot. As such, I argue that the two disciplines have much in common and are rife with intersections that can be potent in the classroom. Furthermore, I believe that theatre is an excellent tool for helping children to unpack the meanings behind traditional folk and fairy tales and can facilitate them in their own retellings of these tales. As Manon van de Water points out in her course reader Theatre and Drama 362, drama is an especially successful tool for empowerment and awareness as it is able to speak both to emotional intelligence (self awareness, self control, self-motivation, empathy and relationship skills) and multiple intelligences (verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, musical/rhythmic, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist). She says that drama has an excellent ability to speak to each of these categories, particularly when people participate in the drama as they might in forum styles of theatre like Augusto Boals Theatre of the Oppressed. Van de Water says, [p]erhaps

Reeves, 7 one of the most holistic and practical aspects of using drama is that it can cut both ways: dealing with subject matter while exploring the human condition (47). Theatre manages not only to give the facts, but also to speak to many different kinds of intelligence. Drama is able to do this because it is immediate, occurring in the present, right before our very eyes, and because it is interactive. A relationship exists between the audience and the actors, and in the best kinds of drama, the line between the actor and spectator is quite blurry. In these situations, many parts of the brain are stimulated at once, providing a more complete learning experience that can resonate with a person on a deeper level than perhaps simply reading a story or watching a movie might. Forum theatre like Augusto Boals Theatre of the Oppressed can be very empowering for children. Boals methods align closely with the system of creative problem solving presented by Jerry Flack in A Goldilocks Problem With a Three-Bear Solution. Flack argues that creative problem solving uses three basic stages: 1) Identifying a problem, 2) Producing ideas, and 3) Implementing and evaluating ideas (50). Forum theatre, as presented by Boal, closely aligns with this creative problem solving strategy. Forum theatre seeks to create discussions about oppression and how it can be overcome. Augusto Boal says, [i]n Theatre of the Oppressed, reality is shown not only as it is, but also, more importantly, as it could be (6). This is typically achieved by presenting a story in theatre-form that the audience, or as Boal likes to call them, the spect-actors, can later participate in. After a story has been told a first time, it is re-told and spect-actors are encouraged to yell stop! at a point in the story where the protagonist has made a mistake in overcoming his or her oppression (compare to Flacks identifying the problem). The spect-actor who has stopped the action then takes the place of the original

Reeves, 8 actor and presents his or her new tactics in-role in the scene, trying to find an alternate outcome (compare to Flacks producing ideas). The idea is then evaluated by other spectactors who can either accept the solution or enact solutions of their own. In theory, the action on stage will help manifest action offstage; the drama continues into real-life where tactics that have been addressed onstage can be put to use offstage in overcoming real-life obstacles. Both Boals forum theatre and Flacks creative problem solving methods posit that as participants practice solving problems using their techniques, they are preparing to confront problems in daily life (Boal xxiv, Flack 51). Ron Smith, a theatre practitioner who worked with oppressed populations in Taiwan has already explored some ways that the Magical Realism of folk and fairy tales relate to Boals forum methods. Magical Realism is a style that inserts the fantastic into real-life settings (like folk/fairytales) with the intent of facilitating a deeper understanding of reality. Smith says it is a mode suited to exploring and transgressing boundaries and that it often facilitates the fusion, or coexistence, of possible worlds, spaces, systems that would be irreconcilable (110). Magical Realism can heighten the sense of liminal space and can help participants to realize solutions that may not have seemed possible under the constraints of daily life. This sense of liminal space is a trait that is shared with the forum work in Theatre of the Oppressed methods, and points to the ways that the two disciplines can easily blend into and borrow from one another.

PERSONAL CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE I believe in theatre as a tool for dialogue and empowerment. In a culture that is increasingly obsessed with minutia of the individual (see: facebook, twitter, and much of

Reeves, 9 the blogging culture), theatre is, by nature, a collective gathering where ideas are exchanged, both visceral and rational connections are made, and fruitful dialogue can occur. Because it is couched in the imaginary, theatre is an excellent medium for breaking down barriers, shattering the remnants of predetermined thought, and opening up new ways of thinking. Through imagination, audiences are challenged to see beyond how things are to how things could or should be. Theatre is a practical tool for discussing hot-button issues because it is a liminal space. Dialogue no longer has to center around you and me, but can now take place about characters and those characters choices. This allows for a distancing effect where dialogue does not have be personal. By taking an outsidelooking-in perspective, audience members can learn about themselves or their peers in a way that is difficult to do when one is in the moment. My teaching philosophy and my philosophy as an artist are inextricably intertwined. I believe in posing difficult questions rather than providing tidy answers. I believe that good theatre and good teaching empowers audiences and students to seek their own answers, to experiment and explore many options, and to open oneself up to the diverse perspectives of ones peers. Furthermore, good theatre and good teaching are both accessible to the masses. While I strongly believe in the aesthetic quality of theatre, I believe that strong craftsmanship can circumvent the need for big budgets. A back-tobasics approach with minimal sets, costumes, and other production elements reinforces the notion of liminality, positions the imagination as primary, and opens up the craft to those who do not have access to the budget necessary for production-heavy shows. Furthermore, by highlighting the theatrical space as liminal, I hope to encourage those who participate in the theatrical event to resist the urge for catharsis and to engage in it with a critical eye.

Reeves, 10 In creating classroom experiences that align with my teaching philosophy, I propose an alteration on Boals forum theatre methods and blend it with Magical Realism to address fairy tales in classroom settings. Because most fairy tales end happily ever after and already propose a solution, I often use unfinished fairytales or folk tales in my classrooms. I tell the story to children but stop at the main point(s) of conflict and ask children to enact the rest of the story with their own proposed solutions. This is often a great way for children to try out multiple alternative endings to fairytales and can foster great teamwork skills as children learn from and add to each others solutions. Because the children are not given an answer, they must think critically to find their own solutions or coping mechanisms to deal with the presented problems. In my personal classroom experience, children often use very relevant real-life conflict-resolution skills in these encounters, although I allow any suggestion (real or magical) to be played out in a scene. As children try out different solutions, they may find that their solution can create more problems that they may have to work to overcome. The stories are used to demonstrate to children that there is no one appropriate solution to a problem and that many times what one perceives as a solution can often bring up more struggles of its own. In theory, the process is never-ending, as are the struggles that we must overcome in life. As Boal has often been quoted, theatre becomes a rehearsal for the revolution. I also deviate from Boals forum methods because I encourage children not only to take on the role of the protagonist, but also to take on the role of the antagonist. In Boals work, he refers to this replacement of the antagonist as magic. He argues that by changing the givens of the dramatic action, any solutions that are reached are of no use and by taking on the role of oppressor and trying to make him/her more sympathetic, one

Reeves, 11 does not actually overcome any oppression (267). Especially when working with children, I tend to disagree. Point of view is an especially important part of helping children to unpack the messages in traditional (and even in so-called subversive) fairytales. By asking children to assume the role of the oppressor, children may begin to empathize with this character and may find reasons for that characters behavior that were not apparent at first glance. In his work, Alvin Granowsky also believes in the benefits of asking children to look at tales from another characters perspective. He says that Point of View tales provide an opportunity to understand the need for critical reasoning and fairness in conflict (76). Asking students to look at a tale from the antagonists point of view can help children to learn to refrain from making judgments until both sides of a story are heard and it can help students to learn to question a story when only one side is presented (Garnowsky 77). This practice has both academic as well as real-world benefits as students navigate their lives both in and out of the classroom. A recent classroom experience outlines the benefits of asking children to take on the oppressor role in dramatic play. I often use a folktale with children in my classes called The Ram in the Chile Patch, where a rude Ram wanders into a little girls garden and begins to eat all her chiles. In this drama activity, I stop the story before a solution is reached and asked the children to come up with a solution for dealing with the Ram. I typically play the Ram at the beginning of these exercises and after several unsuccessful tries to get the Ram to leave, I ask the children if they want to play the Ram. One by one, I allow them to enter into that role and come up with their own responses to the other farm animals who are trying to convince him to leave the patch. One particularly interesting intervention

Reeves, 12 occurred in a recent class. When the farm animals chided the Ram by saying If you dont get out of this patch, you wont have any friends! the Ram replied, I dont care I already dont have any friends. In role, the student playing the Ram suggested that perhaps the Ram was acting like such a bully because he had no friends. This didnt change the Rams rude actions toward the other animals on the farm, but when the other animals in the classroom were exposed to this suggestion, their tactics for dealing with the Ram changed dramatically. Instead of ganging up on the Ram and (in my opinion) continuing the cycle of bullying, the students tried to find ways to reach out to the Ram. One student complimented the Rams big, strong horns and said she wished she had a friend with horns like that because there was a big rock in her pen that she was always tripping over and she was too small to move it (this student was a playing a duck). Suddenly all the other students had tasks for the Ram to do and many of them offered social and economic rewards for the Rams assistance. By finding a way to empathize with the Ram by finding the root cause of his naughty behavior, students managed to convince the Ram to use his horns for good, thereby earning himself a place in the farmyard community. None of these solutions are in the original folk tale the traditional tale ends with a small ant biting the Ram on his bottom and causing him so much pain that the Ram runs screaming out of the pen. While the original folktale asserts that sometimes the smallest person can also be the mightiest, it did not address the point of view of the Ram, thereby missing out on some of the complexities that might exist within the tale. In the discussion time following the drama activity, children reflected on how they felt while playing the different roles. It was interesting to me that many of the children described the Ram as frustrated, sad, and lonely rather than just as rude and hungry. Many

Reeves, 13 of them expressed that they felt less empowered in that role than they did in other roles because everyone on the farm was ganging up on them and they felt like no one liked them. While the Ram is traditionally thought of as an oppressive force in this play that one should not feel sympathy for, the children were able to empathize with his position after playing him in-role. I argue that this kind of role-play is perhaps even better than a subversive adultwritten Point of View Story in helping students to see multiple sides of a given situation. In the drama activity, the child who owns the chile patch is still right in her assertion that the Ram should not be eating her chiles without her permission and the rude actions of the Ram are not excused. Still, the students are able to empathize with the Ram and are able to start asking why the Ram is behaving in such a rude manner. Rather than simply exposing children to an alternative viewpoint, the students are able to discover possible multiple viewpoints on their own. In this setting, children learn from each other just as the children from South Ethiopia did in Jiratas study. This kind of child-led play can encourage children to ask questions about the information they receive and come to their own conclusions about the equity of the stories as they are presented.

OTHER POINTS OF DRAMATIC INTERVENTION Another interesting way that children can explore point of view is through what Karen Hicks and Jordan Austin called The Fairytale Trials. While the forum-theatre and role-playing exercises mentioned above are great for asking children to solve problems as the are happening, the mock trials are a way of exploring the fairy tales after the actions have occurred. Now that the story happened, how do we analyze them using our own

Reeves, 14 social systems, like the legal system? The creative drama exercises that I presented above ask children to solve problems on an interpersonal level, but the mock-trial activity asks children to respond to problems on a community level. With this exercise, children are learning to deconstruct fairytales while simultaneously learning about the inner-workings of institutions and how they can be employed to resolve conflict between dissenting parties (Hicks & Austin 39). In her classroom activity, Austin gave her 5th grade students a list of fairytales and a list of laws that the tales might violate. The students then analyzed each tale to see which laws (if any) may have been violated in the story. For instance in the story Hansel and Gretel, students found infractions like first- and second-degree trespass, harboring a runaway child, and child abuse (Hicks & Austin 39). After the legal issues were discovered, the classroom staged a trial to analyze the charges. This activity takes on a decidedly theatrical tone as children are asked to role-play a character from the tale and state that characters position as a witness to the crime in the story. Point of View stories like those written by Alvin Granowsky or Jon Sciezka could be used as a starting point to help stimulate ideas for children who are struggling to provide a slant to their story, but I would strongly suggest that teachers use a Point of View story that is based on a different folktale than the one that class is using in the trial. To help them further prepare for trial, students in Austins class were also encouraged to consider how their word choice might influence their jurys (or audiences) perceptions. Through this activity, children were made aware of author bias (Hicks & Austin 41). Finally, students were asked to consider how their body language, tone of voice and dress could also be unconsciously analyzed by spectators (Hicks & Austin 41).

Reeves, 15 By participating in the mock trial, Hicks and Austin report that the students learned that often it is difficult to differentiate fact from opinion, hearsay, and circumstantial evidence and true character traits from gossip (42). Students also learned how effective they were in communicating their position to an outside party, but perhaps the most important results occurred after the trial ended. Austin reports a change in her classroom after the trials took place. She claims, The students began to be much more specific in their wording, careful in their judgments, aware of bias and prejudice and slant, and more organized in the processes they used to resolve conflict. No longer did they rely on the teacher to resolve all disputes. They had learned their own power (42).

CONCLUSION While adult-written fairy and folk tale retellings can be one part of addressing the problematic messages contained in traditional tales, it may not be the best way to help children unpack and question the messages they hear. By asking children to come up with their own conclusions about fairytales and the equity or inequity contained in them, children are given agency to draw their own conclusions about the tales and their relevancy in their lives. Pairing drama with fairytales can help children build empathy, learn both interpersonal and community-wide problem-solving techniques and learn that all stories can contain multiple points of view. As Boals theories and the classroom case studies in this paper show, dramatic play really can be the rehearsal for the revolution as children unpack and subvert the messages found in traditional tales. Playwright Tony Kushner once said,

Reeves, 16 All art of every sort changes the world. Perhaps an artist aims at less direct, precise, immediate an effect than a president or legislator will have; but more effect, more potency, more agency than the ordinary is inevitably an artist's aspiration .... Art is not merely contemplation, it is also action, and all action changes the world, at least a little (as quoted in Smith 112). It is my hope that by pairing dramatic arts and folktales, we can help children to take agency over and intervene in the messages of traditional tales and, in doing so, we will help them to be agents who take action to change their world, at least a little.

Reeves, 17 Works Cited Austin, Jordan & Hicks, Karen. "Experiencing the Legal System: Fairy Tale Trials for Fifth Graders." The Social Studies 85.1 (1994): 39-43. Ethnic NewsWatch; ProQuest Research Library. Web. 18 May 2012. Boal, Augusto. Games for Actors and Non-Actors. Second ed ed. New York: Routledge, 2002. Print. Bowman, Paddy. "Standing at the Crossroads of Folklore and Education." Journal of American Folklore, 119.471 (2006): 66-79. Flack, Jerry. "A Goldilocks Problem with a Three-bear Solution." Teaching Pre K-8, 28.8 (1998): 50-52. Granowsky, Alvin. "The Other Side of the Tale." Teaching Pre K-8, 27.1 (1996): 76-77. Jirata, Tadesse Jaleta. "Children as Interpreters of Culture: Producing Meanings from Folktales in Southern Ethiopia." Journal of Folklore Research, 48.3 (2011): 269. Joosen, Vanessa. "Fairy-tale Retellings Between Art and Pedagogy." Children's Literature in Education, 36.2 (2005): 129-139. Smith, Ron. "Magical Realism and Theatre of the Oppressed in Taiwan: Rectifying Unbalanced Realities with Chung Chiao's Assignment Theatre." Asian Theatre Journal 22.1 (2005): 107-21. Web. 25 Sept. 2010 < http://tiny.cc/79tad> van de Water, Manon, and Jinni Tenneyson. "Theatre and Drama 362." University of Wisconsin. Madison, WI. 2001. Reading. Zipes, Jack. Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion, New York: Routledge, 2012. Print.

Reeves, 18 Taken from Adademia.com https://www.academia.edu/1590239/Seeking_Truer_Forms_of_Folklore_Subversion_Through_ Creative_Drama on April 28 2014