Anatomy of the Fairy Tale: Research Notes

1. Choice of method will reflect what you want to accomplish with your project.

• Choice of background scholarship (Propp, Aarne Thompson, Graves, etc=> also text resources in previous blog)
• Choice of research method: textual analysis, creative writing

2. Feasibility:  Initial report (due when the paper is due), detailed analysis overall the next six months and throughout senior writing seminar.  This is the setup for the manuscript I'll be writing in my senior year so the more focused a premise I can develop for it now the better.

3.  Essay Organization:

Identify research problem
State what you are doing differently (that is essential to your project)
Reflections

• Part I: Literature review of background scholarship on the anatomy of the folktale;
• Part II: Literary analysis of existing folktale example;
• Part III:In depth literary analysis of manuscript (Enfabled) synopsis=>how it coincides with research=>i.e.,does it follow Propp's 31 functions or does it align with one of Aarne and Thompson's 2000+ folktale or archetypes/motifs.  What does it follow/what does it deviate from, is that conformity/deviation constructive or flimsy for the given piece (is it archetypal or merely "cliche" ), etc.