Occasional musings, Geistesblitze, photos, drawings etc. by a "resident alien", who has landed on American soil from a far-away planet called "Germany".

Friday, August 10, 2012

Parallels Between Rumpelstiltskin and The Merchant of Venice

Here are my latest musings triggered by the Coursera-based course I'm currently enrolled in:
Parallels Between Rumpelstiltskin (Rumpelstilzchen) and The Merchant of Venice

Note to readers not enrolled in the course: It's a massive open online course (MOOC) offered by the University of Michigan. The title is Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, the Modern World. The video lectures are given by Prof. Eric S. Rabkin. The first unit dealt with the Grimm Brothers and the fairy tales they collected.

2 comments:

Heika said...

I thought the comparison was fascinating. Does Propp say anything about the acceptance and then rejection of the outsider, once he/she has served a purpose because that does strike me as a common theme, not that I can come up with a specific example off the top of my head.

Ulrich said...

@Heika: I don't know about Propp. Would be interesting to find out.