The following post was originally published on the BYU American Studies blog. Dr Jill Rudy, the leader of our research team at fairytales.byu.edu, was interviewed by Olivia Nelson about the origins of Rudy’s book “Channeling Wonder,” trends in modern fairytales, and advice for aspiring scholars. Enjoy! ——————————————————————————————————————————– Channeling Wonder: Jill Rudy by Olivia Nelson Once Upon a Time… In recent years it seems like we can’t turn on the Television without seeing fairytales written into the media. Dr. Jill Rudy, Associate Professor of …
The Un-Birthday Party: Celebrating the Updated Database
In the quaint room filled with Hogwarts-esque armchairs, Alice in Wonderland admirers gathered together to enjoy a smashing un-birthday party on January 27, Lewis Carroll’s 184th birthday. Herbal tea, cocoa, and cookies were consumed while the FTTV project participants discussed all things Alice and presented the new database layout. Preston presented on the evolution of Alice in Wonderland from Lewis Carroll’s oral story, to published book, to stage production, to screen. He mentioned Disney’s capitalization on the psychedelic colors in their …
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Weight-Watching Fairy Tales
A new year means a new weight-loss goal, right? Many of us make resolutions to lose weight or get in shape because we know we’ll feel better when our bodies are functioning properly. We make plans to transform our bodies into a calorie-consuming furnace. With three fruits and two vegetables in our tummies, we hope to win money for our “Before” and “After” pictures in the next six weeks. Some of our favorite fairy tales sponsor programs to help us …
Fairy Tale and Place: Between Portland and Storybrooke, PT 1
When it comes to fairy tales on television, the big heavy hitters are, of course, NBC’s Grimm and ABC’s Once Upon a Time (OUAT). Both of these fairy tale shows are live-action and share a protagonist that is introduced to the hidden, fairy tale world. These protagonists, Nick from Grimm and Emma from OUAT, first inhabited our world—Nick from Portland, Oregon, and Emma from Boston, Massachusetts. In the course of the shows, both Nick and Emma encounter the other-wordly. Nick unearths a hidden society of fairy-tale and dark creatures in …
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Back to Basics in the 1980s
In 1984 Jack Zipes published “Folklore Research and Western Marxism: A Critical Replay” in which he summarized the research of several folk lore scholars and ran it through a Marxists lens. In that article he concluded that fairy tales in television and film “exploit folklore to evoke images of the attainment of happiness through consumption.” And while Zipes doesn’t specifically include television commercials in that article, the TV commercial is a perfect encapsulation and culmination of the exploitation of folk …
Un-Birthday Tea Party at BYU!
Channeling Wonder and FTTV Project in the News
Check out the BYU Homepage this week at byu.edu to see the spot on the Fairy Tales and TV project co-founder, Jill Terry Rudy! http://news.byu.edu/archive16-jan-channelingwonder.aspx
“Hansel and Gretel” and December’s Candy Houses
Nibble, nibble, little mouse, Who is nibbling at my house? It’s beginning to taste a lot like Christmas: mulled wassail, peppermint canes, and—my own personal favorite—warm, sweet gingerbread. Now’s the season where you can bake soft gingerbread squares in hot lemon sauce or buy packaged gingerbread men. There are gingerbread house competitions and even the local grocery stores sell pre-made gingerbread house kits with packets of melted sugar and candy bits. It’s an entire season of warmth and spices and we have …
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The Many Pivots of the 1970s
The 1970s is a decade characterized by many historians as a “pivot of change” for America politically, economically, and socially. There are few places that better show this drastic change in U.S. values and societal attitudes than the television programing of the 70s. At the beginning of the decade once powerhouses like The Ed Sullivan Show (the show famous for introducing The Beatles to American audiences) and Gunsmoke were canceled, effectively ending the reign of the Western as a TV …
Dramaturg Digest: Just A Little Change, Small To Say The Least
This edited post was originally published in full on The 4th Wall, a blog about dramaturgy run by the BYU Department of Theatre and Media Arts. We’ve partnered with the cast and crew of an upcoming BYU musical production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast to examine the history behind this classic fairy tale and it’s depictions ranging from the Broadway stage to the television in your living room. In this blog we’ll show the overlap between our data from television history and BYU dramaturg …
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