Topic Brainstorm

Here are the four topics I found most interesting for my project!

Myth-Folklore Unit: Indian Fairy Tales:

Indian fairy tales peaked my interest as my mothers side of my family live in India and that background influenced my upbringing. As a child, my mother would tell me Indian fairy tales to put me to sleep. I would love to expand my knowledge on Indian fairy tales and i am interested in retelling the stories that have personified animals in them. Since many of these stories represent a distant time period, I would like to the take the essence of each story and relate it to present day.

Myth-Folklore Unit: Brothers Grimm (Ashliman):

The Brothers Grimm fairy tales immediately peaked my interest since I had studied these fairy tales in a previous class. Although this class took place nearly five years ago, I still have a decent recollection of how these fairy tales differed from those retold by Disney. I am interested to dive further into these fairy tales and maybe gain a different perspective than what I had acquired in high school. With these stories, I may want to try a gender swap or something similar to put a new spin on an old fairy tale.

Myth-Folklore Unit: Chinese Fairy Tales

The Chinese Fairy tales interested me because of my prior experience with Indian fairy tales. I am interested to compare and contrast the two sets of fairy tales and see if there is common pattern among these fairy tales. I also want to tell animal based stories like with Indian Fairy tales and retell them in a more modern way.

Myth-Folklore Unit: The Life of Buddha

The last set of fairy tales that interested me was the life of Buddha. This, as well as Indian fairy tales, ties back to my youth as my mother followed the teachings of Buddha and I remember seeing small Buddha statues in my house growing up. I am interested to learn more about Buddha and how Buddhism was formed from Hinduism. Lastly, I would like to also put a modern spin on these ancient stories.

Laughing Buddha Photo by William Cho