PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY: Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups - Class 1: The Tale of Tales

February 17, 2022
7:00pm - 8:30pm

INSTRUCTOR: Dartmouth Professor of French and Italian, Nancy Canepa (by livestream on screen). 
Music: West Liberty University West African Drums and Dancers
Storyteller: Vince Marshall, "The Ogre"

Professor Canepa did the translation, and wrote the introduction, and notes for a new edition of Giambattista Basile's collection, "The Tale of Tales or Entertainment of Little Ones." Canepa's teaching and research centers on early modern Italy (1550-1700). She is particularly fascinated by the development of new literary forms and languages during this period, in genres that range from the fairy tale to the mock epic to the travelogue. Related interests include seventeenth-century Naples, dialect literature, the history of the European fairy tale, and translation. Dr. Canepa regularly teaches courses in beginning language, and on early modern Italian literature and culture, fairy tales, and translation.

Class starts at 7:00 pm in the Library Auditorium. This program will be available to watch live on Facebook Live, on YouTube, and on the OCPL website's People's University: Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups.  Log into your Facebook or YouTube account during the program to leave questions for Professor Canepa in the comments box. She will answer them during the live broadcast. 

People's University: Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups
For the Winter session 2022, People's University at the Ohio County Public  Library will offer a series on the origins of familiar fairy tales. Patrons are invited to gather around the campfire beneath a canopy of stars and planets to travel back in time to the early days of human story sharing for six Thursday evening sessions starting February 17 at 7 PM.

How are these stories different?
Most of us consider fairy tales to be stories for children, innocent and without real evil or harm. But what's lesser known is that most fairy tales were originally written for adults — and were much more grim and gruesome than those of our childhood. Many of the fairy tales that are still retold today date back to the 17th century and earlier. Favorites like Beauty And The Beast and Rumpelstiltskin are at least 4,000 years old. As these tales were passed down from one century to the next, they were often altered to remove some of the more ghastly and frightening elements, making them more appropriate for a younger audience. However, when we delve back into the fairy tales of our childhood as adults, we can rediscover our heroes and princesses from a different perspective. These often disturbing yet enchanting tales can still yield useful lessons about life for us grown-ups when we take a deeper look at these stories.

All programs in this series are free and open to the public. Each program in this series will feature a campfire along with other special effects. In addition to our normal beverages, hot chocolate will also be available.

PLEASE NOTE: This series is not for children! This series is most definitely Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups only.

CLASS SCHEDULE:
Class 1: Feb. 17 — "The Tale of Tales" — Instructor: Nancy Canepa; Music: West Liberty University West African Drums and Dancers; Storyteller: Vince Marshall, "The Ogre"
Class 2: Feb. 24 — "Toward a Theory of the Fairy Tale as a Literary Genre" — Instructor: Dr. Jack Zipes; Storyteller: Don Feenerty, "Hansel And Gretel"
Class 3: Mar. 3 — "Appalachian Fairy Tales" — Instructor & Storyteller: Bil Lepp
Class 4: Mar. 10 — "Bringing the Fairy Tale Back to the Horror Realm" — Instructor: Dr. Jessica R. McCort; Storyteller: TBA
Class 5: Mar. 17 — "Celtic Fairy Tales" — Instructor & Storyteller: Alan Irvine
Class 6: Mar. 24 — Puppetry Finale  — Instructors: Irene Alby, Professor of Acting and Directing, and Mary McClung, Professor of Costume Design and Puppetry, both from the School of Theatre and Dance at West Virginia University; Storytellers: WVU School of Theatre and Dance, "Three Little Pigs" and Aesop’s Fables

FEATURED BOOK:
The Tale of Tales; or, Entertainment for Little Ones,  by Giambattista Basile ; translated with an introduction and notes by Nancy L. Canepa ; foreword by Jack Zipes. (Penguin Books, 2016)
[Reserve a copy from the Library  |  Purchase a copy online through bookshop.org to support local book stores or visit indiebound.org to find The Tale of Tales in a bookstore near you.  |  Purchase online through Amazon ]

Before the Brothers Grimm, before Charles Perrault, before Hans Christian Andersen, there was Giambattista Basile, a seventeenth-century poet from Naples, Italy, whom the Grimms credit with recording the first national collection of fairy tales. The Tale of Tales—also known as The Pentamerone—opens with Princess Zoza, unable to laugh no matter how funny the joke. Her father, the king, attempts to make her smile; instead he leaves her cursed, whereupon the prince she is destined to marry is snatched up by another woman. To expose this impostor and win back her rightful husband, Zoza contrives a storytelling extravaganza: fifty fairy tales to be told by ten sharp-tongued women (including Zoza in disguise) over five days. 

Funny and scary, romantic and gruesome—and featuring a childless queen who devours the heart of a sea monster cooked by a virgin, and who then gives birth the very next day; a lecherous king aroused by the voice of a woman, whom he courts unaware of her physical grotesqueness; and a king who raises a flea to monstrous size on his own blood, sparking a contest in which an ogre vies with men for the hand of the king's daughter—The Tale of Tales is a fairy-tale treasure that prefigures Game of Thrones and other touchstones of worldwide fantasy literature.

➤ View books available at the Library about the history and literary dissection of Fairy Tales 
➤ View ebooks available at the through WVDeli about the history and literary dissection of Fairy Tales
➤ View ebooks available at the through Hoopla about the history and literary dissection of Fairy Tales

- People's University Online-
Thursdays from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm on YouTube Live and Facebook Live

Subscribe to the People's University Youtube channel or like us on the People's University Facebook page or to receive notifications of our upcoming People's U broadcasts. To receive emails about our upcoming programs, visit our News page, click the "Subscribe" button to sign-up for our news blasts or download our free OCPL Connect app from your smartphone's app store. 

ABOUT THE OCPL'S PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY SERIES:

In 1951, the Ohio County Public Library's librarian, Virginia Ebeling, referenced British historian Thomas Carlyle, who said, “the public library is a People’s University,” when she initiated a new adult education program with that name. Miss Ebeling charged the library with the responsibility of reaching “as many people in the community as possible.” In keeping with that tradition of public libraries as sanctuaries of free learning for all people, the Ohio County Public Library revived the series in 2010.

The People’s University features courses (taught by experts in each subject) that enable patrons to pursue their goal of lifelong learning in classic subjects such as history, music appreciation, philosophy, and literature. Patrons may attend as many classes as they wish. There are no tests of other requirements and all programs are free and open to the public. For more information about PU: Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups, EMAIL US,  visit ohiocountylibrary.org or call the library at 304-232-0244.