EVENT DETAILS

A Grimm Tale: Folktales, Internet Fan Fiction and the German Construction of Memory

The UC Irvine Department of European Languages and Studies invites you to its inaugural lecture in the European Languages & Studies Brown Bag Lecture Series with Dr. Jaime W. Roots:

Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016
12:00-1:00pm
Humanities Gateway 1010

Folktales have long been a means for societies to tell and retell stories as constructions of their cultures. With the rise of the Internet, new means of reinterpreting and distributing traditional tales have emerged: notably through fan fiction. Written by amateurs for other amateurs, fan fiction challenges traditional notions of the folktale, gender roles, contrasts between good and evil, and of course the whole idea of living “happily ever after.” In this talk, Dr. Roots discusses fan fiction and fandom studies as crucial components in our understanding of how and why folktales are continually adapted and retold.

Jaime W. Roots earned her Ph.D. in German at UC Irvine and is currently a Lecturer in ELS. Her areas of research include the effects of oral storytelling on collective memory and the influence of new media on the storytelling process.