Creative Piece

Creative Piece

15% of the Final Grade

Due before 23:55 on Friday the 10th of November

Disney’s The Little Mermaid (1989), Sleeping Beauty (1959) and Maleficent (2014) are all examples of creative work that draw upon, and re-present, material from a pre-existing text in order to produce something new. 

To take the example of The Little Mermaid, a popular feature-film was created by drawing upon, altering, and building upon specific elements from a representative Fairy Tale text, Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid (1836). The film represents a dramatic shift from a dark cautionary fairy tale for adults with heavy religious overtones concerning the role and place of girls in society, to a light-hearted musical coming of age adventure targeted at children and families.

The same is true for many other texts that we will read, discuss, or watch in the second half of this semester.

This iterative creative process is of key interest to us in this course, as it is a prime example of how pre-existing genre conventions and representative texts can be used by authors and artists alike to generate new genre texts that either conform to, or resist, the expectations of modern readers.

For your Creative Piece you will be producing your own genre text through a similar process. 

Task: You will be required to submit your own creative text that conforms to and/or resists conventions of the Folk and Fairy Tales genres.

In doing so, it should:

        Adapt,

        Appropriate,

        Or

        Re-interpret…

…the literary elements (plot, setting, dialogue, characterisation, narration, tone) and theme(s) present in a set of representative folk and fairy tale texts of your choosing. The more material that you gather, the more material that you will have to work with.

++You will begin this process in Journal Entry 4 and two Group Activities, and receive feedback from, and collaborate with, your peers in your Work Group.++

This Assignment has two parts...

Part One: The Creative Piece

You will need to choose what literary mode or artistic medium you will use to tell your story. 

Examples of the kinds of literary modes that you can employ to produce your Creative Piece are:

Short story

Screenplay (for screen or stage)

Auto-biography

Biography

Poem (long form) or set of short poems

Song lyrics (long form song) or set of song lyrics (to multiple shorter songs)

And more…

OTHER MODES WILL BE ACCEPTED UPON REQUEST BY MIO.

For those of a different artistic persuasion, I am also accepting (upon prior discussion and approval) your work to be presented in various artistic media such as:

Short Film

Dance

Song

Screenplay or script for a play

Animation

Comic Strip / Manga

Visual art (digital or physical)

Board game

And more…

OTHER MODES WILL BE ACCEPTED UPON REQUEST BY MIO.

TIPS:

• Note that regardless of the literary mode or artistic medium that you choose, the focus is on telling a story that articulates a theme.
• This could be a very clear message that you intend to share or could appear organically as you represent your chosen subject matter.
• You do not have to be personally invested in, or believe in, your theme, though it certainly helps to motivate your creation!  

Part Two: The Annotated Report

In addition to your Creative Piece, you will also need to present an Annotated Report that offers some insight into its content (what subject matter it represents) and formal elements (how it represents the subject matter).

Completing this task will ensure that your work meets the requirements set by this task. 

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