A few offhand thoughts--

Look up "Stories that we live by" by Dan McAdams. It's
about the development of one's personal narrative;
takes a cognitive/developmental approach. 

Also, think about the topics that come up in fairy
tales, and research those. Wicked stepparents? There's
evolutionary research on the dangers of being a
stepchild. Trolls and ogres? The "what is beautiful is
good" hypothesis. I'd also recommend Pascal Boyer's
"Religion Explained" for a look at how beliefs in the
supernatural develop, and why certain memes are more
memorable than others.

Also, you might want to do a comparison/contrast on
fairy tales/fables with urban legends. There is a fair
amount of research on the latter, I think. 

It might be interesting to structure the class
according to various interpretations: psychoanalytic,
developmental (Bettelheim as well as McAdams),
evolutionary, cognitive ...

In short I TOTALLY wish I were you and were teaching
this class. 

Robin

--- Larry Daily <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> I've agreed to team teach an Honors course on
> fairy/folk tales for the
> fall. After several afternoons with PsycInfo, nearly
> everything I can
> find adopts either a Freudian or a Jungian
> perspective. Is there any
> other approach to folk tales out there? Any help
> would be appreciated
> more than you can imagine by this
> information-processing cognitive guy.
> 
> Thanks,
> Larry
> 
>
************************************************************
> 
> Larry Z. Daily 
> Assistant Professor of Psychology 
> Psychology Department Chair
>  
> Department of Psychology 
> White Hall, Room 216 
> Shepherd University 
> Shepherdstown, West Virginia 25443 
> 
> Psychology phone: (304) 876-5297 
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> email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
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> 
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> His sentence was to see
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>                       - Tom Rush
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