Social Sciences

Fairy Tales, Folk Lore and Legends

Monday 14th March ? Wednesday 16th March 2016
Budapest, Hungary

Wicked witches, evil stepmothers, Rumplestiltskin, jinn, gnomes, trolls, wolves and thieves versus fairy godmothers, Peri, departed beloved mothers, firebirds, dwarves, princesses, Simurgh, woodcutters and princes charming. Fairy tales, folk lore and legends are the canvas on which the vast mural of good versus evil plays out and our darkest dreams or nightmares struggle against our better selves and highest hopes. At the same time, the relationship between these tales and modern society is a complex one that invites closer consideration of the changing nature of the stories and how modern sensibilities have both challenged and been challenged by the values and viewpoints that underpin the narratives.

Fairy tales can be interpreted in a variety of ways and from a variety of viewpoints: they can be psychological exposes, blueprints for dealing with the traumas of childhood and early adulthood, guides to navigating life, windows onto social realities long forgotten, remnants of ancient mythology or hints at how to access the Transcendent.

The Fairy Tales interdisciplinary research and publishing stream investigates how fairy tales/folk tales/legends represent both good and evil, how these are personified or interact, what these reveal about the lives of those who have told them over the years, what they mean for us who read or listen to them today. Possible subjects for presentations include but are not limited to:

Exploring the Tales Themselves

Functions of tales over time and across cultures
Socio-political context of tales and their capacity to serve as allegories for real life issues
Justice and morality in the tales
Fairy tale utopias and dystopias and the blurred lines between fiction, fact, reality, science fiction and mythology
How fairy tales shape ideas about happiness
Considerations of why tales are an enduring aspect of culture
Factors that make some tales more popular than others (and why popularity can shift over time)
(Re)interpretations and re-imaginings of the same tales differ over time or across cultures
Relationship between fairy tale characters and real life humans: do human 'good guys' or 'bad guys' behave so differently from fictional goodies and baddies, where there times when characters that seem fantastic to modern folks were actually considered to be more realistic by historical readers/listeners, what factors shape the changes that cause people to perceive characters as more or less real
Relationship between fantastic and magical elements of tales and lived reality
Tales and monsters: monstrous animals, monstrous humans, children's interaction with monsters
Intended lessons and values of stories and counter-interpretations, particularly in relation to gender, sex, materialistic values, notions of virtue and authority
Processes around the domestication of fairy tales
Tales as a source of/mechanism for oppression of individuals or groups
New/modern tales
Critical approaches to tales
Tales and their authors
Fairy tale artwork and imagery
Fairy tale geographies: spaces and places of both the worlds within fairy tales as well as the spaces and places where the narratives are told or written
Encountering Fairy Tales/Legends/Folk Tales

Studies of readers/audiences across time and cultures
Listening versus reading: impact of oral traditions on the narratives, impact of illustrations in reception of the tales, etc.
Relationship between traditional and modern forms of interactive storytelling involving fairy tales
How adaptation to other mediums, such as film, television, visual art, music, theatre, graphic novels, dance and video games, affect the content of the tales themselves, appreciation of the narrative or our interpretations of narrative meaning
Uses of Fairy Tales/Legends/Folk Tales

In advertising (re-imagining tales in advertising imagery, marketing the princess lifestyle, etc.)
Tales and pedagogy: using tales as teaching and learning tools
In tourism through destination marketing of spaces associated with fairy tales, Disneyfication of tales, etc.
In the formation of national/cultural/ethnic identity
In the publishing business
Communities, biography and fairy tales: How social communal identity is forged around telling and re-telling tales
Tales, Health and Happiness

Tales and magical thinking in the human development
Tales and psychological/clinical practices involving tales
Tales and unhealthy behaviour/beliefs
Effect of tales on shaping notions of (un)happiness, (in)appropriate ways to pursue it and how to respond to respond to others' (un)happiness
Tales and aging ("growing old" as a theme in tales, how tales shape perceptions of old age, etc.)
Live Performances of Tales

Theatrical, dance and other types of staged presentations
Pantomime
Vocal performances
Art installations
Readings
Curated film screenings

Further details can be found on the project web site:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/persons/fairy-tales-folk-lore-and-legends/call-for-participation/
Call for Cross-Over Presentations
The Fairy Tales, Folk Lore and Legends project will be meeting at the same time as a project on Health and another project on Happiness. We welcome submissions which cross the divide between both project areas. If you would like to be considered for a cross project session, please mark your submission "Crossover Submission".

What to Send
300 word abstracts, proposals and other forms of contribution should be submitted by Friday 2nd October 2015.
All submissions be minimally double reviewed, under anonymous (blind) conditions, by a global panel drawn from members of the Project Team and the Advisory Board. In practice our procedures usually entail that by the time a proposal is accepted, it will have been triple and quadruple reviewed.

You will be notified of the panel's decision by Friday 16th October 2015.
If your submission is accepted for the conference, a full draft of your contribution should be submitted by Friday 5th February 2016.

Abstracts may be in Word, RTF or Notepad formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: Fairy Tales Abstract Submission

Where to Send
Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs:

Organising Chairs:
Stephen Morris: [email protected]
Rob Fisher: [email protected]

This event is an inclusive interdisciplinary research and publishing project. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.

It is anticipated that a number of publishing options will arise from the work of the project generally and from the meeting of Fairy Tales, Folk Lore and Legends stream in particular. Minimally there will be a digital eBook resulting from the conference meeting. Other options, some of which might include digital publications, paperbacks and a journal will be explored during the meeting itself.

Ethos
Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation. Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.

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Social Sciences