10th September 2009 Parody

Though we had a rather short tutorial session today, nevertheless it was very enjoyable because today’s task has got to do with the one area that I am quite good at- making jokes and be humorous! We were asked come up with parody for a fairy tale or fable and thanks to Eunice my group came up with a parody of Rapunzel trying to save Snow White and Sleeping Beauty from a tower which was on fire. Our parody ended quite tragically because all the three princesses did not live happily ever after like the ones mentioned in fairy tales. Rapunzel lost her crowning glory and died of humiliation, Snow White fell to her death because she was just too heavy for Rapunzel’s severely-damaged hair while Sleeping Beauty had her hands amputated because they were bacteria-infested. Scary huh! But that is what reality is all about! Like what John Keats says in his odes- Reality is not a bed of roses. Nothing in the reality is beautiful and fairy tales were the attempts by some individuals to beautify the harsh reality which was too much to bear! I think it will be a great idea to introduce parody into the English Literature classrooms especially to teach works like ‘There’s been a Death at the Opposite House’, ‘The Lotus Eater’, ‘Looking for a Rain God’ etc. These works has one theme in common (in my opinion), that is- we cannot run from reality no matter how harsh it is and reality can be very ugly sometimes. If this is the theme we are suppose to teach our students, then I believe introducing parody into the lesson will at least bring forth element of fun in dealing with serious topics like death, human sacrifice and self-destruction. We can ask students to come up with their own parody on a fairy tale of their choice (just like today’s task) and then compare their parody with the misfortunate events mentioned in literary texts they are going to learn for the lesson. I think students will enjoy the fun of creating their own parody (just like how I’ve enjoyed writing mine!) and they will not only being link the literary texts to themselves better but they will also have a sense of achievement in writing and reading something created by themselves or their peers instead of having to read works written by people they are not familiar with!