Owning the Journey - Using Collaborative Revisions of Little Red Riding Hood in Teaching Introduction to Literature at a Historically Black University - paper

Oct 15, 2026

Owning the Journey explores how collaborative revisions of Little Red Riding Hood can deepen student engagement in a college Introduction to Literature course at a Historically Black University. Students read and compare Perrault, the Grimms, and Angela Carter, then create and perform their own revised skits while writing analytical essays explaining their choices. The approach treats fairy-tale gaps, archetypes, narrative topoi, tone, and theme as teachable mechanisms, culminating in links between revised stories, course texts, and students’ real-world experiences.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Course design for collaborative revisions

Reading Perrault, the Grimms, and Carter

Guiding archetypal narratives and comparative interpretation

Feminist and allegorical revision with The Company of Wolves

Owning the Journey: Using Collaborative Revisions of Little Red Riding Hood in Teaching Introduction to Literature at a Historically Black University Pauline Scott Fort Hays State University In her article “Fractured Fairy Tales: German Women Authors and the Grimm Tradition,”Jeannine Blackwell notes that the narrative gaps in fairy tales—the unanswered questions that often underlie the stories—represent enticing possibilities for contemporary writers to “infuse their temporal interpretations” into existing stories (162-3) . Such unarticulated moments, which comprise latent invitations for writers and readers to engage with fairy tale worlds, become even more apparent in a comparative context. While on the faculty at Alabama State University, I designed a series of assignments for students in my Introduction to Literature course to read and compare three versions of the Little Red Riding Hood story [LRRH]—by Perrault, the Grimms, and Angela Carter—and subsequently participate in a collaborative group project in which they composed their own revision of the tale (according to guidelines provided by the instructor) that they would ultimately perform as a skit for the class. As part of the project, each student was required to write an accompanying essay analyzing their skit and explaining the rationale for the revisions they had made to the tale. The objective of the project was to doubly engage the students with the texts involved as both writers and critics. Teaching an Introduction to Literature course as a core or general education requirement often means working with a group of students who question the validity of such a requirement for non-English majors. As a faculty member at a Historically Black University, I designed these collaborative course projects using different versions of LRRH in order to help students to engage with material that often seems irrelevant to their cultural and intellectual experience. Encouraging the students to take a handson approach to literature by creating their own adaptations and incorporating their contemporary perspectives enhances their understanding of the mechanics of literary texts while concomitantly increasing their level of engagement as “owners” of their literary journey. In Making Literature Matter (3rd Edition), editors Clifford and Schilb group three versions of LRRH (by Perrault, the Grimms, and Carter) into a section on literary revisions. In my Introduction to Literature courses, I have used this grouping as a jumping off point for a class discussion on archetypal narratives. Our discussion culminates in a group project in which the students create their own versions ofthe LRRH story that relate the story back to other works that we have read and discussed during the semester while concomitantly relating the tale to their own real-world experiences. We begin by discussing archetypes and narrative topoi in general, focusing on the elements of the journey, the challenges and/or obstacles to be overcome, and theresolutions that represent the journey’s end. We discuss the figural qualities of the landscapes depicted, the functional aspects of the characters as “helping” and “harming” figures, and other elements, such as symbolism and figurative language, that are employed in each text. We begin with a careful consideration of how Perrault’s 1697 version uses the story to construct a message or “moral” about the protection of female virtue and discuss how this moral reflects Perrault’s contemporary preoccupation with the preservation of aristocratic privilege from the upstart aspirations of social-climbing predators. I ask the students to consider how that point is forcefully driven home by the shocking death of the protagonist at the story’s end—a very different conclusion than the one that they are used to. We then move to a comparative consideration of the differences, both apparent and subtle, between Perrault’s version of the tale and the more familiar version o

FAQs

How does the course structure collaborative revision activities around Little Red Riding Hood?

Students read three versions of the tale, then work on a group project where they compose a new revision according to instructor guidelines and perform it as a skit. Each student also writes an accompanying essay analyzing the skit and the rationale for their revisions.

What teaching goals are described for using fairy tales in a general education literature course?

The projects are designed to help students engage with texts that may seem irrelevant to their cultural and intellectual experience. The method encourages a hands-on approach that strengthens understanding of literary mechanics and increases students’ engagement as active “owners” of their literary journey.

How is Angela Carter’s revision introduced and analyzed in the course?

Carter’s The Company of Wolves is presented as a contemporary feminist retelling with an allegorical journey into womanhood. The instruction focuses on the narrative’s allegorical level, including the protagonist’s movement from puberty to adult sexuality, and on feminist critiques of patriarchal ideologies in fairy-tale traditions.

Oct 15, 2026

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