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True Tales of Taboo: The Dark Side of Fairy Tales
Four Zoom sessions
Mon., Sept. 29, Oct. 6, 13, 20, 2025, 6:30-8:30 pm MT

Did you know that The Little Mermaid was written without a happy ending to emphasize torture and self-sacrifice? Or, that Bluebeard was intended to warn married women to be obedient to their husbands? Fairy tales are magical, but also store ingrained social paradigms. They have a hold on us—we return to their narratives despite their unsettling nature. Join April Chapman-Ludwig, associate professor in the ºÚÁÏÃÅ’s Writing Program, as she strips away the Disney whitewash and dives into Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, Bluebeard, and The Little Mermaid, addressing each story’s historical and cultural meanings. Many seemingly benign tales descended from darker stories with themes of adultery, incest, cannibalism, rape, murder and mutilation. These darker tropes reflect cultural messages about survival, morality, growing up and how humans ought to make meaning in an uncertain world. In each class, Chapman-Ludwig begins by sharing the origin story of a popular fairy tale. For example, Hansel and Gretel has its roots in the 1314 European Famine. What was the intended moral of that story? Then, she examines the adaptations to each story across time. What does each change reveal about society and also the author’s own life? Join class discussions about why these stories still resonate today, which adaptations seem antiquated and which hit too close to home.

April Chapman-Ludwig has taught in the Writing Program at DU for over 18 years. Her writing and research focus on visual rhetoric, 18th-century women’s literature, the history of fairy tales, documentary film, transfer student persistence and the social sciences.