For this topic, research the analogs for a well-known Western European fairy tale that appear in a non-Western European culture. This culture could be African, Incan, Aztec, or Mayan, North American Indigenous, Australian aboriginal, Japanese, Chinese,

For this topic, research the analogs for a well-known Western European fairy tale that appear in a non-Western European culture. This culture could be African, Incan, Aztec, or Mayan, North American Indigenous, Australian aboriginal, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Italian, and so on. For example, many Russian fairy tales feature an old, wise, sometimes evil witch called Baba Yaga. One story involving Baba Yaga is called “Vasilisa the Brave” and is an analog to “Cinderella” in which a beautiful, modest, kind girl is persecuted by her jealous stepmother and stepsisters.
Once you have found the non-Western European fairy tale that you want to research, do two things: first, research the origins of the story and who first wrote it down, For example, while I was writing up this assignment, I searched “African Little Red Riding Hood,” and I was directed to an online book called, “African Fairy Tales.” This included several stories that were analogs to Western European fairy tales. However, since they were written down by European authors, I am not sure how genuinely African they are.
If I was doing this project, I would focus on a Little Red Riding Hood analog from this book, titled, “The Daughter of Buk Ettemsuch.” It has tale types that appear in “Little Red Riding Hood,” “The Wolf and the Seven Kids,” “Bluebeard,” and “Hansel and Grettel.” The man who “collected” the story is a famous writer of fairy tales named Andrew Lang. I’m not sure that this is a real African story, so for my project I would research Andrew Lang and the story itself. My purpose would be to find out if it is really an African story, or if Lang was just rewriting a compilation of several European stories and passing it off as African. My thesis statement would reflect my questions about the authenticity of “The Daughter of Buk Ettemsuch” as an African fairy tale.
Once you have decided what culture and which fairy tale from that culture you want to research, you will need to craft your own thesis statement that tells what your purpose in researching and writing about the fairy tale will be.

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