OUIL501 | Research Proposal for COP3

CONTEXT OF PRACTICE 3 Research Question Proposal

INTRODUCTORY PROPOSAL For Context of Practice 3 I wish to further my knowledge and explore the ways in which illustration and visuals affect the way in which we perceive folklore. It is one of the major ideas that I’ve had, this too would involve the creation of world building in fantasy and popular culture. So therefore the main themes of my dissertation or what I hope to investigate further are folklore, fantasy, mythology and storytelling. The overarching themes of my proposed question and research project are still rather broad but they aren’t exactly unfamiliar territories either. I’ve touched upon the strange and undefined in my past essays since it is both a topic that interests me and affects my practice in both a visual and contextual way. The importance of storytelling and how this history of storytelling has changed the landscape of culture in which we live in has always affected my practice. The aspect of world

“To what extent has Illustration constructed our understanding or view of historical events and perceptions of truth?”

building as well as storytelling interest me greatly and that might be another road I’ll investigate over the course of the summer because I find the whole ideas of world-building in both literature and in any given media to be fascinating and worthy of a proper investigation. The construction of fictional worlds shows the depths in which creators will go to create something that will either reflect real world society or be inspired from various of historical civilisations and cultures overall. Both of these broad topics touch upon the same themes, the importance of mythology and folklore in both our literature and culture, as well as their visual impact and how illustrating these stories impacts our own culture.

TOPICS & THEMES OF PARTICULAR INTEREST • • • • • • • •

FOLKLORE TRADITIONS MYTHOLOGY HISTORY CULTURE OLD TRADITIONS SYMBOLS & VISUALS NARRATIVE

• • • • • •

STORY-TELLING LITERATURE WRITING SYMBOLISM HERITAGE MYTHICISM

RELEVENT/RELATED QUOTES “On the importance of the material contained in the Poetic Edda it is here needless to dwell at any length. We have inherited the Germanic traditions in our very speech, and the Poetic Edda is the original storehouse of Germanic mythology. It is, indeed, in many ways the greatest literary monument preserved to us out of the antiquity of the kindred races which we call Germanic. Moreover, it has a literary value altogether apart from its historical significance. .”

“By far the most interesting of the peoples that formerly inhabited Ireland were the Tuaths, or Tuatha de Danaans, or Dananns. There is much mystery about them in Irish traditions. They were men, gods, or fairies. They came, of course, from the East, calling in at Greece on the way, so as to increase their stock of magic and wisdom. Some trace them to the tribes of Dan, and note Dedan in Ezek. xxv. 13.

Mrs. Wilkins identifies them with the Dedanim of Isa. xxl. 13, "a nomad, yet semi-civilized, people." Isaiah calls them "travelling companies of Dedanim.“

- HENRY ADAM BELLOWS, (1936)“Prose Edda”,

- JAMES BONWICK, (1894)“Irish Druids And Old Irish Religions”,

“The Druids were priests of the Celts centuries before Christ came.

There is a tradition in Ireland that they first arrived there in 270 B.C., seven hundred years before St. Patrick. The account of them written

by Julius Caesar half a century before Christ speaks mainly of the Celts of Gaul, dividing them into two ruling classes who kept the people almost in a state of slavery; the knights, who wages war, and the Druids who had charge of worship and sacrifices, and were in addition physicians, historians, teachers, scientists, and judges.”

- RUTH EDNA KELLEY, (1919)“The Celts: Their Religion & Festivals”,

“Away from Stonehenge, much smaller groups of people celebrate the summer solstice by gathering before sunrise in gardens or woods, on beaches or hilltops across the country, some for organised rituals and some, like Cath, just responding to their own understanding of a spirituality that seems to work best in the open air. Ask her faith and she says "pagan" straight away.

She sees no need to join in with anybody else, but Cath is far from alone.”

- COLE MORETON, “Everyone’s a Pagan now”, The Guardian

“Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker.”

- J.R.R TOLKIEN , (1983)“The Monsters & The Critics and other essays”,

RELEVENT/RELATED QUOTES “Faërie contains many things besides elves and fays, and besides dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons; it holds the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky; and the earth, and all things that are in it: tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted.”

“History often resembles myth, because they are both ultimately of the same stuff.”

- J.R.R TOLKIEN , (1947)“Of Fairy-stories”,

- J.R.R TOLKIEN , (1947)“Of Fairy-stories”,

“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”

“The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords.”

- C.S.LEWIS

- J.R.R TOLKIEN , (1947)“Of Fairy-stories”, “In the contemporary society we are constantly struggling to go back to our own roots and to maintain our ethnic identities. "Who am I?' is a question that has been scrutinised by us in diverse forms in our lives. As a matter of fact, we are living in such an unpredictable position where we are enforced to rethink, redefine and elucidate our identities to different social institutions.”

-Phurailatpam Jayalaxmi ,The Sanghai Express,

BOOKS

BOOKS

WEBSITES 1. Tolkien: The Official Book Shop [Online] At: http://www.tolkien.co.uk/index.html 2. The Wild Hunt: Modern Pagan New & Commentary [Online] At: http://wildhunt.org/ 3. Sacred Texts [Online] At: http://www.sacred-texts.com/ 4. Hex Magazine [Online] At: http://hexmagazine.com/blog/ 5. The Imperial Library [Online] At: http://www.imperial-library.info/books/skyrim/by-category

IMAGES

Polish folk-art & Slavic folk-art

Kate Baylay

IMAGES

Ivan Billibin

JRR Tolkien

Ian Phillips

Celtic folk-art

IMAGES

Tarmasz

Krystyna Turska