In order to complete this discussion board writing assignment, you must have completed the following required reading and review: “The Wife's Story” by Ursula Le Guin The Little Mermaid (2023) Cult

In order to complete this discussion board writing assignment, you must have completed the following required reading and review:

“The Wife's Story” by Ursula Le Guin 

The Little Mermaid (2023) 

Cultural Studies

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DB TASK: Write a 300-500 word reflection in response to this assignment prompt. Your response to this discussion post should try to create a reflection, with supportive textual evidence, that engages with as many questions as possible, in mini-essay form, while also creating a foundation for how you think about and respond to your peers' posts.

What's your interpretation of the inner workings of Ursual Le Guin's "The Wife's Story," as well as Marshall's (via Disney) 2023 adaptation of "The Little Mermaid?" How can you interpret these stories as cultural texts? How do both, or perhaps each, of these texts explore issues and ideas of power, gender, and sexuality as presented in the stories? How does each text explore cultural forces related to their themes? In other words, what ideas are circulated in these texts that mirror and reflect issues in society today? How does the wife in Le Guin's "The Wife's Story" and Ursula in The Little Mermaid offer social commentary on traditional gender roles for women? How do these characters (the wife as protagonist, and Ursula as foil character) act as villains or voices of reason within their societies? Or not? How does the portrayal of these two characters (in each text) offer sexual connotations, or play into the queer-coded/lesbian vampire myth in vampire literature and pop culture? How do we see these texts working with or against modern depictions of vampire literature and discourses (ideas/social theory)? 

Please share your thinking and reflection, especially if it includes personal connections, experiences, and stories. Also, in order to support please include the quotes, references, in-text citations, via MLA 8th Edition Format. You can include a Works Cited section with this post, listing all the references (separate from in text), though you are not required to.