Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Turkey Maiden Educational Computer Game

2008; Routledge; Volume: 119; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00155870802057009

1469-8315

Natalie M. Underberg,

Education and Technology Integration

Abstract An educational computer game project underway in the Digital Media department of the University of Central Florida is the subject of this article. It is based on a folktale called "The Turkey Maiden," collected in Ybor City, Florida, in the 1930s. A game mod (user-created addition and modification to an existing commercial off-the-shelf computer game) has been created that integrates specific tasks the heroine must successfully complete in order to advance in the game. These tasks are based on lessons to be learned by the player about Ybor City history and culture. Adapting an oral folktale with an active female protagonist into a heritage-based computer game involved experimenting with feminist game design principle (gender differences in play), and understanding how features of digital environments, like spatiality and interactivity, affect storytelling and game play. Notes [1] "The Turkey Maiden" folktale on which the game is based is a Spanish tale collected by Ralph Steele Boggs in 1936 and published in Southern Folklore Quarterly in 1938 (Boggs 1938 Boggs, Ralph Steele. 1938. Spanish Folklore from Tampa, Florida (No. 5): Folktales. Southern Folklore Quarterly, 2: 87–106. [Google Scholar]). Maria Redmon translated the tale into English for inclusion in Kristin Congdon's (2001 Congdon, Kristin. 2001. "The Turkey Maiden". In Uncle Monday and Other Florida Tales, Edited by: Congdon, Kristin. 74–7. Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi. Trans. Maria Redmon from Spanish tale "La Pavera." [Google Scholar]) anthology of Florida folktales. The notes to the tale in Boggs (1938 Boggs, Ralph Steele. 1938. Spanish Folklore from Tampa, Florida (No. 5): Folktales. Southern Folklore Quarterly, 2: 87–106. [Google Scholar]) indicate "La Pavera's" (the tale title in Spanish) similarity to a Spanish version of tale-type 511 ("One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three Eyes"; see Uther 2004 Uther, Hans-Jörg. 2004. The Types of International Folktales. A Classification and Bibliography, Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica. [Google Scholar]) in which the Virgin gives a gift of three nuts to a princess who has been cast out of her father's home. Tale-type 510 ("Cinderella"), however, is a much better-known tale with many similarities to "The Turkey Maiden," and it is thus to "Cinderella" that I thus often refer as a shorthand way of evoking the basic plot outline of the "Turkey Maiden" story to a wider audience of non-folklorists, which includes teachers. Ralph Steele Boggs (1901–94) was an American folklorist who wrote several books on Spanish and Latin American folklore, and compiled a significant archive of Spanish-American folklore. His collection of papers on Ybor City folklore and history includes WPA Federal Writers' Project materials collected by employees during the 1930s, including collections of folklore genres like folk songs and descriptions of Ybor City life and culture. The collection is held in the State Archives of Florida in Tallahassee, Florida, USA. He published on Ybor City folklore and culture in journals such as Southern Folklore Quarterly and South Atlantic Bulletin. More information on the WPA (1935–43) and its role in providing employment during the Great American Depression is available from http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/couch.works.progress.administration; INTERNET. For the folklore project and the life histories segment of the Federal Writers Project of the WPA, see, for example, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/wpaintro/wpalife.html; INTERNET. Ybor City is perhaps best known for its historic cigar industry and Latin immigrant population (mainly Cuban, Spanish, and also Italian). Cigar makers from Cuba, Key West, Florida, and other parts of the United States came to Ybor City to establish their factories. The area became famous for its Cuban cigars, and was called the "Cigar Capital of the World." [2] Writing about game engines, Mark Butler states: "Although finding a strict definition of a games engine is difficult, they can be seen to be the programming infrastructure that lies beneath contemporary games, upon which characters, logic, narrative, and the like are built" (2004, 31). [3] David Leonard notes the predominance of White player characters in commercial games, and of racial and ethnic stereotypes when non-White player characters are included, and has suggested the need for game experiences that more responsibly address issues of cultural diversity (Leonard 2006 Leonard, David. 2006. Not a Hater, Just Keepin' It Real: The Importance of Race- and Gender-based Game Studies. Games and Culture, 1: 83–6. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). [4] More information on the Florida Folkvine project is available from http://www.folkvine.org/; INTERNET. [5] While both Perrault and the Brothers Grimm published versions of both ATU 510A (Cendrillon, Aschenputtel) and ATU 510B (Peau d'Asne, Allerleirauh), it is versions of ATU 510A that most closely resemble the popular image of the Cinderella character in mass media. I am indebted to an anonymous reviewer of a previous draft of this article for reminding me that Perrault and the Brothers Grimm published versions of variant 510B. [6] Tale-type 510B typically begins, in contrast, with the motif of the incestuous marriage proposal in which the grief-stricken father proposes marriage to his own daughter after his wife dies. [7] The name Señor Duende was chosen to denote the helper figure who is simply referred to as "dwarf" in the printed folktale. I am indebted to an anonymous reviewer for the information that the term duende also refers to the powerful and disquieting characteristics of the flamenco dance. [8] Super Mario Bros. (1985) is a popular video game in which the main character, Mario, is a plumber who must save a princess.