Folklore Genres

356 Pages·1976·38.738 MB·English

by  Dan Ben-Amos (editor)

Folklore Genres
Publications of the American Folklore Society
Bibliographical and Special Series
General Editor, Wm. Hugh Jansen
VOLUME 26 1976
Folklore Genres
Edited by Dan Ben-Amos
University of Texas Press Austin & London
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Folklore genres.
(Publications of the American Folklore Society, bibliographical and special
series; v. 26)
Originally published in Genre, 1969 and 1971.
Includes index.
CONTENTS: Literary and linguistic analysis of folklore genres: Utley, F. L.
Oral genres as a bridge to written literature. Lüthi, M. Aspects of the Märchen
and the legend. Bynum, D. E. [etc.]
1. Folk-lore—Theory, methods, etc.—Addresses, essays, lectures. 2. Folk-
lore—Classification—Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Ben-Amos, Dan. II. Genre.
III. Series: American Folklore Society. Bibliographical and special series; v. 26.
GR40.F64 398 75-17698
ISBN 0-292-72415-2
Copyright © 1976 by the American Folklore Society
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction ix
DAN BEN-AMOS
Part One. Literary and Linguistic Analysis of Folklore Genres
1. Oral Genres as a Bridge to Written Literature 3
FRANCIS LEE UTLEY
2. Aspects of the Märchen and the Legend 17
MAX LÜTHI
3. The Generic Nature of Oral Epic Poetry 35
DAVID E. BYNUM
4. The Blues as a Genre 59
HARRY OSTER
5. On Defining the Riddle: The Problem of a Structural Unit 77
CHARLES T. SCOTT
Part Two. The Ethnography of Folklore Genres
6. Legend and Belief 93
LINDA DÉGH and ANDREW VAZSONYI
7. Proverbs: A Social Use of Metaphor 125
PETER SEITEL
8. The "Pretty Languages" of Yellowman: Genre, Mode, and Tex-
ture in Navaho Coyote Narratives 145
BARRE TOELKEN
9. Japanese Professional Storytellers 171
V. HRDLICKOVÁ
vi Contents
Part Three. The Classification of Folklore Genres
10. The Complex Relations of Simple Forms 193
ROGER D. ABRAHAMS
11. Analytical Categories and Ethnic Genres 215
DAN BEN-AMOS
Notes on the Contributors 243
A Selected Bibliography 247
Index 283
Acknowledgments
The essays that comprise this symposium were originally published in
Genre 2, nos. 2-3 (1969): 91-301, and 4, no. 3 (1971): 281-304.
They are reprinted here with minor editorial changes, by permission
of the University of Illinois Press and the Faculty-Student Association
of the State University College of Arts and Sciences, Plattsburgh,
New York. I would like to thank the editors of Genre, Donald E.
Billiar, Edward F. Heuston, and Robert L. Vales, for their receptivity
to the idea of the symposium and for their assistance in the prepara-
tion of these essays for original publication. Earlier, Francis Lee Utley
had urged them to deal with the subject in their journal, and, as soon
as he learned of my proposed symposium, he offered his full support
and contributed an essay to the present collection. Hence, we were
particularly saddened by his death in 1974. Last, but not least, I wish
also to thank William Hugh Jansen, without whose encouragement
and help the symposium would not have been published in its present
form.

Introduction
DAN BEN-AMOS
Like other literary genres, symposia have their own distinctive fea-
tures, proprieties, and purposes; they adhere to clear conventions—
of which this Introduction is one—and generate distinct expectations.
They have characteristics that distinguish them from related genres
and "archaic" patterns that set models for each individual symposium.
The main attribute of this genre is unity within diversity: the essays
examine a single subject from different theoretical perspectives or,
conversely, apply a single theory to a variety of subjects. Often the
articles are explorative not conclusive in nature. As a meeting place
of ideas symposia often generate new thoughts rather than provide a
contemplative overview of past achievements and discarded theories.
The sense of immediacy with which such essays vibrate actually
hinders them from exhausting a subject. After all the ink has dried
and the typewriters have been silenced, there still remain many rele-
vant questions that are merely alluded to, hardly elucidated. Other
problems are not mentioned at all, and not necessarily because they
lack import.
Certainly, the present symposium has most of the shortcomings that
characterize the genre; we trust that it has also retained some of the
merits. The contributors, in discussing the concept of genre in folk-
lore—the unifying thread of the symposium—draw upon either re-
cent field research or new directions in folklore, literary criticism,
linguistics, and anthropology. The variety of subjects and methods
underscores both the diversity of oral literary experience and the cur-
rent interdisciplinary fervor in folklore scholarship. This heterogenei-
ty, it is hoped, will not generate a sense of futility but will encourage
debate about folklore genres, their heuristic value, and their signifi-
cance as cultural constraints of communication.