ebook img

Folklore Genres PDF

356 Pages·1976·38.738 MB·English
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview Folklore Genres

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.

See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.