Folklore 1000 notes PDF

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Folklore 1000 Wednesday, January 10th, 2018 Folklore – Traditional, passed on, does not have to be old. Twin Laws of Folklore – Barrie Toelken, dynamic (variable), and conservative (traditional). Things that seem exotic to some people seem very familiar to others. What do folklorists do? 

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Academic folklorists o University o Community college Public sector/public/applied* (best in NL currently) o Museums – The Rooms o Archives o Heritage *Applied o Medical field o Business

A dichotomy** between these 2 types of folklorists. ** A division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different. Survivals – Old items of folkloric interest Hecter – German nationalist, Jacob & William Grimm (known for their fairy tales). Hitler is a great example of a scary leader. Latrinalia -Bathroom graffiti.

Monday, January 15th, 2018 Folk Narrative    

Fairy Tales/Wonder Tales/Magic Tales (Not true) Myths Legends/Urban Legends Fables

Wednesday, January 17th, 2018 Folk Narratives (Verbal Genres)       

Ordinary folktales (fairy tales, magic tales, märchen), animal tales, tall tales… Legends Contemporary or urban legends Supernatural legends (belief) Personal experience narratives Myths (aetiological – creation stories) Folksongs and ballads

Ordinary folktales  

We are going to focus on magic/fairy tales or märchen (also called hero tales, wonder tales or conte fabulaire). Ordinary folktales or fairy tales include other types (such as): o Animal Tales (where the animals act like humans, have adventures, deal with good and evil (The Three Little Pigs); fables or moral tales feature animals, or humans, but these ales have a stated moral at the end). o Formula Tales (a simple story with a formulaic structure…)

Myths and Legends 

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Myths – Stories people tell about the beginning of things (connected to religion, associated with ritual and ceremony). Some myths are creation stories; explaining why the earth was created and all things in it. Legends – Stories people tell about events in the recent past that supposedly really happened (protagonists in legends are usually human beings but ghosts, deities and other supernatural beings are typically present). Urban Legends – Stories of horror or eeriness, involving a weird happening, close calls, horrific deaths, and other real-world phenomena (eg: microwaved cats; mice stuck in the coke bottles). Many urban legends feature belief (or superstition).

Märchen – “Little Short Story” (Schoemaker 1990, 25)  

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Märchen – German for “little short story” The term “märchen” is used by folklorists because the first published collection Kinderund-Hausmärchen (1812) was collected and published by the Brothers Grimm in Germany. Traditional märchen (also called fairy tales, magic tales) were first told and performed through oral transmission. More tales are in print today than come from oral transmission. Märchen. Show rather than tell. Use of laconic images (using few words). These images stick with us in our imagination.

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Orally told folktales, especially märchen, and intensely visual. We hear with our ears, but we see and hear the story through our mind’s eye. Storytellers who perform tales today tell them orally as others did centuries before.

Motifs in Folktales      

A motif is the smallest identifiable unit of an item of folklore. In fairy tales – motifs include recurrent elements, events, characters, scenes, objects. In Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the stepmother uses a mirror (magic object motif) to determine who is the fairest of all… “Mirror mirror on the wall…” “What big teeth you have Grandmother!” (Red Riding Hood’s third and last question before she, too, is eaten by the world). Not necessarily repetitive, but lots of symbolism, (her red hood, the animal wolf, don’t talk to strangers.

The Brothers Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm.    

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Frau Dorothea Viegmann – Source of many tales in Kinder-und-Hausmärchen (18121819). Was said to be the Grimm brother’s nanny but she wasn’t. She lived nearby. She was poor, had 6 children. Paid by the Grimm brothers to give the stories. Johann Krause – Retired Soldier/storyteller. Gave 7 stories to the Grimm brothers, paid him with a brand-new pair of leggings. Told stories of war (of their captains, mistreatment of soldiers. Wanted revenge against the authority. Soldier was the main character of his stories). When we think of how tales were traditionally told long ago, this image is one that might come to mind (little old lady sitting in a chair with children sitting on the floor listening to her). Collected pretty much anything people would tell them about

Children’s stories, nursery tales 

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Puss n’ Boots, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Beauty and the Beast, are often found in children’s storybooks today, and many of these tales have become more popular through film. Grandparents, nannies, and parents believed that these tales carried valuable lessons. They were expressive forms with relevance and entertainment value, especially in the 19th century when storytelling sessions among friends and family would have been the main attraction.

The Types of Folktale

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Versions of ordinary fairy tales were being collected all over the world so folklorists, Antti Aarne (Finland) and Stith Thompson (American) developed and published an index to categorize the tales. In addition to ordinary folktales, The Tale-Type Index describes variants of animal tales, jokes and anecdotes, and formula tales. The Tale-Type Index: A Classification and Bibliography (1934; 1987) Thompson created another index for organizing all the different motifs found in folktales, myths, legends… Motif-Index of Folklore Literature (1955)

“The folk tale flies whereas the legend walks… knocks at your door.”    

A märchen is a story told as fiction Such tales take us above reality. The depict a world as we wish it. Grimm’s fairy tales especially, have this “common ground element” – they strike a chord in most of us.

The fundamental issues in folktales  

Fairy tales or magic tales depict fundamental issues of human life: love, success, failure, happiness, sadness, kindness, values, decency, loyalty. In these tales’ good things happen to good people (in legends bad things happen to good people).

Once upon a time…    

Folktales have formularized openings and closings (acting as framing devices). “Once upon a time… …And they all lived happily ever after.” In South Africa – “a story, a story, let it go, let it come…And so ends my story” (Abrahams 1983, 14-15).

Friday, January 19th, 2018 Tom Tit Tot (English Version) and Rumpelstilzchen (German version); same tale but different titles and often, motifs. Settings, Characters, Motifs, Structure    

Setting of a fairy tale – Usually an unnamed kingdom in a remote age. Characters are sometimes royalty Structure: features repetition, often in trees (three brothers, three adventures). Hero or heroine of the tale is often a poor stepchild who rises to wealth and power through a combination of supernatural aid, good look, his/her own ingenuity, and perseverance.

Motifs of Ordinary Folktales

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Imaginary creatures (Ogres, giants, dragons) Transformation occurs Magic objects used Helpful animals Characters in the tale have supernatural powers, knowledge Characters are two dimensional Characters depicted in terms of extreme contrasts: strong vs week evil vs good.

Cinderella; set in a kingdom of a remote age; a fairy godmother (supernatural powers) transforms the poor stepchild; Cinderella is helped by animals (who are transformed into footmen, etc.); magic objects (wand, pumpkin/coach, shoes clock). Snow White’s stepmother transforms into an old peddler lady, so she can entice Snow White with a poisoned comb (transformation; magic objects; stepmother has supernatural powers; evil vs. good characters). Example of three-fold repetition; the big bad wolf tries to destroy the straw house, the stick house, and the brick house (The Three Little Pigs). Tangled (Rapunzel); characters with supernatural powers (healing properties), magic objects (Rapunzel’s hair). Maleficent/Sleeping Beauty; evil with supernatural powers, has crow/man to do her bidding (animal helper that transforms); contrasts between characters; evil witch vs. good princess. Innocent Hansel and Gretel, starving & exhausted from sleeping in the woods (parents abandoned them), are lured by the evil witch’s gingerbread house covered in treats. Who could blame them? Hansel and Gretel – Gretel gets gutsy and pushes the evil witch into the fire: Gretel’s resourcefulness and ingenuity saves her brother (and herself) from being eaten. Goldilocks and the Three Bears – not a “traditional” folk/fairy tale but it has become part of the lexicon of children’s nursey stories. It has been told and retold for over a century and so, by virtue f it’s oral (and literary) transmission, it is similar in structure to a fairy tale. And they lived happily ever after… Or did they? 

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Marina Warner, a folktale specialist indicates that “a fairy tale’s ability to cross borders, taking on new shapes as it goes… continues to give it potency in our global cultural economy.” In reviewing Warner, a writer from The Guardian stated that “the fairy tale is less from a form than a force, circulating around the world from forest hut to writers to Hollywood film set… in our own times, it is Harry Potter, and Frozen and the Twilight films. Nor is it just for kids, if indeed it ever was. For as Warner notes, following others – what else is EL James’s Fifty Shades of Grey but “Bluebeard”, updated with a modern kink.” (Kathryn Hughes, 11/20/2014).

Monday, January 22nd , 2018

4 Functions of Folklore    

Entertain Educate Validate a culture’s customs Exercise social controls

Alan Dundes   

Text → fairytale itself Context Texture → elements of older versions/tone or rhythm

Wednesday, January 31st, 2018 Folk Narratives *Verbal* - Urban Legends              

Horrific Sensational Frightening Comical Foolish Absurd Element of truth End with a cautionary note/element/warning Supernatural content Begins with, “Do you know the story about…” Endless number of theories Oral/digital transmission Chain mail Examples of Urban Legends o Nude Surprise Party o Surpriser Surprised o Short, concise o Used in Media (TV/movies) o Gossip

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Medical o Welcome to the World of AIDS Legend Tripping o Rites of passage o Teenage folklore o Cry Baby Bridge Bill Ellis When a legend becomes known, it becomes “localized”

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FOAF    

Friend of a Friend Element (kind of like a motif) Gives distance between you and the person who experienced it/disassociation A validating formula

Wednesday, February 7th, 2018 Riddles → Literature        

The Hobbit Harry Potter Structure → approach Underlying pattern Speech puzzle Neck saving riddles Joins two disparate, even contradictory entities Descriptive element

Conundrum → Usually contains a pun  

What’s black and white and read all over? → A newspaper. When isn’t a door, a door? → When it’s ajar.

Proverbs      

Traditional statements that are passed on in fixed terms Convey ethical or philosophical truth(s) Convey a wise observation “A watched pot never boils.” “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” “Say nothing saw wood.”

Metanarration 

Story within a story

Jokes   

Goal is to give pleasure in the form of laughter There are a lot of jokes about sex No one like a joke of themselves, so people usually make them about someone else o Joke teller o “Tendency” what the joke is about or is pointing to (not all the time) o Audience

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Can have an aggressive nature But can also be fun Short folk narrative o Beginning o Middle o End Fixed form jokes o More regional based Narrative jokes One liners Question answers Puns Jests Joke cycle Jokes can relieve anxiety and stress, they’re a safety valve for society. o “I was only joking!”

Wednesday, February 14th, 2018 Customary (pg. 44-50, 56-64)  

Customs, beliefs (superstition) Rites of passage & ritual

Calendar Customs vs. Rites of Passage 

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Calendar Customs o Cyclical o Highlights consistencies in life Rites of Passage o Linear o Highlights transitions in life

Rites of Passage 1. Initiation/introduction 2. Middle/limbo → in-between-ness → liminality 3. Reincorporation Lupercalia → Pagan Fertility Festival 

Romulus & Remus

Wednesday, February 28th, 2018 David Hufford 

American Folklorist

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Old Hag Cultural Source Hypothesis o When a person subscribes to a particular supernatural belief because their culture has said that thing is true. Experiential Source Hypothesis o Instead of culture being the source for the belief, you consider actual experience as the source.

Monday, March 19th, 2018 Art Song → Classical/Elite/Score/Snooty Popular Song → Pop culture/Score/Mass Media/Commercial Folk song → Passed down orally/Not based from a score/oldest form Monday, March 26th, 2018 Broadside Ballads       

Poetic in structure Implied sentiments/emotions Moral views Literal detail Chapter books Enter oral traditions Served social and cultural functions

G. Malcom Laws Jr.     

War Sailors/sea Family opposition of lovers Lover’s disguises and tricks Faithful lovers

John Reilly   

The fisherman NL Broadside → Modern Ballads Songsters → Book of Broadsides

“Bawdy” → Risqué Dundes   

Text Context Texture

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Moniker → Nickname/Localisms/Making fun of...