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Traditional Literature Dr. Kristen Trent
Origin of Folk Literature • The Oral Tradition
• Folklore, Folk Literature, Mythology – Myths: gods or creation
– Legends: heroes and mighty deeds
– Folktales, fairytales, fables: talking beasts, royalty, or commoners revealing human and fantastical characteristics
Origin of Folk Literature • Monogenesis
– Inheritance from a single culture
• Grimm brothers belief
• Aryans or Indo-Europeans
• Diffusions with migration
• Polygenesis – Multiple origins
• Independent inventions from universal needs and desires
• Clyde Kluckhorn
• Sir James Frazer
• Freud
• Carl Jung – Race memory
Value of Folk Literature • Philologists
– Language and grammar
– 1812 Grimm’s Household Stories
– Not intended for children
• Anthropologists – Inherent values and
beliefs of a culture
• Psychologists – Human feelings and
motivation
• Folklorists – Collect and
categorize stories, types, and motifs
Value of Folk Literature • Communicated to children in oral
tradition – Short with fast moving plots
– Frequently humorous
– Almost always end happily ever after
– Poetic justice prevails
– Wishes come true through tasks
Value of Folk Literature • “Each fairy tale is a magic mirror which
reflects some aspects of our inner world and of the steps required by our evolution from immaturity to maturity.” – Bruno Bettelheim
• “Fantasy is the most valuable attribute if the human mind and should be diligently nurtured from childhood.” – Kornei Chukovsky
Value of Folk Literature • Common cliches
– Sour grapes – Boy who cried wolf
• Common terms – Narcissistic – Labyrinth – Siren
Folktales • “all forms of narrative, written or
oral, that have come to be handed down over the years”
• Includes epics, ballads, legends, folk songs, myths, and fables
Types of Folktales • Cumulative Tales
– The House that Jack Built – Gingerbread Boy
• Pourquoi Tales – Why stories – How the Camel Got its Hump – Native American tales
Types of Folktales • Beast tales
– Three Little Pigs
– Three Billy Goats Gruff
– Tales of Uncle Remus: Adventures of Brer Rabbit
Types of Folktales • Wonder tales
– Fairytales • Jack and the Beanstalk • Rapunzel • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
– Romance and adventure – Fairies, demons, dragons, oni, witches – Fulfillment of human desires
Types of Folktales • Realistic tales
– Dick Whittington and His Cat
– Johnny Appleseed
– Zlateh the Goat
Characteristics of Folktales
• Plot Structure – Quick flow of action
– Wise beast/foolish beast
– Journey novel
– Almost all have happy endings • Myths explore human frailty and demise
– Three is magical number
– Repetition
Characteristics of Folktales
• Setting – Time and place established quickly
– Conventions such as “once upon a time”
– Time passes quickly
– Setting not specific, but faraway land, cottage in the woods, beautiful place
Characteristics of Folktales
• Characterization – Two dimensional
• Black or white with no shades of gray
– Character development is rare • Beautiful princess
• Evil stepmother
• Longsuffering poor and hardhearted rich
Characteristics of Folktales
• Style – Rich, qualitative language with a variety of
language patterns • Once upon a time • There was a time and there wasn’t a time • We do not mean, we do not really mean that
what we are going to is true
– Must maintain culture of country and sound like it is being told
Characteristics of Folktales
• Themes – Values of culture
• Humility, kindness, patience, sympathy, hard work, courage
– Rewards of culture • Long life, good spouse, beautiful home, fine
clothing, plenty of food, freedom from fear
Characteristics of Folktales
• Motifs – Smallest part of a tale that can exist
independently • Recurring parade of characters
– Wicked stepmother
• Magical objects
• Enchantment
Characteristics of Folktales
– Magical powers • Helpful companions
• Possessors always aid hero
– Magical objects • Magic lamps
• Rings
• Cooking pot
Characteristics of Folktales
– Wishes • Used wickedly or in greed
– Trickery • Animals
– European wolf – Japan badger – Africa Anansi the spider, Zomo the rabbit, and Ijapa
the tortoise – Native American coyote and raven
• People – Stone Soup – Boy of the Three Year Nap – One Grain of Rice
Variants of Folktales • Cinderella
– Over 500 variations in Europe alone
– Others found in ancient Egypt, 9th century China, and 10th century Iceland
– French version is most familiar
Folktales of the World • British
– Joseph Jacobs adapted for children
– Henny Penny – The Little Red Hen – The Three Little
Pigs – The Three Bears
• German – Brothers Grimm
– Rapunzel • Sendak’s version of
pregnant Rapunzel
– Elves and the Shoemaker
– Rumpelstiltskin
– Little Red Cap
– Hansel and Gretel
Folktales of the World • Scandinavian
– Peter Christian Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe
– East o’the Sun and West o’ the Moon
• Three Billy Goats Gruff
• Troll with No Heart in His Body
– Reflect harsh climate
• French – Charles Perrault
• “Conscious elegance of literary tale”
• Sleeping Beauty • Puss and Boots • The Twelve Dancing
Princesses • Beauty and the
Beast
Folktales of the World • Russian
– Often longer and more complicated
• The Little Humpbacked Horse
• Soldier and Tsar in the Forest
• The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship
• Gigantic Turnip
• The Mitten
• The Little Snowgirl
– Witch Baba Yaga
• Jewish – Isaac Bashevis Singer
– Poignancy, wit, and ironic humor
• Zlateh the Goat
• When Shliemel Went to Warsaw
• It Could Always Be Worse
• Something from Nothing
• Joseph had a Little Overcoat
Folktales of the World • Middle East and
India – The Golden
Bracelet – Arabian Nights
translated by Sir Richard Burton
– Sinbad in the Land of Giants
– Foolish Rabbit’s Big Mistake
• Asia – Yeh-Shen
– Lon Po Po
– The Seven Chinese Brothers
– The Donkey and the Rock
– The Crane Wife
Folktales of the World • Africa
– A Story, A Story
– Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears
– Anansi the Spider
– Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters
• Native American – How Turtle’s Back
was Cracked
– Girl Who Loved Wild Horses
– Rough Faced Girl
Folktales of the World • Four categories of Canadian and US
Folklore – Native American, Eskimo, and Inuit tales
that were already here – Tales that came from Western Africa and
were changed to form African American folktales
– Tales from Europe that were modified – Tall tales, legends, other Americana
developed here
Folktales of the World • European Variants
in US – Richard Chase’s
Grandfather Tales and Jack Tales
– Smoky Mountain Rose
• African American – Uncle Remus
– The People Could Fly
– Lapin Plays Possum
Folktales of the World • Tall Tales
– Paul Bunyan
– Pecos Bill
– Johnny Appleseed
– John Henry
– Mose Humphreys
– Swamp Angel
• Mexico, Caribbean, Central and South America – The Monkey’s
Haircut and Other Mayan Tales
– Cendrillion
Fables • Usually associated with Aesop
– Greek slave born in Asia Minor approx. 600 B.C. – Translated in Latin and English by William
Caxton
• Jakata tales – Animal stories that told of the previous births
of Budda
• Jean de la Fontaine – French poet who wrote his fables in verse;
based on Aesop
Fables • Brief, didactic tales in which animals
or the elements speak as humans • Characters are impersonal with no
other name than “fox” or “rabbit” – Town Mouse, Country Mouse – The Lion and the Mouse – The Grasshopper and the Ant
Myths • Evolved as primitive people searched for
explanations
• Gods and goddesses are immortal and possess supernatural powers
• Deal with human relationships with the gods, relationships among the gods, destiny, and struggles with good and evil
Types of Myths • Creation Myths
– How world began, how people made
– Explanation for beginnings
• The Star-Bearer creation myth from 3000 B.C. in Egypt
• Nature Myths – Explain seasonal
changes, animal characteristics, earth formations
• Demeter and Persephone
• Hero Myths – Parallel wonder stories
– Gods help or hinder • Herecules
Epic and Legendary Heroes
• Epic – Long narrative or cycle of stories
clustering around actions of a single hero • The Iliad, The Odyssey, Robin Hood
– Epic of Gilgamesh • Written more than 4000 years ago in
Mesopotamia – Gilgamesh: Sumerian king – Endiku: primitive man – Utnmapishtim: similar to our Noah – Ishtar: goddess
• Translated by Ludmila Zeman
Epic and Legendary Heroes
• The Iliad and the Odyssey – Composed by Homer in 850 B.C. – Probably composed of many oral
tradition stories – Iliad
• Trojan War over Helen
– Odyssey • 10 year journey of Odysseus
Epic and Legendary Heroes
• The Ramayana – Indian tale written during 4th century by
Vlamiki
– 24,000 couplets repeated and memorized
– Part of Hindu gospel
Epic and Legendary Heroes
• Middle Ages – King Arthur
• Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte d’Arthur
• Jane Yolen’s The Dragon’s Boy
• Robert D. San Souci’s Young Merlin
– Saint George and the Dragon
– Robin Hood
The Bible as Literature • Important and rightful place in
comprehensive discussion of literature
• Characters, incidents, poems, proverbs, and parables
• Important for allusions
The Bible as Literature • Collections of Bible Stories
– A Time to Love: Stories from the Old Testament
– Daughters of the Fire
• Single Bible Stories – Light
– Noah’s Ark
– The Miracles of Jesus
Traditional Literature Presentations
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