Folktales

In the municipality of Temixco, State of Morelos, there is a Nahuatl and a Spanish version of a tale of the Devil and the Jumil Hill. That folktale could be judged a fantastical or a wonder tale, but when we carefully examine its context and mode of production, we realize of that tlahtolli belongs to an oral tradition that makes a different sense to this tale-type, nearer to religious, social and realistic tale. It is a narrative made by collectivity whose aim is raising awareness of the threats that the community suffered and its responsibility for creating a cohesive, harmonious and sustainable place between the human beings and the noumenic-natural environment

This article presents a new interpretation of the famous folktale about enslaved Africans flying home, including the legend that only those who refrained from eating salt could fly back to Africa. It rejects claims that the tale is rooted in Igbo culture and relates to suicide as a desperate attempt to escape from slavery. Rather, an analysis of historical documents in combination with ethnographic and linguistic research makes it possible to trace the tale back to West-Central Africa. It relates objections to eating salt to the Kikongo expression curia mungua (to eat salt), meaning baptism, and claims that the tale originated in the context of discussions among the enslaved about the consequences of a Christian baptism for one's spiritual afterlife.

In a compelling mix of literary narrative and ethnography, anthropologist Alma Gottlieb and writer Philip Graham continue the long journey of cultural engagement with the Beng people of Cote d'Ivoire that they first recounted in their award-winning memoir Parallel Worlds. Their commitment over the span of several decades has lent them a rare insight. Braiding their own stories with those of the villagers of Asagbe and Kosangbe, Gottlieb and Graham take turns recounting a host of unexpected dramas with these West African villages, prompting serious questions about the fraught nature of cultural contact. Through events such as a religious leader's declaration that the authors' six-year-old son, Nathaniel, is the reincarnation of a revered ancestor, or Graham's late father being accepted into the Beng afterlife, or the increasing, sometimes dangerous madness of a villager, the authors are forced to reconcile their anthropological and literary gaze with the deepest parts of their personal lives. Along with these intimate dramas, they follow the Beng from times of peace through the times of tragedy that led to Cote d'Ivoire's recent civil conflicts. From these and many other interweaving narratives - and with the combined strengths of an anthropologist and a literary writer - "Braided Worlds" examines the impact of postcolonialism, race, and global inequity at the same time that it chronicles a living, breathing village community where two very different worlds meet.

The current paper intends to draw a picture of numerous compelling viewpoints of the Kuwaiti community, relying on folk tales. The research is in line with the theoretical and epistemological questions that are cornerstones of researching folk narratives.

Exploring the tales of many of the mysterious and captivating Faerie Queens, this exceptional anthology contains eighteen essays exploring the diverse accounts and themes associated with the Faerie Queens and their influence in magic, literature and folklore. From the Arthurian mythos to Scandinavia, from ancient Greece to Renaissance poetry and beyond, the awesome power of the Faerie Queens to inspire, challenge and transform is investigated and discussed from both scholarly and personal perspectives.

Autrefois, les femmes se rendant au marché laissaient leur bébé à la garde d’un des plus jeunes membres de la maisonnée ; « quand c’était possible, on choisissait un garçonnet pour un bébé garçon et une fillette pour un bébé fille » (Basden 1921 p.64). Aujourd’hui, avec l’exode rural, le déclin des valeurs traditionnelles et la levée des tabous, la régression de la polygamie, l’engouement des Igbo pour l’éducation scolaire et le respect moins strict de l’espacement des naissances, les jeunes couples se trouvent souvent démunis à la naissance de leur premier enfant. Ils vont donc chercher dans la grande famille celui/celle qui va le garder, le porter sur le dos – de préférence une fillette – en igbo onye kulu nwa, baby nurse en pidgin. Séparée de sa famille, souvent mal reçue, mal intégrée dans sa famille d’accueil, cette moderne Cendrillon est présentée dans la littérature comme cette « petite bonne isolée, maltraitée, croulant sous les corvées, humiliée, et qui se venge sur les jeunes enfants confiés à sa charge » (Ugochukwu 1992 p. 12). L’étude qui suit se penche plus spécialement sur six contes recueillis en 1986-1987 au Nigeria en pays igbo  et qui évoquent ces petites filles mal aimées en même temps qu’ils témoignent de l’évolution des traditions.

Digital collection of 30 folktales in 3 languages ( Local, Indonesian, and English) and analytical linguistic form. This collection is an excellent resources of Indonesia in Bahasa Indonesia, as well as additional resources of local folktales in English. Additionally, linguistic scholars would be able to fourth form as linguistic studies.

Several attempts have been made to encourage the younger generation of indigenous communities to learn their mother tongue. More often than not, such efforts fail since proficiency in the mother tongue is perceived as irrelevant in offering opportunities for social mobility and career advancement. However, the loss of the language means that the cultural knowledge contained in the words and grammar of the language would not be accessible to individuals from the speech community although the language may not be completely lost from the community at large. The study examined the value of Bidayuh folktales to the young generation of Bidayuh as a means to encourage the use of the language. The specific aspects examined include their familiarity with Bidayuh folktales, the value attached to knowing Bidayuh folktales and the Bidayuh language, and their views on the feasibility of learning the Bidayuh language through the use of folktales in electronic forms (e-Folktales). A survey was conducted among 81 Bidayuh adolescents in two urban and two rural areas in Kuching, Sarawak. The results indicated that the Bidayuh adolescents were not familiar with the traditional folktales. Although they acknowledged the need to learn the Bidayuh language, they attributed minimal significance to the role of the language in the modern era. However, they indicated interest in seeing the preservation of the Bidayuh folktales and language in electronic forms. The findings are discussed in the light of the potential of having an electronic-based learning of the language through Bidayuh folktales.

Night appears constantly as a motif in narratives. My attention was first drawn to the night as time setting in Japanese classical literature, like for example the story in Chapter 6 of Ise Monogatari, where the main male character cannot save his beloved from an oni ogre, who devours her during a stormy night. Another example is found in Chapter 89 of Tsurezure Gusa, where the main male character is afraid of nekomata, or demon-cats, who are said to inhabit the mountain he passes and come to devour men at night (in fact in the end of the story we find out the truth that the "demon" he met in the evening in the forest was in fact his own dog). Night and dreams in Japanese fairy tales are not extensively researched so far. The following article shares few reflections on the theme of time, and particularly night, its function and characteristics within the frame of the Japanese fairy tale. The research is based on ordinary (or true fairy tales) found in Keigo Seki's Index of Japanese Folktales 2-7 (59 out of 189). There are various reasons for the preference the folktale shows in regard to night as a time-setting and as a motif. Hereby I shall trace four such grounds-the first originates in the storytelling tradition, the second is explained by the binomial world of the fairy tale, the third shows the relativity of the sacred time and the fourth refers to the interrelation between man and nature. As could be expected, the night as a motif in fairy tales has a universal layer as well as a culturally-defined level and we shall try to distinguish them too. We shall start with a conclusion about fairy tales by one of the most renowned folktale researchers-Max Luethi, who speaking about the universal interconnection in fairy tales, says that "The fairy tale is a story about people. Objects and nature never occur in the Fairy tale for their own sake. Objects stand in relationship to figures, mortal or otherworldly" (Luethi 1987: 14). With other words, everything we find in the plot is not by chance there but has a very specific and pointed function. It is a part of the overall scheme. This starting point is important to realize that if the fairy tale chooses night as a motif or time-setting, it is not a coincidence, but is very well motivated by the characteristics of the fairy tale.

The Swedish term bergtagning means ‘abduction into the mountain’ and indicates a popular belief, whose first literary evidence is in a skaldic poem dating back to the 12th century. According to the legend, the mountain could magically abduct people who were wandering among woods, keeping them prisoner forever or setting them free in a deeply changed state of mind. This motif is the subject of many oral folk tales, recorded in rural areas of Sweden during the 19th century, and it also recurs in several ballads written in the 19th but belonging to ancient oral traditions that date back to the Middle Ages. The bergtagning motif is deeply rooted in the popular culture; references and allusions to ancient lore occur in numerous literary works even in modern times. This article aims to analyse how the phenomenon is described in some of the contexts in which it occurs: folk tales and medieval ballads, and, in order to understand its roots in popular culture, in Norse sagas and skaldic poetry.

Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies / Yusof Ishak Institute, Temasek History Research Center, Temasek Working Paper Series, No. 1, 69 p.
https://www.iseas.edu.sg/articles-commentaries/temasek-working-paper-series

----- ABSTRACT: Borneo has so far remained marginal in studies on Southeast Asian peoples and tigers. While the tiger is not known to exist in Borneo today, it has a significant reality in historical traditions, oral literature, myths, beliefs, and rituals. This study combines various materials about Borneo, with a primary focus on its central regions, in order to, ultimately, try to shed light on ancient belief systems and the modalities of their evolution through time and cultural contact. It first surveys the local Felidae species, the names given to the tiger, and the presence of tiger body parts among villagers. Then, it reviews representations of the tiger in oral literature, its value as a symbol of martial manliness and, locally, its standing as a culture hero, and looks at religious beliefs, the tiger’s ambivalent nature, and its function as mediator between humans and spirits. Focusing on rituals, it then stresses its benevolence (initiation, redemption, purification), as well as its sinister facets (punishment for breach of taboos), both meant to warrant a ‘cool’ socio-cosmic balance. Next, it investigates the historical role of one chieftain named Tiger who, urging forest nomads to settle down and farm, was instrumental in the emergence of a new ethnocultural cluster’s identity, and it explores the modalities of the myth-generating conflation of historical elements with religious beliefs. Finally, it scrutinizes the tiger’s complex relationship with the moon and thunder, hinting at the pre-existence among former nomads of non-dualistic beliefs in a ‘tiger-moon-thunder’ set of deities and, touching briefly on the ‘thunder complex’ question, it stresses ambiguity and variability, reflecting the systemic cultural plasticity and singular cultural histories of these societies. Due to the study’s broad spectrum, a large reference list is appended.

Desde sus orígenes, la literatura española ha usado el refrán con diverso propósito, así como del cuentecillo. En ocasiones han aparecido en un mismo contexto. Algunos paremiólogos se han servido ocasionalmente de breves composiciones narrativas y otros las han buscado con fruición para glosar sus refraneros. Siendo un tema ya estudiado, hacemos aquí una brevísima aportación de refranes que a nuestro juicio se relacionan, o ya los paremiólogos han relacionado, con cuentos folklóricos.

ATU 20C is an international tale with an eschatological theme and a wide distribution throughout the world. Gaelic variants
recorded in Ireland and Scotland during the 19th and 20th
centuries have been observed to contain cosmological themes and formulae, along with the pagan theonyms Crom and Donn. These
are examined in their relation to a medieval Irish cosmological
formula appearing in the Táin and other sources. The pre-
Christian traditions, particularly that of a tripartite cosmological
structure consisting of sky-earth-sea, are discussed within the
contexts of early Celtic belief. Comparisons with Iranian, Indic,
Greek, and Germanic systems indicate the presence of three such
cosmic realms from Indo-European times, suggesting that the
modern Gaelic variants, taken together, may be regarded as a
remarkable instance of long-term oral transmission.

The vaṃśāvalīs (chronicles) of Nepāl is interesting not only in the sense of its historical accounts but also in the myths and legends they record. These recordings are so abundant in Nepāl, with the oldest being the famous Gopālarājavaṃśāvalī written during the 14th century. I study different vaṃśāvalīs for their mythical tale on the origin of the Kāṭhmāṇḍu Valley.

Elek Benedek (1859 –1929) published a multi-volume collection of folktales and legends entitled „Magyar mese- és mondavilág” (’Hungarian Folktales and Legends’) between 1894 and 1896 adjusted to the contemporary national commemoration process addressing the  1000th anniversary of Hungarians’ arrival to and settlement in the Carpathian basin. This collection, which included texts that Elek Benedek collected and also texts that he borrowed from earlier publications, became immensely popular in Hungary (approximately  300000 copies were sold until 1945). It made a definite impact on oral storytelling as well, and the way Benedek „re-told” the tales became the standard narrative style of  folktales for generations of Hungarian readership. While Elek Benedek’s name nowadays is almost a synonym for tale telling in Hungary, his birthday became the national day of tale telling; conferences, books and websites are dedicated to his oeuvre, and his tales are highly welcome at the cash register as well,  the attitude of folklore studies that was institutionalized as a discipline in Hungary at the end of the 19th century has been ambivalent to this oeuvre from the very beginning.
The paper in detail presents the debate between Elek Benedek and Lajos Katona (a literary historian, philologist, folklorist) in the last decade of the 19th century on the authenticity of the tales Elek Benedek published, as Katona, in the name of the new discipline, publicly declared  these tales as 'apocryphal' ones that cannot be subject to academic scrutiny as they are not authentic literary versions of folktales. According to Elek Benedek what he did was not forgery, but rather, a „resurrection of the dead corpse of tales” recorded by people who were unaware of the power and impact of well-narrated stories. The paper presents this clash of two differing concepts of textual authenticity, presenting the changing attitudes of folklore studies (from ignorance, silence, rejection through condemnation to apology and gratification)  as well.
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This chapter explores the role of the Japanese fox trickster and the implications of its shape shifting from animal to human in traditional folktales and contemporary adaptations. Combining literary analysis with approaches from folklore studies, gender studies, and human-animal studies, it offers an introduction to the history and the significance of the fox trickster, from the ancient Buddhist anecdotes to contemporary literature. In this context, it examines how its figure is reworked in Kij Johnson’s novel The Fox Woman (2000), inspired by the Buddhist tale “How Kaya no Yoshifuji of Bitchū Province Became the Husband of a Fox and Was Saved by Kannon.”
This tale, included in the collection Konjaku Monogatari (Tales of Times Now Past, ca. 1120), revolves around the theme of the “bride fox” (kitsune-nyōbō), a vixen that assumes the form of an attractive woman, marries a man, and lives with him until he discovers her beastly nature. By comparing the ancient Japanese tale with its contemporary adaptation, this chapter analyzes their different approaches to the shape-shifting process as a means to construct female body and identity. The Japanese tale emphasizes Kannon’s salvific power and focuses on the figure of the male protagonist, whereas Johnson’s retelling shifts the agency from Kaya no Yoshifuji to the two women who occupy a marginal position in the Konjaku Monogatari: the protagonist’s absent wife and the fox woman. At the same time, the performative nature of the vixen’s transformation mirrors the fictional nature of womanhood and challenges the concept of femininity embedded in the traditional tale.

Unlike European fairy tales that take place "east of the sun and south of the moon" the Nature is the scene of Icelandic folktales.

Ólíkt evrópskum ævintýrum sem gerast fyrir austan við sól og sunnan mána er náttúran vettvangur íslenskra þjóðsagna.

(Erindi flutt á ráðstefnunni Hálendi hugans að Leirubakka í Landssveit 3. - 4 .júní 2007.)

PROLEGOMENA IN THE FANTASTIC ROMANIAN MYTHOLOGICAL BESTIARY. (I)
THE BEAR


This study was inspired by the mythical dimension of the bear established in the cultural history of Europe, with some traces and echoes in the Romanian cultural-traditional areal. The mythcal Romanian ethos presents numerous fictional situations in which this animal plays an important role (conciliatory, magical, terapeutical, initiatory). Because the analysis in the Romanian literature shows an unequivocal approach and I try to present which are, at the level of Romanian fantasytic tale, the mitem`s in which the bear is the main actor. I found the most interesting situations with a narrative discourse often applied on old myths. Even diluted, unnecessary or modified by the new plan of representation and interpretation, all the situations presented in this study express only the symbolic thinking of the former times. This symbolic thinking has creates or assimilated an eidetic perspective on everyday situations in order to anchor or to connect to a (different) symbolizing the universe...

The Asian Kingdom of Cambodia has many ancient legends about powerful jungle animals. But in this surprising book you’ll meet an unlikely hero: a small rabbit! As you’ll discover in these 27 classic folktales, Mr. Hare uses his brain to make up for his size. Time and again he outsmarts huge elephants, hungry crocodiles, fierce tigers...and even men! In this book you’ll read how the Hare... Taught the Tiger to Play Music; Ate the Old Woman’s Bananas; Lost a Race to the Snails; Saved the Elephant’s Skin; Made a Four-Headed Man; Scared the Monkey and Tiger; Rode on the Crocodile’s Back; ...and 20 more adventures! Mr. Hare’s tales are here in Khmer and English, with side-by-side translation by Dr. Chhany Sak-Humphry, so students of both languages can continue his tradition.

L’appropriation culturelle des mondes étrangers dans le rossingnol prodigieux: la forêt comme symbole cryptique (traduit ci-dessous par Léon Ketcheyan) / Revue des etudes Arméniennes tome 38, ISSN 0080-2549, eISSN 1783-1741, Èditions Peeters, Paris; 2018-2019, p. 427-443. / 1 հեղինակ, ֆրանսերեն:

This paper  presents the book ‘A bűvös puska’ (‘The magic rifle: Folktales about Roma’, collected, edited and translated by the late György Frankovics, illustrated by László Herbszt, 2015) and discusses some problems that may emerge when folktales are published for a wide reading audience, especially for children. This is an exquisitely illustrated book that was published by the leading publishing house of Hungarian children’s literature from the donation of book loving persons (quite a rare initiative in Hungary), making a recent collection of orally narrated stories about/by Roma people in southwest Hungary and in the Balkans available. Besides acknowledging and welcoming these aspects of the book, the author points out that in a number of cases it is unclear whether these narratives were related by Roma people (and were part of Roma people’s narrative repertoire) or about Roma people by outsiders, and in general the sources of the published narratives are not indicated.  Missing the indication of sources in a children’s book may seem a folklorist’s hairsplitting pastime activity, yet, it may  be helpful. On the example of an aetiological legend that narrates how a Roma smith had prepared the nails for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as a result of which Roma people have been chased and are destined to flee in the world since then (as a sort of collective punishment for the ancestor smith’s deed)  that was published in the book, she argues that the norm of unconditional textual authenticity (that is otherwise expected to be followed in editions of folk poetry) should be worth reconsidering in case a stigmatised ethnic group (such as Roma people are in contemporary Hungary) is represented for children, when the authority of the written word canonizes negative evaluation for readers who do not necessarily turn with critical reflection to fiction. This is, of course, a dilemma for a folklorist, but children’s literature is  a means of enculturation and civilisation that is operated by the necessary involvement and intervention of adults (who write, select, edit, publish and buy texts for children). If such a narrative is published in a book for children at all (about which the author has heavy doubts) then at least the basic data of the storytelling event should be indicated briefly, in this way the narrative loses its (seemingly) generalized, self-evident validity and becomes a text narrated by an individual taleteller and is anchored spatially and temporally as well.

Baba Yaga, the well-known figure of Russian and other Slavic fairy tales has a dual, both terrifying and beneficial character. She is an amalgamation of deities as a pre-Slavic goddess of death and birth, who, with time, converted into an ugly and malevolent witch.
The present article aims to seek the evolution of Baba Yaga’s figure based on an overview of scientific research projects of pupils from Russia. After a short presentation of scholar approaches we demonstrate some aspects and attributes of Baba Yaga. Her „bony leg” and blindness while recognizing human beings by their scent prove that she belongs to the world of the dead. Her hut on hens feet can be a vestige of common funeral practice in Neolitic Age consisted in so called „openair” burials where bodies were placed on wooden platforms on poles.
In the second part we focus on changes of Baba Yaga’s figure until the present time. The illustrations of children’s picture books have an influence on how tale heroes are to be imagined. Recently, the pictures still show Baba Yaga’s Russian heritage as travelling in mortar but the pestle is substituted by a broom. We suppose that this phenomen is a result from contamination with the crosscultural image of the witch. Furthermore, from the research of pupils it appears that the estimation of this fairy tale figure has changed, she is considered rather positive. In the museum of Russian folktales the personified Baba Yaga is an amicable and droll old woman with a dose of sorcery.

Scrutinizes a short Latin poem written in the first quarter of the eleventh century, and refutes Alan Dundes's dismissal of literary evidence and to underscore the pertinence of studying medieval literature in coming to grips with that beautiful and elusive phenomenon to which English-speakers give the name `fairy tale.' Egbert of Liege's `De puella a lupellis seruata'; The medieval background of `Little Red Riding Hood.'

'Even the seemingly most trivial folkloristic item can, upon analysis, reveal fascinating insights about people and their cultures' (Dundes 1989: viii). Abstract Folk reflects the socio-cultural and philosophical facets of a group, woven creatively and aesthetically into a life experience. Despite numerous changes, the folk sustains a strand of continuity and focuses on the collectiveness of the community. It has been recognised that folk forms have its own character and eccentricity, is connected to the values of the people and the people themselves use it to express soulfully. Through such ways of expression, the principles, feelings, way of life and culture are promulgated, reinstated and perpetuated. It is in this context that the paper looks into the practice of Jingrwai Iawbei (song in honour of the root ancestress) that is being carried out by the Khasis residing in the village of Kongthong, Meghalaya. The paper also attempts to look into the sociological significance of this unique cultural practice whereby the clan members claim to pay homage and connect with the ancestral roots where Iawbei is the binding factor for each clan. It has to be understood that amidst the larger Khasi identity, the people of 2 Kongthong have carved a distinctive cultural identity for the village and its residents through the practice of Jingrwai Iawbei.

Baba Jaga jest postacią powszechnie znaną oraz obecną w kulturze popularnej, jednak niewiele wiadomo o jej początkach. Badacze Słowian, folkloru polskiego i rosyjskiego zgodnie przyznają, że Baba Jaga pojawiła się w opowieściach ludowych bardzo wcześnie, a ślady jej obecności można zauważyć w kulturze wszystkich rejonów Słowiańszczyzny. Andreas Johns w swojej monografii zatytułowanej Baba Yaga: The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of the Russian Folktale stwierdza, że jest ona „jedną z najbardziej charakterystycznych i najsilniej zapadających w pamięć postaci wschodnioeuropejskiego folkloru” – a jednak pozostaje jedną z białych plam pośród naszej wiedzy o wierzeniach Słowian.
W podejmowanych przez badaczy próbach opisu tej postaci wyróżnić można trzy postawy: uznanie Baby Jagi za bóstwo słowiańskie, włączenie jej w poczet demonów oraz przedstawianie jej jako kobiety, czarownicy. W swoim wystąpieniu chciałabym skoncentrować się na koncepcjach dotyczących początków opowieści o Babie Jadze, genezy imienia oraz tradycyjnie przypisywanych jej atrybutów. Szczegółowej analizie poddam teorie rozstrzygające o jej naturze, szukając odpowiedzi na pytanie o jej miejsce w dawnych wierzeniach ludowych.
Próba interpretacji funkcji, jakie pełniła w dawnych opowieściach oraz przemian w sposobie jej opisu na przestrzeni wieków może stanowić kolejny głos w debacie na temat istnienia bądź braku zorganizowanego systemu mitów u Słowian, a przede wszystkim stanowi interesujący kierunek badawczy, do tej pory w Polsce niepodejmowany.

Folklore is the body of culture. Folklore includes tales, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, and so forty within a particular population comprising the traditions (including oral traditions) of the culture. The academic and ethnographic study of folklore is called folkloristic. The word 'folklore ' was first used by the English antiquarian 'William Thoms' in letter published by the London journal Athenaeum in 1846 .

The identification of deviant burials as those of ‘vampires’ is a feature of excavated skeletons from sites across Eastern, Central and Southern Europe as well as the Balkans. Based on a close reading of historic and folkloric sources researchers have sought to match features of excavated sites with narrative descriptions drawn from vampire legend and myth. This study critically reviews the recent claims based on sites in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Poland and Slovakia. Whilst it is found that there was a widespread belief in vampires across Europe, it is argued that it is difficult to make absolute claims for ‘vampire’ burials on archaeological grounds as in most cases there are alternate and equally compelling interpretations of the data.

KEYWORDS
ARCHAEOLOGY, HISTORY, SIXTEENTH CENTURY, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, VAMPIRE, DEVIANT BURIAL, PLAGUE, BLACK DEATH, FOLKLORE, PAGAN, BURIAL, WITCH, BALKANS, EASTERN EUROPE, CENTRAL EUROPE, SOUTHERN EUROPE, BULGARIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, POLAND, GREECE, ITALY, SLOVAKIA, LESBOS, VENICE, APOTROPAIC, VAMPIRIDZHIJA, PERPERIKON, SOZOPOL, PROSTEJOV, CELAKOVICE, DRAWSKO, GLIWICI, SOUTHWELL, KILTEASHEEN, LAZZARETTO NUOVO, NACHTZEHRER, KAMIEN POMORSKI

(En): The aim of this paper is to analyse the permeable boundaries between the author and the narrator in the rewritings of Haitian traditional oral tales, in the context of the present-day Diaspora. We will focus in particular on two storytellers, Joujou Turenne (Québec) and Mimi Barthélémy (France), to investigate the passage from the oral to the written form of a tale, a passage that disrupts the tale's narration as far as the traditional forms of opening and closing, the ultimate site of the narrator's simulation, are concerned. Our analysis will be based on a comparative study of the two storytellers' texts, by way of the specific case of the Haitian storyteller Paula Clermont Péan.

Though primarily a form of folk narrative, fairy tales (Zaubermärchen) have a varied history, not just in oral tradition, but also in literature, drama, material culture, and popular culture such as film, TV, and comic books. Fairy tales have often been used as subversive narratives – tales retold to comment on injustice and to undermine authority. But just as often, they have been used to reinforce social norms, to establish and reestablish the values of the ruling class. Though frequently told by adults for children, fairy tales have also been told by adults for other adults, dealing with distinctly adult themes. Fairy tales are able to function in these ways because they are fundamental to the landscapes of our narrative imagination. And the goal of this course is to examine some of the ways that they pervade our lives.

To this end, this course will consist of a detailed examination of the history and form of the fairy tale as an oral narrative genre, as a literary construction, and as popular culture. We will consider classic and contemporary stories from across the globe, including Europe, the Americas, India, Asia, and Africa. We will deal with the history of the genre as an object of entertainment and as an object of study; and we will deal with a constellation of criticism by which scholars have tried to make sense of the genre over the past century, including the genre’s relationship to geography, gender, disability, power, science, and desire.

Through the readings, through our discussions, and through your assignments for the course, you will begin to get a sense of the fairy tale in a variety of different guises. You will see where it exists, how to make sense of it, and how it is relevant in all our lives.

The goals of this course are: 1) To understand key concepts in fairy-tale studies. 2) To contextualize specific fairy tales in their sociocultural moment and map the evolution of these tales through a variety of media. 3) To learn about major fairy-tale theories, including tale type analysis, structuralism, socio-historical analysis, feminism and gender theory, queer theory, disability studies, reception theory, and translation theory.

This article describes a research study that implemented literacy methods for the purpose of promoting reading comprehension with links to student writing through the practice of integrating reader response before, during, and following teacher read-alouds, and then extending the reader response into the composing process of student-created stories about Native Americans. The main question that guided the study was: How will the integration of direct instruction in story structure together with reader response to traditional literature influence children’s composition of self-created stories? Findings and classroom implications are discussed.

РУСАЛКІ: ЗНЕШНІ ВЫГЛЯД Цэнтр даследаванняў беларускай культуры, мовы і літаратуры нацыянальнай акадэміі навук Беларусі Русалка — адзін з самых вядомых і папулярных міфалагічных персанажаў у беларускай народнай традыцыі і, адначасова, ледзь не самы няпэўны і не-адназначны з іх 1. Гэта неадназначнасць звязана не толькі з амбівалентнасцю, якая ў той ці іншай ступені ўласцівая практычна ўсім персанажам беларускай «ніжэйшай» міфалогіі – дамавікам, лесавікам, палевікам, дабрахожым і інш., а няпэўнасць тычыцца не толькі знешняга аблічча русалак. Русалкі ў беларускім фальклоры і вераваннях выпісаны надзвычай ярка і выразна, але яны настолькі розныя, што часта іх можна ідэнтыфікаваць як адзіны вобраз толькі па агуль-ным найменні-міфоніме – русалкі. У адрозненне ад іншых духаў прыроды і гаспадаркі ў русалак няма пры-вязкі да пэўнага месца жыхарства: яны могуць сустракацца ў полі, вадзе, лесе, на могілках, у агародах, лугах, садах, а пры пэўных абставінах і ў дварах, лаз-нях, вясковых хатах. Яны могуць выглядаць антрапаморфна (як дзеці, маладыя дзяўчыны, жанчыны з малымі дзецьмі, старыя бабы), зааморфна (як істоты, падобныя на птушку, малпу, змяю, ката, пацука, няпэўнага «звярка» і да т. п.), мець шэраг інфернальных прызнакаў, жалезныя і іншыя штучныя часткі цела. У плане аксіялагічных характарыстык прадстаўлены ўвесь дыяпазон ацэ-нак: ад нячыстай сілы праз нейтральны статус – да святых. Яны адначасова шкодзяць і спрыяюць палявым і агародным культурам, насылаюць хваробы і вылечваюць ад іх, заласкочваюць, давяць, топяць, забіраюць з сабой людзей, але таксама ўзнагароджваюць за дабро ў адносінах да сваіх дзяцей, папярэдж-ваюць пра небяспеку, выконваюць хатнія работы. 1 Гэта адзначалі літаральна ўсе даследчыкі феномена ўсходнеславянскай русалкі пачынаю-чы з Д.

The study focuses on the oral literature of Liangmai. The aim of the paper is to provide a brief analysis of the traditional values transmitted by folktale, folksong, wise saying, etc., in Liangmai Naga community. Oral literature has been a source of value education as well as entertainment in the traditional Liangmai rural society. However, the oral narratives of pre-literate Liangmai community have not been properly documented nor studied for their form and content. After colonization and the advent of Christianity and modern education in the early twentieth century, the folk literature in the form of rituals, songs, dances, legends, myths etc. were left neglected. As time passed, the rich oral tradition that had been passed down from generation to generation was left stagnant in the current generation. The focus area of the study is Tamenglong district of Manipur in the Northeastern part of India. The materials have been collected by systematic interviews, Original Research Artic...