International Folkloristics – serie

Folklorists have become renowned for concentrating on aspects of form and classification to the detriment of content and meaning. Metamorphosis: The Dynamics of Symbolism in European Fairy Tales seeks to reverse this tendency in showing, through an examination of the folkloric data, that European fairy tales involve complex symbolism. This book seeks to explain – in reference to the notion of metamorphosis – the puzzling contradictory attributes of fairy-tale figures that have discouraged the study of meanings in this field and proposes that the workings of metamorphosis in fairy tales reveal a pervasive cyclic ontology that underlies mythology and ritual. The issue of universal symbolism is again examined – divested from any «archetypal» generalizations – as a subject of worthy reflection.

Baba Yaga is a well-known witch from the folklore tradition of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. A fascinating and colorful character, she resembles witches of other traditions but is in many ways unique. Living in the forest in a hut that stands and moves on chicken legs, she travels in a mortar with a pestle and sweeps away her tracks with a broom. In some tales she tries to harm the protagonist, while in others she is helpful. This book investigates the image and ambiguity of Baba Yaga in detail and considers the meanings she has for East Slavic culture. Providing a broad survey of folktales and other sources, it is the most thorough study of Baba Yaga yet published and will be of interest to students of anthropology, comparative literature, folklore, and Slavic and East European studies.

It is remarkable how often we consider certain constructs in other peoples’ worldview to be «myths», while in our own case we regard equally arbitrary assumptions as inherent to the nature of things. As every anthropologist knows, one’s most cherished cultural assumptions tend to remain implicit; in other words, worldview is largely unconscious. This book explores the possibility of plumbing obscure aspects of one’s own culture in order to assess what some might call (regarding other cultures) the mythic underpinnings of worldview. Seven explorations in folklore and ethnography exhume a conceptual heritage that still influences perception, albeit in unconscious ways. This archeology of intangible heritage provides the sort of break in intellectual routine that allows us to look anew at familiar things.

This groundbreaking book in theoretical and empirical phraseology research looks at Europe’s linguistic situation as a whole, including 74 European and 17 non-European languages. The occurrence of idioms that actually share the same lexical and semantic structure across a large number of languages has never been demonstrated so clearly before Widespread Idioms in Europe and Beyond. This book answers significant questions regarding hitherto vague ideas about the phraseological similarities between European languages and their cultural foundation, ranging from intertextuality, aspects of European mental, material, and social culture, to culturally based perception of natural phenomena. This inventory, which analyzes 190 out of a total of 380 widespread idioms and includes maps, is valuable for academic teaching and further research in the fields of phraseology and figurative language, areal and contact linguistics, and European cultural studies.

This unique Festschrift in honor of Professor Kevin J. McKenna on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday is different from most such celebratory essay volumes in that it does not consist of essays from various authors but is rather a collection of fourteen of his most significant publications on proverbial matters from the last two decades. For more than twenty-five years, Professor McKenna has taught Russian language, culture, and literature at the University of Vermont, and during this time, he has gained national and international recognition as an instructor, scholar, and administrator. On the campus of his university, he has been a true champion of international education, and he has been an inspiring and guiding light for many students as they made impressive progress with their Russian studies in Vermont and in Russia. While his numerous cultural, literary, and political studies have brought him much recognition, it is especially his seminal book All the Views Fit to Print: Changing Images of the U.S. in «Pravda» Political Cartoons, 1917-1991 (2001) that continues to be a mainstay today in the study of the relationship of the United States and the Soviet Union during the twentieth century. Of course, Dr. McKenna has also made a name for himself as a proverb scholar in the United States and in Europe with his paremiological publications on the literary, journalistic, and political use of proverbs. The edited essay volume Proverbs in Russian Literature: From Catherine the Great to Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1998) is especially noteworthy.The fourteen essays of this Festschrift are divided into three groups – literature, politics, and pedagogy. The first six essays are dedicated to the literary use and function of proverbs in the works of Catherine the Great, Leo Tolstoy, Boris Pasternak, Vladimir Nabokov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Sergei Eisenstein. The next five articles deal with the use of proverbs in Pravda headlines, the depiction of the proverb «Big fish eat little fish» in Pravda cartoons, Russian politics in Pravda cartoons, the image of the «Ship of State» in such cartoons, and Vladimir Putin’s employment of proverbs. The three essays in the section on pedagogy look at the role of proverbs in the Russian language curriculum, the appearance of proverbs in Russian language textbooks, and the importance of the so-called paremiological minimum, that is, the set of Russian proverbs that are known and used frequently by native speakers and that consequently should also be learned by foreign language students. Together these studies are representative of Kevin J. McKenna’s accomplishments as a proverb scholar, and they also present an informed and eminently readable introduction to the rich field of Russian proverbs.

This book takes an engaging look at the significance of traditional proverbs and their variation in the modern world. From sales pitch to propagandistic tool, Wolfgang Mieder looks at how we adapt proverbs to rapidly changing social attitudes – the original wording of proverbs changes to fit modern advertising slogans or political rhetoric, misogynist sayings become feminist slogans, and late medieval woodcuts illustrating proverbs find their modern equivalents in political cartoons and comic strips. The book is richly illustrated and contains name, subject, and proverb indexes.

The book comprises a comprehensive survey of the multifaceted nature of proverbs as colorful expressions of folk wisdom. The first part deals with the definition and classification of proverbs, including such matters as proverb markers and meanings, origin and dissemination, traditional forms related to proverbs, and types of proverb collections. The second part presents essays on the origin, history and modern use of a variety of proverbs. There are also representative lists of proverbs from different cultures and languages, Native American proverbs, African American proverbs, etc. The third part discusses the fascinating scholarship on proverbs that includes empirical studies, linguistic and semiotic considerations, proverb performance in social contexts, issues of culture, folklore, and history, the appearance of proverbs in politics, the expression of stereotypes and worldview in proverbs, the anthropological, sociological, and psychological study of proverbs, the use of proverbs in folk narratives and literature, proverbs in religion and wisdom literature, pedagogical use of proverbs, the illustrations of proverbs in art, and the appearance of proverbs in the modern age of mass media and popular culture. The fourth part contains chapters on the use and function of proverbs in the writings of Lord Chesterfield, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Charles Diickens, Winston S. Churchill, and Bertolt Brecht. There are also sections on proverb poems and songs, proverbs in caricatures, cartoons, comics, advertisements, and newspaper headlines. An extensive bibliography of major studies and collections as well as name, subject, and proverb indices conclude this inclusive study.

A familiar, beloved, and yet misunderstood character in the Japanese folktale tradition is the animal-woman, an earthly animal that assumes the form of a female human. In order to articulate the characteristics that make Japanese Animal-Wife tales unique, this trailblazing book Japanese Animal-Wife Tales: Narrating Gender Reality in Japanese Folktale Tradition challenges long-held characterizations of them in folklore scholarship. By re-examining the gender-specific behaviors of both the animal-woman and her human spouse, the book recovers the sociocultural and historical contexts that underlay their behaviors to demonstrate the actual gender characteristics that shaped the original Japanese Animal-Wife tales, highlighting the assertive, rather than naïve, personality of women in early Japanese folktale tradition. This new approach to the study of Japanese folktales and culture will interest researchers and students in a variety of fields, including Japanese studies, comparative folklore studies, culture studies, Asian studies, and anthropology.

The book continues the work of Widespread Idioms in Europe and Beyond (2012) and also brings new insights into the similarities of the European languages. Using comprehensive data from 78 European and some non-European languages, another 280 “widespread idioms” have been analyzed in terms of their distribution and origins. They are arranged according to their source domains (for example, performing arts, sports, history, war, technology, money, folk belief, medical skills, gestures, and nature). Among them are very modern layers of a common figurative lexicon, including quotes of personalities of recent times. Thorough research on the sources of these idioms goes beyond the entries in relevant reference works and brings new and unpredictable results. All of the data in this book adds new knowledge to the fields of language and culture. We now know which Europe-wide common idioms actually constitute a “Lexicon of Common Figurative Units” and which chronological and cultural layers they may be assigned to. The question about the causes of the wide spread of idioms across many languages now can partly be answered.

China is home to one of the largest and oldest societies in the world, and presently contains fifty-six ethnic groups. Among them is the Zhuang, the largest of the minority populations, which partakes in a very long history of preliterate oral traditions. This volume presents an introduction to Zhuang language and culture in Zhuang proverbs. The two thousand proverbs explored in this text bear the weight of Zhuang history and culture, and embody the wisdom collected from publications, manuscripts, and the speeches of the people who live in Zhuang villages. These proverbs are grouped into nine sections: Truths; Morality; Family; Everyday Life; Social Life; Labor; Nature; Customs; and Politics. Together, they form an essential distillation of the Zhuang history, tradition, philosophy, and most importantly, its legacy. This accessible introduction – which includes translations in Zhuang Pinyin letters, Mandarin, and American English for each proverb – provides an important corpus for the study of the Zhuang ethnic group by scholars, students, and others who are interested in Zhuang language, culture, folklore and oral traditions, and proverbs.

Dagara Verbal Art examines verbal art among the Dagara people of West Africa. It provides invaluable primary material for research, and does a close analysis of folktale narration, proverb usage, riddling, chanting of dirges and popular songs by male and female praise singers, and xylophone music performance as forms of verbal art. Folktales are characterized by wit, humor, and satire, and songs within tales are a mise-en-abyme, a story within a story that entertains but also enhances the narration through the participation of the audience in the performance. Moreover, Dagara tales are didactic and moralizing as a way of controlling the behavior of individuals in society. Riddling entertains but also helps to develop the cognitive abilities of children, and demands critical and logical thinking on the part of the participating audience. Proverbs were collected in context and analyzed closely for their meaning. The study also examines closely the art of speech-making, and concludes that a good locutor knows what figures of speech to use in order to enhance communication with the audience. This study concludes that an authentic theory of Dagara—and for that matter, generally African—folklore must be grounded on a thorough knowledge of the traditions, rites and rituals, and the socio-political structures that have held the society together in its historical experience. Dagara Verbal Art is an important resource for areas such as African studies, African literature and folklore, folklore in general, anthropology, culture studies, ethnomusicology, ethnic studies, and gender studies, among others.

Dan Ben-Amos famously ushered in the performance turn in folklore studies in the 1970s with his paradigm-changing definition of folklore as "artistic communication in small groups." He went on to make profound contributions to issues of folktale, folk speech, genre, cultural memory, biblical and Jewish folklore, African folklore, and historiography, and gain renown around the world as a leading figure in folklore studies. In Contexts of Folklore, leading lights of folklore studies from many corners of the globe honor Ben-Amos by presenting original studies inspired by his insights. Their essays will assuredly be lasting, provocative statements of folklore research that will energize future generations of folklorists and other scholars of culture and communication.

This unique collection, The Transatlantic Culture Trade: Caribbean Creole Proverbs from Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean, celebrates indigenous Caribbean Creole languages and one of their associated cultural vectors, Creole proverbs. It is particularly timely as 2019 has been designated by the United Nations as the Year of Indigenous Languages, and falls within the United Nations Decade for People of African Descent which began in 2015 and will end in 2024. The 222 French-lexified and English-lexified Creole proverbs from the Caribbean, with corresponding phonetic transcriptions (IPA), is accessible to an international audience. As the homogenizing effects of globalization threaten the preservation of indigenous cultures of small nation states such as those in the Caribbean, this collection of proverbs counterbalances cultural erosion, and thereby safeguards the region’s cultural heritage for future generations. Elements of intangible cultural heritage, Caribbean Creole proverbs depict the socio-historical heritage of the multilingual and multicultural region. This work is an invaluable resource for translators of Caribbean Creole culture, especially Creole proverbs, scholars of Caribbean Creole culture and anyone interested in comparative Caribbean Creole intangible cultural heritage.

There was a time when the word "modern" would not have appeared in folklore scholarship in general and in proverb studies in particular. After all, folklorists and cultural historians were primarily interested in traditional materials with some consideration also being given to their innovative adaptations. While this interplay of tradition and innovation informed many studies that exemplified a certain constancy in change, little attention was paid to new or modern folklore items. But there has been a revolutionary change during the past few decades in that scholars have looked at the creation of new folklore. This change of emphasis has also influenced paremiographers (proverb collectors) and paremiologists (proverb scholars). In fact, the Dictionary of Modern Proverbs (2012) edited by Charles Clay Doyle, Wolfgang Mieder, and Fred R. Shapiro has become solid proof that there is such a phenomenon as modern proverbs.This is the first study of authentic modern American proverbs without including proverbs of British origin. The first of nine chapters discusses the origin, nature, and meaning of modern American proverbs based on about 1500 texts. The next large chapter contains a general overview of their forward-looking message that includes the American spirit of mobility with its emphasis toward a successful and exciting future. The third chapter treats proverbial emotions about modern life, with the fourth chapter considering the modern wisdom about age and aging. The next two chapters cover somatic aspects of these proverbs and also the preoccupation with time. This is followed by a discussion about pecuniary proverbs that reflect the attitudes of a capitalistic society. The next chapter shows that modern proverbs continue to include references to animals as has been the case with older proverbs. Finally, there is the ninth chapter about sexuality and scatology in modern proverbs, indicating that these topics play a considerable role in this modern wisdom. Such proverbs were often excluded form proverb collections. With the much greater openness about love, sex, and various taboos, proverbs have become much more open literally or figuratively about these matters that are an obsession of sorts throughout the society. Altogether these nine chapters with their many modern American proverbs present a fascinating metaphorical picture of a general of composite American worldview.

Dungan Folktales and Legends is a unique anthology that acquaints English-speaking readers with the rich and captivating folk stories of the Dungans, Chinese-speaking Muslims who fled Northwest China for Russian Central Asia after failure of the Dungan Revolt (1862–1877) against the Qing dynasty. The most comprehensive collection of Dungan folk narratives, available now in English for the first time, this volume features translations of oral narratives collected in the former Soviet Central Asian republics of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in the twentieth century, and first published in Dunganskie narodnye skazki i predaniia (1977), which was edited by the internationally renowned Russian sinologist Boris L. Riftin and compiled by his prominent Dungan colleagues Makhmud A. Khasanov and Ilʹias I. Iusupov. The Dungan folk narrative tradition is a vibrant and fascinating tapestry of Chinese, Islamic, and various Central Asian cultural elements.The present volume is comprised of a chapter introducing the Dungan tale and three chapters containing 78 folk stories organized in the following categories: wonder tales and animal tales; novelistic tales, folk anecdotes, and adventure stories; and legends, historical tales, and narratives. Also included are appendixes, a glossary, an index, the original notes to the texts, and translator’s notes aimed at an English-reading audience. This volume will be of interest to general readers, as well as students and scholars of folklore, ethnography, anthropology, comparative literature, Chinese studies, and Central Asian studies."The Russian-language edition of Dungan Folktales and Legends was a substantial contribution to comparative folklore studies when it first appeared in 1977. The book, based on several decades of field research, provided readers a glimpse into the complex tapestry of Dungan storytelling. Built upon several traditions, the tales of the Dungans merge multiple motifs and plots from the wide Eurasian folklore space. This most welcome translation will benefit not only folklorists and sinologists but also anyone with a liking for a good story."—Aglaia Starostina, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences"Dungan Folktales and Legends is a very refined work that represents the research carried out by Soviet sinologists. This is undoubtedly a must-read for those interested in Sinophone literature in general, as well as the folklore preserved among Sinophone Muslims. Additionally, this piece illustrates the complexity of interconnected and interrelated traditions found in Central Asia. The translation by Kenneth J. Yin is polished and careful: he truly manages to build a bridge between the English readership and the Central Asian Sinophone Muslims."—Soledad Jiménez-Tovar, Professor of History, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas"Kenneth J. Yin’s Dungan Folktales and Legends makes a very substantial contribution to the study of the culture and folklore of the Dungan people, whose unique position in the history of East Asian cultures and East Asian linguistics is increasingly recognized inside and outside of China. For a very long time, Dunganology has been a field dominated by outstanding Russian scholarship. More recently, immense progress has been made by students from the People’s Republic of China. Kenneth J. Yin shows an admirable ability to use all the most important available sources in the present volume, which makes Dungan literary sensibilities available to a broader international public."—Christoph Harbsmeier, Professor Emeritus of Chinese, University of Oslo"Dungan Folktales and Legends opens a new page in the English-language scholarship on the folklore and popular literature of the Chinese and their neighbors. Being a reader of these tales in Russian translation since the age of ten (they made a part of my collection of favorite Asian tales), I am delighted to learn that they are now available in a superb English translation, with the necessary introduction and comments, by Kenneth J. Yin. This collection also reflects the personal experience of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Boris L. Riftin (1932–2012), who started to collect and study Dungan folklore in situ during his student years and continued to analyze it later from the perspective of an expert in Chinese folk literature. Many figures of Chinese traditional literature, some of them perhaps already known to English-speaking readers as Yu Boya, Han Xin, Su Qin, Xue Rengui, and the like, appear here in a new and often unusual guise."—Rostislav Berezkin, Research Fellow, National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Fudan University"With his Dungan Folktales and Legends, Kenneth Yin contributes a valuable chapter to Dungan Studies by making available in English translation a substantial body of interesting folk tales of a people who, though small in number, offer important material for the study of Central Asian culture and literature. Expertly translated, the stories in this collection open our eyes to a broad and unexpected vista of human experience. Highly recommended for anyone who is engaged in the study of Sinitic language and literature."—Victor H. Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature, University of Pennsylvania"Kenneth J. Yin’s Dungan Folktales and Legends is a most welcome and impressive anthology of oral narrative literature translations. With an elegant introduction chapter and erudite translator’s notes, this rich and well-chosen collection will make a much needed wealth of sources available for the study of Dungan culture and history in Central Asia."—Talant Mawkanuli, Associate Teaching Professor and Director of Turkic and Central Eurasian Studies, University of Washington–Seattle

This book presents a unique collection of fairy tales from contemporary China, translated into English for the first time. Demonstrating the continuity of oral tradition throughout Chinese history, the thirty tales are selected according to the theme of "magic love." Many readers are familiar with European tales of love and family, but these Chinese tales have a very different emphasis. The structural differences are also striking: there are more tales with tragic endings, instead of the familiar "happily ever after," and often more tale types in one tale. They are fascinating to read and challenging in terms of both morphology and cultural symbolism. Unlike many collections of fairy tales, this book provides contextual information on the tellers, collectors, and time and location of collection, along with an introduction to the Chinese social and cultural background, and folkloristic approaches to fairy tale studies.

This edited volume is a feast of contemporary Kazakh proverb research. You are invited to the low table, the Kazakh dastarkhan, where special dishes cover the table. Everything is within easy reach, and each of the delicacies is homemade, with a distinctive Kazakh flavor. Whether you are a linguist, folklorist, anthropologist, or just someone wanting to know more, this feast has something to offer. Come join us for a cup of tea, some respite, and the opportunity to enter into the world of Kazakh proverb research!There are five courses: current use of Kazakh proverbs at home, in school, and on the internet; the content of proverbs used historically and in fiction; the dynamic relationship between proverbs and culture in Kazakhstan; the role of proverbs in education (both the ecologies of proverbial interaction between languages and the opportunities provided by technology); and finally, new vistas for the future of Kazakh proverb use. With the expanded role of the internet, Kazakhs have ventured beyond using traditional Kazakh proverbs. They are now recrafting proverbial content and forms to find fitting words for contemporary issues. The book’s finale is a ground-breaking piece of research which documents the twists and tweaks that keep Kazakh proverb use vibrant.

Among the many collections of Egyptian proverbs, the standout is this compilation by Ahmad Taymour, a pioneer and leading figure in the field of paremiology. The Colloquial Proverbs was first published in 1949 and includes 3,188 proverbs, along with explanatory notes. Since publication the book has gained immense popularity in the Arabic-speaking world. For scholars it is considered a thesaurus, a fundamental and indispensable resource for research. Translated here into English for the first time, this work will be of interest to paremiologists and proverb collectors, but also to those seeking insights into the mindset, character, customs and history of the Egyptian people.