"The Sociopsychological Analysis of Folktales" by J.L. Fischer is in my eyes a good source to further understand folktales. Fischer starts off the paper by giving the definition of a folktale. Fischer provides the definition of a folktale as being any traditional, dramatic, oral narrative. Myths of the supernatural nature, tales told for entertainment, and "purportedly factual accounts of historical events" are all lumped into the category of folktales. Fischer provides seemingly endless research to back up every one of the claims in this paper.
I found it interesting that tales are much more likely to be modified than myths. Fischer states that myths are often learned and recited verbatim. While tales are usually given more of a personal touch. When someone changes a detail in a myth it is interpreted as being wrong or falsified. I find this information interesting because myths and tales are forms of folktales and are held to different standards.
Fischer also explains that folktales are known to be a separation between expressive and practical culture. This separation can be seen in the difference between music and politics. I believe that the separation Fischer talks about in this paper is not as big as it seems. I believe the bottom line is that folktales must be a combination of both expressive and practical culture. I tend to believe that without the influence of political, economical, and social structure there would be no folktales.
Hi Greg. Really interesting response; do you think myths, tales, and "factual accounts" should be lumped together into the category of "Folktales?" Maybe just the ones that teach lessons should be considered folktales. It's hard to say, but just something to consider.
ReplyDeleteOn the point of separation- I think you are right in saying it is not as big a deal as Fischer makes it out to be. Folktales are 100% a combination of all of these aspects- music, politics, economics, art, etc., all go hand in hand in the creation of folktales.