Wise Words Pbdirect

Wise Words Pbdirect
Author: Wolfgang Mieder
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 607
Release: 2015-02-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317549244

The twenty essays that comprise this book, which was first published in 1994, were written by leading paremiologists and folklorists from Africa, Canada, Great Britain, Germany and the US. They represent the best scholarship on proverbs in the English language, and together they give an impressive overview of the fascinating advances in the field of paremiology.

Folktales of Newfoundland Pbdirect

Folktales of Newfoundland Pbdirect
Author: J.D.A. Widdowson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 878
Release: 2015-02-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317551486

This collection of Newfoundland folk narratives, first published in 1996, grew out of extensive fieldwork in folk culture in the province. The intention was to collect as broad a spectrum of traditional material as possible, and Folktales of Newfoundland is notable not only for the number and quality of its narratives, but also for the format in which they are presented. A special transcription system conveys to the reader the accents and rhythms of each performance, and the endnote to each tale features an analysis of the narrator’s language. In addition, Newfoundland has preserved many aspects of English and Irish folk tradition, some of which are no longer active in the countries of their origin. Working from the premise that traditions virtually unknown in England might still survive in active form in Newfoundland, the researchers set out to discover if this was in fact the case.

Some Day Been Dey Pbdirect

Some Day Been Dey Pbdirect
Author: Loreto Todd
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2015-02-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317549937

'Once upon a time' is the English translation of the title of this collection of twenty-eight Pidgin tales from Cameroon in West Africa, first published in 1979. These are richly illustrative of the various folklore genres of the region and are presented in a modified standard orthography, with an English translation facing the original Pidgin text. Notes are provided on each tale with the intention of illuminating some of their unique stylistic and linguistic patterns. The tales are often witty, never protracted, and are pleasurable in their own right. They also provide linguistic and folkloristic material not available elsewhere. In a lengthy introduction, Dr Todd discusses the history of Cameroon and the development and use of Pidgin English there. A simple grammar of Pidgin English is included to aid scholars not already familiar with the language to make full use of the Pidgin texts.

The Arab of the Desert (RLE Saudi Arabia)

The Arab of the Desert (RLE Saudi Arabia)
Author: H.R.P. Dickson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 728
Release: 2015-02-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 131754000X

H.R.P. Dickson had the good fortune to spend many years among the Badawin, living and travelling with them as one of them in their own tents. In this book, first published in 1949, the author uses his great experience and knowledge to reveal all aspects of the lives of the nomadic desert Arabs, from social systems to marriage and children, from faith to food, sandstorms, warfare and hunting. The Arab of the Desert is truly a wealth of information, informed by personal insight and anecdotes.

Uses of Comparative Mythology Pbdirect

Uses of Comparative Mythology Pbdirect
Author: Kenneth Golden
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2015-03-05
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1317550862

This collection, first published in 1992, offers critical-interpretive essays on various aspects of the work of Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), one of a very few international experts on myth. Joseph Campbell examines myths and mythologies from a comparative point of view, and he stresses those similarities among myths the world over as they suggest an existing, transcendent unity of all humankind. His interpretations foster an openness, even a generous appreciation of, all myths; and he attempts to generate a broad, sympathetic understanding of the role of these ‘stories’ in human history, in our present-day lives, and in the possibilities of our future.

Turandot's Sisters Pbdirect

Turandot's Sisters Pbdirect
Author: Christine Goldberg
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2015-02-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317549481

The central tale studied in Turandot’s Sisters, first published in 1993, is The Princess Who Can Not Solve the Riddle, AT 851. Other wisdom tales are surveyed to show that they are separate from the riddle tales in material and in spirit. Customs and beliefs concerning riddling and riddle contests are examined to see what motifs from the tales are taken from reality, leaving the rest to be either fantasy motifs or stylistic traits. The central tale AT 851 is analysed in detail to exhibit its obligatory and optional elements, a wealth of possibilities that enables it to adapt to a range of moods and to express a variety of ideas.

Ewe Comic Heroes Pbdirect

Ewe Comic Heroes Pbdirect
Author: Zinta Konrad
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2015-02-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317551737

The trickster character is prominent in the cultural, particularly narrative, traditions of many different peoples throughout the world. Comic and serious, stupid and clever, benevolent and evil, winner and loser, the trickster is a study in contradictions. The trickster cannot be pigeonholed, for he does not fit into any neat categories or definitions. This study, first published in 1994, aims to give the reader the opportunity to experience in some small measure the dynamic and exciting dramatic oral narrative performances of the Ewe people of West Africa.

The Development of Soviet Folkloristics Pbdirect

The Development of Soviet Folkloristics Pbdirect
Author: Dana Howell
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 487
Release: 2015-02-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317551826

Crucial to the world history of folkloristics is this key study, first published in 1992, of the development of folklore study in the Soviet Union. Nowhere else has political ideology been so heavily involved with folklore scholarship. Professor Howell has examined in depth the institutional development of folkloristics in the Soviet Union in the first half of the twentieth century, concentrating especially upon the transition from pre-revolutionary Russian to Soviet Marxist folkloristics. The study of folklore moved from narrator studies to the description of the relationship of lore to larger contexts of social groups and social classes. Showing an exceptional knowledge of Russian, political theory and folkloristics, Dana Howell provides a valuable window into the rise of folkloristics in a country undergoing almost unprecedented changes in social and political conditions.

Scottish Tradition Pbdirect

Scottish Tradition Pbdirect
Author: David Buchan
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2015-02-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317550048

Scottish folk literature is characterised by a wide range of creative expression: story, song, play and proverb. This anthology, first published in 1984, provides an authoritative introduction to Scottish folk literature, and is unique in that it deals with all the genres intrinsic to Scottish tradition. Its selected texts offer an unusual and diverse enjoyment to the reader, including such forms as wonder tales or Märhcen, classical ballads, riddles, jocular tales, lyric and comic and occupational folksongs, rhymes, historical and supernatural legends, and guisers’ plays. The texts chosen cover the main regional traditions of Lowland Scotland, from Galloway to the Shetlands, and span a number of centuries, through both pre- and post-industrial periods, from a sailor’s worksong of the sixteenth century to modern urban legends just recently recorded. The book is arranged in four sections, on Folk Narrative, Folksong, Folksay, and Folk Drama, each with an introduction and a bibliographical essay setting the material in context and indicating some of its international links. Folk literature itself is brought into firm focus by discussion and generic example, and the anthology as a whole illuminates substantial areas of Scottish social and cultural life.

The Ballad and the Folk Pbdirect

The Ballad and the Folk Pbdirect
Author: David Buchan
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2015-02-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317552903

The ballad is an enduring and universal literary genre. In this book, first published in 1972, David Buchan is concerned to establish the nature of a ballad and of the people who produced it through a study of the regional tradition of the Northeast of Scotland, the most fertile ballad area in Britain. His account of this tradition has two parallel aims, one specifically literary – to investigate the ballad as oral literature – and one broadly ethnographic – to set the regional tradition in its social context. Dr Buchan applies the interesting and important work which has recently been done on oral tradition in Europe on the relationship of the ballad to society to his study of this particular part of Scotland. He examines a nonliterate society to discover what factors besides nonliteracy helped foster its ballad tradition. He analyses the processes of composition and transmission in the oral ballad, and considers the changes which removed nonliteracy, altered social patterns, and seriously affected the ballad tradition. By demonstrating how people who could neither read nor write were able to compose literature of a high order, David Buchan provides a convincing explanation of the ballad’s perennial appeal and an answer to the ‘ballad enigma’. His book is also a valuable study in social history of this culturally distinct region, the Northeast of Scotland.