The blind girl, a misplaced folktale
Article Abstract:
Analyzing a folktale's variations provides a permanent contribution to knowledge, and the variants of the folktale of the blind girl provide one example. The story has a number of traits in common with those of other persecuted heroines. The most obvious theme is that of goodness and cruelty, but poverty and wealth are a sub-theme. The various motifs of the tale, such as the selling motif, the fairies' gifts and the buying back of the eyes with the products of these gifts provide the tale's internal balance. The tale is similar to those of other substitued brides and shares some of their motifs. Straparola's 'Pleasant Nights,' published between 1550 and 1553, is the oldest example of the tale.
Publication Name: Western Folklore
Subject: Regional focus/area studies
ISSN: 0043-373X
Year: 1996
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Structure, society, and symbolism: toward a holistic interpretation of fairy tales
Article Abstract:
Analyzing a folktale's variants by its structure and the cultures where it dominates provides the most complete information. This is illustrated with an analysis of the tale of The Princess Who Cannot Solve the Riddle, an international tale immortalized in various works. The tale is most popular in the Germanic areas and in Eastern Europe, an area where marriage symbolizes the bride's death. This information helps in understanding the tale's thematic duality. The tale also reflects a fear of female sexuality, and this also exists in areas where the tale is most popular.
Publication Name: Western Folklore
Subject: Regional focus/area studies
ISSN: 0043-373X
Year: 1996
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
"Dogs rescue master from tree refuge," an African folktale with world-wide analogs
Article Abstract:
Tracing African-American folktales only to Africa is simplistic in the case of tales found in many cultures world-wide. The tale of dogs rescuing their master from a tree is found in Europe, Africa, Arabia, India, and Japan. Scholars doubt the variants of this tale descended from a single original version.
Publication Name: Western Folklore
Subject: Regional focus/area studies
ISSN: 0043-373X
Year: 1998
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Die for the boycott and Nation: martyrdom and the 1905 anti-American movement in China. The anticlimax of an ill-starred Sino-American encounter
- Abstracts: The Haitian revolution and the sale of Louisiana. The Franco-African peoples of Haiti and Louisiana. Creole Louisiana's Haitian exile(s)
- Abstracts: The dissection of the state: 'Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre' and the politics of aesthetics. Faustian pursuits: the political-cultural dimension of Goethe's 'Weltliteratur' and the tragedy of translation
- Abstracts: Writing on the ruins in 'Les Derniers Jours de Corinthe:' from reassemblage to reassessment in Robbe-Grillet. Hydre-miroir: 'Les Romanesques' d'Alain Robbe-Grillet et le pacte fantasmatique
- Abstracts: Writing on the ruins in 'Les Derniers Jours de Corinthe:' from reassemblage to reassessment in Robbe-Grillet. part 2