Suchergebnisse

The drive to pass down stories from generation to generation is a trait that cultures across the world have in common. Some of these fascinating stories are called folktales, and many are still beloved hundreds of years after they were first told. Readers will learn the characteristics that folktales across cultures share. They'll discover that fables, fairy tales, and tall tales all fall within this category, and they'll learn famous examples of each, such as the Tortoise and the Hare, Paul Bunyan, and Cinderella. The compelling narrative is accompanied by appealing artwork.

This paper begins by introducing Meme 'Haylain' Happiness, a concept drawn from a Bhutanese folktale about an old man, Meme Haylay Haylay, who exchanges his turquoise for a song, and happily returns home singing the song. It questions whether we are ready to pursue happiness in our daily life like Meme Haylay Haylay who had realized that more happiness would flow from singing a song than from guarding the turquoise. The paper then explores the roles of Bhutanese oral tradition in educating children who could not avail themselves of either monastic or modern education. It argues that modern education, which primarily provides secular, pluralistic, egalitarian and market values necessary for running economic, political and legal institutions and the machinery of the modern nation-state is deficient in many ways; it is the oral tradition which fills this gap by inculcating universal, humanistic and Bhutanese values. It also discusses the main functions of Bhutanese folktales which are about trivial events but embedded with multi-layered meanings of great moral and social importance, with experiences drawn from daily life. The common motifs of the tales are chosen to relate them to the daily realities of the Bhutanese people. Lastly, this paper makes some policy recommendations to promote, document, disseminate and study the Bhutanese folktales through the mass media such as the press, radio, TV, internet, and film industry.

This introduction to the Russian folktale considers the origin, structure and language of folktales; tale-tellers and their audiences; the relationship of folktales to Russian ritual life; and the folktale types which are translated in subsequent volumes of "The Complete Russian Folktale."

<i>Background:</i> Using folktales we can find some aspects of social customs. Here, I show the situation of consanguineous marriages in folktales from different Iranian populations and try to compare it with the present situation of consanguineous marriages. <i>Methods:</i> The study includes tales from 11 different Iranian (ethnic and/or geographical) populations. Overall, the records of 585 marriages in 296 folktales from the study populations were found. <i>Results:</i> The estimated mean inbreeding coefficient (α) for different populations using folktale records is lower than that of the present values. However, there is a very high level of statistically significant correlation between them (r = 0.753, d.f. = 9, p = 0.007). <i>Conclusion:</i> The historical background is very important to attitude and practice regarding marriages between relatives.

In this essay I would like to examine the selection of African tales that Nelson Mandela took care to leave as heritage to the future generations, not only to children, and not only to African children. The fact that a political leader, ex freedom fighter and political prisoner dedicated his time to the collection and editing of stories from all over the African continent to be addressed to new readers as simple entertainment or as educational tools clearly testifies to the great humanity, culture, and open mindedness of one of the most important men of our times. In his most recent autobiographical writing Conversations With Myself, Mandela claimed his double affiliation to both his own indigenous culture as well as to western culture. Moreover, he recalled with affection a dear pastime of his childhood: After supper we would listen enthralled to my mother and sometimes my aunt telling us stories, legends, myths and fables which have come down from countless generations, and all of which tended to stimulate the imagination and contained some valuable moral lesson. (p. 10) Thus, it is not surprising that such a charismatic public figure, as Mandela has been, was also interested in- and worried about- the future survival of a cluster of traditional folktales with their lively, specific and "valuable moral lesson". It is my intention to verify if there might be a dialogue between the western tradition of folktales where animals are protagonists and speak as anthropomorphic figures and the facets of the African traditions and cultures from which Mandela draws inspiration. Among the critical tools on this topic, Tess Cosslett's Talking Animals in British Children's Fiction (2006) seems to provide a useful starting point, together with the latest studies in the volume Dall'ABC a Harry Potter (2011), among others. Moreover, aspects of "orature" will be discussed with reference to the stories chosen by Nelson Mandela. Finally, an attempt will be made to connect these types of animal tales to works of figurative art, particularly paintings, by African artists, which might share the same moral message and which might trigger similar narratives.