Study Guide for the Final (Folktales, Tales, Short Stories)

Above is a still from a 1970 version of "Donkey Skin."  The actress Catherine Deneuve played both Donkey Skin and her mother. 

Orality – proverbs/repetition/cliches, performance/responsiveness to an audience/improvisation or change, flat characters/focus on action, communal/external, conservative, Fr. Walter J. Ong, Milman Parry

“Donkey Skin” – 17^th c. – Perrault partipated in conflict of Ancients (held on to the past, classics stayed classics, not to be changed, Greece/Rome were cultural models) vs. Moderns (improve & revise literature – sonnets, ballads, folktales, local was the model, women writers like Behn)—like Cinderella—princess who had to escape her father (who wanted to marry her)—transgression—she runs away & with help of fairy godmother disguises herself as servant—but she brings along trunk w/ toiletries—on Sunday she catches the prince’s eye & wins him—reunites with purged father—irony & social criticism-- see the morals of this story!

“All Kinds of Fur”—very much 19^th c.—no moral stated – Brothers Grimm’s revision of “DS”—they revised to take out foreign influences and later sexual & other adult references

Von Tieck’s “Fair Haired Eckbert” – not oral but published, product of print culture – witch who follows Bertha around to punish her for running off – Bertha & Eckbert are half-siblings; witch disguises herself as Walther & Hugo—bird & dog—supernatural—darker, protagonist is not a common protagonist -- this story was recently made into an opera by Judith Weir and Kenneth Hesketh:

http://www.theoperagroup.co.uk/productions/more/blond_eckbert_other_stories/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2006/jun/16/classicalmusicandopera1

Balzac’s “Sarrasine”—supernatural in 19^th c. high society (after Napoleon’s fall), narrator & his audience, the de Lanty family, the “ghost,”La Zambinella, Sarrasine, Cardinal, in some ways this story is very grounded  This story as well has been transformed into an opera.  Its composer is Matthew Suttor.

http://www.music.columbia.edu/fest99/festreport/mvmt_sound/Sarrasine/description.html

Below is a 19th c. illustration of Sarrasine with La Zambinella.

Coyote Tales – “Coyote and Bull,” “Coyote as Medicine Man,” and “The Origin of Eternal Death” – also folktales, similarities & differences—Coyote as trickster, Coyote tricked (compare Leslie Marmon Silko’s poem about Coyote)

Tolstoy’s “After the Ball”—tale/short story, frame narrative, the narrator sees his future father-in-law in a new, darker light as he whips a Tartar who has tried to desert the army.  I wasn't able to find an illustration of this story, but the still below is from the 1956 version of War and Peace that starred Audrey Hepburn.

Joyce’s “Araby” – 20^th c. story – Dubliners – epiphany/everyday – particular/local  The picture below is from Dublin around 1900.

Vizenor’s “Ice Tricksters”—Native American literature/short story

Vizenor’s “Shadows”—Native American literature/tale – supernatural, Bagese also became a bear, orality vs. print, game of wanaki, narrator was a professor

The picture below is from National Geographic.

Noa Baum’s performance – good experience to hear the tale being told, a real folk tale to me, 1^st part of story – 1948, still an ongoing conflict, still inflammatory—connection to the land, not what I expected, really important to see/hear her tell the story, this was a true story, her life

The picture below is from Ms. Baum's performance in El Paso, TX.