The Trojan ass : Asinarius as mock epic

The medieval narrative poem Asinarius (late 12th early 13th c.) has commonly been considered a fairy tale ante litteram, predating the self-conscious development of the literary genre from early modem times onward. Under influence of the deeply rooted notion that fairy tales have their origins in oral-folkloric traditions, scholars who have studied this text have tended to do so in terms of its supposed indebtedness to folktales, possibly even derived from Indian mythology. Meanwhile, its essential nature as a piece of Latin literature has been largely neglected. This article proposes a literary contextualizing of the text, situating it within the broader field of Latin literature. More specifically, it argues that the Asinarius poet playfully engages with epic texts, both ancient and contemporary, dealing with the matter of Troy. Thus, the reader is invited to a mock-epic reading of the poem, all too easily obfuscated today by an anachronistic "Grimmian" perspective

Translating Folklore: the Myth of Baba Jaga in Afanasev's Fairy Tales

The main aim of this article is to provide a thorough insight about the difficulties encountered when translating fairy tales from Slavic folklore, in a sense that not only it implies the shift from anoral version to a written one, but also it has to face all the challenges of children's literature. In order to do this, we have analyzed one of the hundreds of fairy tales present in the work of the Russian writer and linguist Aleksandr Nikolaevič Afanas'ev, Narodnye russkie skazki, an extraordinary collection and classification of a large amount of fairy tales of the Slavic oral culture. Our analysis focuses on the well-known character Baba Jaga, the 'wooden leg' witch, who lives in an izbaand rests on hen's legs in an enchanted wood. In particular, an attempt is made to conduct a translatological analysis of Afanas'ev's text, within the framework of textual typology considering the translation macro-strategy, the most significant linguistic factors, as well assome potential translation strategies which help the story to fit in the target language and culture in the best possible way

Folk belief and Scottish traditional literatures

No abstract available

Tootle

Tales of artificially animated characters, alternatively known as “it-tales”, are among the more interesting stories written for young children. Although the psychosocial attributes of such characters are as timeless as those found in animal and human characters, they are especially interesting historically since they are a product of the state of technology extant at the time the story was written or in which the story events are located. Thus they reflect both the technology of the characters and the attitude toward such technology, both those of the reader or child and of the caregiver who transmits such tales to the child. The story of Tootle is described and discussed as an example of the steam-engine tales that were especially popular in the early to middle part of the twentieth century, and analyzed in the light of the author’s personal experience, prevailing gender role stereotypes, dynamics of heroic characters, potential impact of such stories on children’s creativity and relevant pedagogical viewpoints such as authoritarian vs. learner-initiated approaches to teaching. Critical approaches based on ideological (especially Marxist) and Jungian perspectives are also discussed. Comparisons are made between Tootle and tales of other steam-engine and similar characters. Potentially negative aspects of the Tootle story are elaborated and a hypothetical alternative ending to the Tootle story is offered

Grupos semânticos de adjetivos-epítetos em contos folclóricos russos

The lexical-semantic groups of adjectives-epithets in Russian folk tales are considered in the article. This is an analytical-historical research used to obtain data from the documentary methodology. The resuls showed that the semantic groups of nouns, defined by adjectives, are marked; national cultural connotations, expressed by adjectival substantive combinations, are detected in Russian tales. Various codes of culture are defined, with which described adjectives-epithets, used in direct and figurative (metaphorical and metonymic) meanings, correlate and their linguocultural significance is actualized as fragments of the Russian language picture of the world. In some cases attention is applied to use specific for Russian language suffixes in adjectives, expressing positive or, on the contrary, negative connotations.Los grupos léxico-semánticos de adjetivos-epítetos en los cuentos populares rusos se consideran en el artículo. Esta es una investigación histórico-analítica utilizada para obtener datos de la metodología documental. Los resultados mostraron que los grupos semánticos de sustantivos, definidos por adjetivos, están marcados; Las connotaciones culturales nacionales, expresadas por combinaciones sustantivas de adjetivo, se detectan en los cuentos rusos. Se definen varios códigos de cultura, con los cuales se describen los adjetivos-epítetos, utilizados en significados directos y figurativos (metafóricos y metonímicos), se correlacionan y su importancia lingüística se actualiza como fragmentos de la imagen del mundo en idioma ruso. En algunos casos, se aplica atención al uso específico de los sufijos del idioma ruso en los adjetivos, que expresan connotaciones positivas o, por el contrario, negativas.Os grupos léxico-semânticos de adjetivos-epítetos em contos folclóricos russos são considerados no artigo. Esta é uma pesquisa analítico-histórica usada para obter dados da metodologia documental. Os resultados mostraram que os grupos semânticos de substantivos, definidos por adjetivos, são marcados; conotações culturais nacionais, expressas por combinações substantivas adjetivas, são detectadas em contos russos. São definidos vários códigos de cultura, com os quais se descrevem os adjetivos-epítetos, utilizados em significados diretos e figurativos (metafóricos e metonímicos), correlacionados e seu significado linguocultural se atualiza como fragmentos da imagem de língua russa do mundo. Em alguns casos, aplica-se atenção ao uso específico de sufixos de língua russa em adjetivos, expressando conotações positivas ou, ao contrário, negativas

Pinocchio and the uncanny quest for subaltern spaces in Italian children’s literature

Italian AbstractCon il suo occupare uno spazio liminale, ibrido e frammentato, Pinocchio sembra rispecchiare l’ansia italiana di fronte ad un potere egemonico, nell’Italia post-unificazione. Da pezzo di legno a ‘ragazzo per bene’, la ricerca continua di Pinocchio per dare un senso alla sua identità e a quella del mondo che lo circonda, può essere paragonata a quella della giovane Italia, una nazione in cerca di una cultura nazionale che possa convalidarne l’esistenza. Il Pinocchio di Carlo Collodi (1883) può essere considerato un racconto di ricerca postcoloniale che non solo serve ad educare i bambini ma che rivela anche elementi essenziali di una giovane nazione e risponde al questito circa che cosa renda una persona italiana. Rivelando lo sconcerto di coloro che occupano spazi ambigui di (dis)unità, e mettendo in evidenzia l’importanza di rivisitare racconti per l’infanzia in quanto documenti dal valore storico, è possibile comprendere meglio l’emarginazione e l’impotenza dell’Italia post-unificazione nel corso del viaggio da essa intrapreso per diventare ‘autentica’ nazione.Keywords: Pinocchio, uncanny, subaltern, children’s literature, identity-formatio

Carving the Perfect Citizen: The Adventures of Soviet Pinocchio in Text and on Screen

In 1936, Alexei Tolstoy’s The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Buratino was published, heralding the use of children’s literature and fairy tale structure as an ideological and transformative tool for children in the Soviet Union. The Adventures of Buratino, framed by Alexei Tolstoy’s alleged recreation from memory of Carlo Collodi’sThe Adventures of Pinocchio (1883), was a Soviet fairy tale, portraying Buratino as a hero for his fellow puppets in helping to free them from the corrupt and oppressive power of Karabas Barabas, the owner of the puppet theater. While Barabas serves as an embodiment of an exploiter and degenerate capitalist, Buratino is depicted as a true revolutionary, who is selfless, who fights for collective goals, and represents the liberator for the poor and oppressed. As a Soviet tale, Buratino has several incarnations: one, of course, being Tolstoy\u27s original text, another as a play, and two as film representations. For my project, I will track the change in visual representation of Buratino and the possible ideological implications and controversies that these changes might have as the story shifts from Tolstoy\u27s narrative to the Soviet 1939 (employing both animation and live action characters) and Soviet-time Belarussian 1975 TV musical for children. In addition, importance will be placed on the manner in which characters from Buratinoare present, absent, or simply transformed from the original Pinocchio. The Soviet film versions will be compared to American visual representations of Pinocchio in the 1940 Disney film that also presented an ideologically charged visualization of an old fairy tale

Carving the Perfect Citizen: The Adventures of Italian Pinocchio in the Soviet Union and the United States

Approaches to what exactly a fairy tale should accomplish and how it accomplishes it are varied. Nevertheless, however diverse the conclusions of different fairy-tale genre studies may be, they all come to a similar result: a fairy tale is a representation of cultural perspective and understanding that acts as an important socialization tool, whether it teaches its audience how to understand and mitigate basic fears and human functions or reinforces an existing moral and social structure. Maria Tatar, a contemporary folktale and fairy tale scholar, writes that the staying power of fairy tales suggests that they must be addressing issues that have a significant social function (xi). Tatar also goes on to write that fairy tales ... develop maps for coping with personal anxieties, family conflicts, social frictions, and the myriad frustrations of everyday life (xi). In other words, fairy tales at once confront prominent sociocultural issues while simultaneously performing a didactic function for how to contend with the reality of these issues