1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910552758103321

Autore

Stahl Sandra K. D

Titolo

Literary Folkloristics and the Personal Narrative / Sandra Dolby Stahl

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Indiana University Press, 1988

1989., : Indiana University Press

Bloomington

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (1 online resource xi, 148 pages) : illustrations

Soggetti

Literatuurkritiek

Mondelinge literatuur

Tales - Structural analysis

Storytelling

Oral tradition

Narration (Rhetoric)

Folklore - Methodology

Folk literature

Narration

Art de conter

Contes - Analyse structurale

Tradition orale

Folklore - Methodologie

Litterature populaire - Histoire et critique

Folk literature - History and criticism

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Sommario/riassunto

Drawing upon theories of folkloristic performance, deconstructive criticism, and reader-response theory, Sandra Dolby Stahl has developed a unique methodology for the examination of oral personal



narratives, stories that people tell based on their own experiences. Such stories are not traditional in the usual sense but are instead a creative response to experience and the tradition of narration. Hearing such stories is also a creative response, one that requires the perception of traditions or "allusions" in the story and its performance. It is to these interpretive allusions that our attention is drawn throughout the book. Stahl begins her analysis with a discussion of the genre of personal narrative and the seemingly universal practice of turning events and experiences into narratives. She also discusses the state of interpretive research in folkloristics. Folk-narrative research has generally been analytical, attending to questions of form, structure, style, or function; few interpretive studies of folk narrative have been published. Because the personal narrative has only recently become a part of folklore research, Stahl's interpretive attention to the genre is unprecedented. Her study includes two lengthy chapters in which two transcribed narrative texts are meticulously analyzed and subjectively interpreted-as allusion upon allusion creates meaning for the listener (and reader).