Transcript Slide 1
Folk Literature
The Oral Tradition Charles Perrault The Grimm Brothers Little Red Riding Hood Cinderella
The Oral tradition
The foundation of all literature is oral stories.
These have been retold from generation to generation for millennia and still are.
Trained tellers set some epic stories to music or put them in verse, making them easier to memorize.
Folk stories don’t depend on trained tellers. They were/are popular with ordinary people who retold/retell them for fun.
Anyone can retell with as many changes as s/he likes. Much of their fun was in their extremes, violence, crude humor, bad language, etc.
They were not necessarily told for children. (Childhood was not necessarily thought of as a special time.)
Oral stories today
Think about stories, songs, poems, etc. that you know because you heard them, and not because you read them. Where did you learn them?
Often told much like campfire stories today, jokes, scary urban legends, jump-rope rhymes. Young children learn stories and rhymes long before they can read. Many “oral” stories today are “scripted,” meaning that tellers simply read out loud what has already been written. Is oral story-telling becoming a lost art?
What do folk stories mean?
They are entertaining, fascinating They address moral, social, and psychological issues They have artistic merit They make vivid our humanity Food and appetite Relations to animals and nature Dangers of curiosity Imminence of death Drive for affection and acceptance Responses to injustice Generational and gender conflicts Loss of innocence Saving powers of hope and humor Cleverness and tricks over physical power
What about the moral?
Folk stories develop telling after telling.
New and old elements mix Religion in Grimm’s Cinderella (Aschenputtel)
Intro sounds Christian “Dear child, be good and pious, and then the good God will always protect you, and I will look down on you from heaven and be near you.” Story itself is distinctly pagan No more mention of God Spirit of mother appears to be a part of nature.
Compilers/retellers not Authors
Both the Grimm Brothers and Perrault were compilers of folk tales and NOT the original authors of the stories.
Before their time, it was not common to write down these kinds of stories.
When they are written down, their nature and purpose changes drastically and becomes solidified.
Charles Perrault
1628-1703 • He’s credited for beginning the
literary genre
of the folk tale.
• A French aristocrat, attended best schools, worked in government and with literature.
• He was a major supporter of “the moderns” in a popular debate that pitted ancient literature against modern. • Wrote these stories in his 60’s thinking of his own children.
• He added morals • He made many changes such as Cinderella’s glass slipper (unstretchable and see-through) he gave his stories fashionable settings.
Whoa! Nice hair!
Tales of Mother Goose
The first know use of the term "Mother Goose" comes from Charles Perrault's slender book published in 1697 containing eight simple stories with the unassuming title: Stories or Tales from Times Past, with Morals, the added title in the frontispiece, Tales of Mother Goose. The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood Little Red Riding Hood Blue Beard The Master Cat; or, Puss in Boots The Fairies Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper Ricky of the Tuft Little Thumb
The Grimm Brothers
Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859) • From a German, middle-class family • Life-long librarians and linguists.
• They collected folk tales as part of a broader project to preserve German culture, clarify a German identity, and create an exhaustive German “dictionary” (they got to letter “F” before they died. The dictionary was finished in 1960) • Their first publication came in two volumes:
Tales of Children and the Home
, in 1812.
• Later versions were suspiciously amplified and stylistically improved for children.
Agency
the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power
In literature, characters who make their own decisions and do actions of their will are said to have agency.
Readers who are allowed to make choices or understand stories in their own way also have agency. (Morals at the end of stories restrict reader agency).
In children’s literature, agency is an important issue because children often don’t have much agency in their daily lives yet the need to exert agency is natural in all people.
Little Red Riding Hood
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What’s this story about? Grimm’s?/Perrault’s?
What is a/the wolf? Grimm’s?/Perrault’s?
What does Red Riding Hood do? What does her grandmother do? What does the wolf do? (Who has agency?) Grimm’s?/Perrault’s?
What do you think about the moral? Grimm’s?/Perrault’s?
Is it important that this story have a moral?
What other variations have you heard, either old or new?
Perrault
Pretty country girl Grandmother lives in another village “See how your grandmother is doing.” “Take cake and pot of butter” Did not know it was dangerous to stay and talk to a wolf.
Grimm brothers
A dear little girl Grandmother lives in the woods “Don’t go off the path or you may fall and break the bottle.” Tells LRRH how to behave with grandmother Did not know what a wicked creature the wolf is Wolf hides under bed clothes “Come, get into bed with me.” Wolf-LRRH dialogue Wolf eats LRRH An explicit moral Describes the wolf’s thoughts Wolf puts on grandmothers clothes LRRH feels uneasy. Doesn’t get into bed.
Wolf-LRRH dialogue Huntsman saves LRRH & Grandmother Kill wolf through clever torture LRRH thinks, “As long as I live, I will never by myself leave the path, to run into the wood, when my mother has forbidden me to do so.” LRRH meets another wolf
The following tale is closer to what folklorists commonly believe the tale of Little Red Riding Hood was like as commonly passed on orally.
The Story of Grandmother!
There was once a woman who had made some bread. She said to her daughter: "Take this loaf of hot bread and this bottle of milk over to granny's." The little girl left. At the crossroads she met a wolf, who asked: "Where are you going?" "I'm taking a loaf of hot bread and a bottle of milk to granny's." "Which path are you going to take," asked the wolf, "the path of needles or the path of pins?"1 "The path of needles," said the little girl.
"Well, then, I'll lake the path of pins." The little girl had fun picking up needles. Meanwhile, the wolf arrived at granny's, killed her, put some of her flesh in the pantry and a bottle of her blood on the shelf. The little girl got there and knocked at the door.
"Push the door," said the wolf, "it's latched with a wet straw." "Hello, granny. I'm bringing you a loaf of hot bread and a bottle of milk." "Put it in the pantry, my child. Take some of the meat in there along with the bottle of wine on the shelf."2
There was a little cat in the room who watched her eat and said: "Phooey! You're a slut if you eat the flesh and drink the blood of granny." "Take your clothes off, my child," said the wolf, "and come into bed with me." "Where should I put my apron?" "Throw it into the fire, my child. You won't be needing it any longer." When she asked the wolf where to put all her other things, her bodice, her dress, her skirt, and her stockings, each time he said: "Throw them into the fire, my child. You won't be needing them any longer."' "Oh, granny, how hairy you are!" "The better to keep me warm, my child!" "Oh, granny, what long nails you have!" "The better to scratch myself with, my child!" : "Oh, granny, what big shoulders you have!" "The better to carry firewood with, my child!" "Oh, granny, what big ears you have!" "The better to hear you with, my child!" "Oh, granny, what big nostrils you have!" "The better to sniff my tobacco with, my child!" "Oh, granny, what a big mouth you have!"
"The better to eat you with, my child!" "Oh, granny, I need to go badly. Let me go outside!" "Do it in the bed, my child." "No, granny, I want to go outside." "All right, but don't stay out long." The wolf tied a rope made of wool to her leg and let her go outside.
When the little girl got outside, she attached the end of the rope to a plum tree in the yard. The wolf became impatient and said: "Are you making cables out there? Are you making cables?" When he realized that there was no answer, he jumped out of bed and discovered that the little girl had escaped. He followed her, but he reached her house only after she had gotten inside.
I Told by Louis mid Francois Briffaull in Nicvrc, 1885. Originally published by Paul Delimit', in "Lcs Contes merveilleux dc Pcrrault et la tradition populaire," Bulletin folklorique da I'lle-de-France (1951): 221-22. Translated for this Norton Critical Edition by Maria Tatar. Copyright © 1999 by Maria Tatar.
1. Yvonne Verdier ("Grand-meres, si vous saviez . . . le Petit Chaperon Rouge dans la tradition oralc," Cahiera de Litterature Orale 4 [1978]: 17-55) reads the path of pins and the path of needles as part of a social discourse pertaining to apprenticeships for girls in sewing. In another region of France, the paths are described as the path of little stones and the path of little thorns. An Italian version refers to a path of stones and a path of roots.
2. Local variations turn the flesh into tortellini in Italy and into sausage in France, while the blood is often said to be wine.
Illustrations by Gustave Doré
More conceptions of LRRH
“Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf” by Roald Dahl (Author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) As soon as Wolf began to feel That he would like a decent meal, He went and knocked on Grandma's door.
When Grandma opened it, she saw The sharp white teeth, the horrid grin, And Wolfie said, 'May I come in?' Poor Grandmamma was terrified, 'He's going to eat me up!' she cried.
And she was absolutely right.
He ate her up in one big bite.
But Grandmamma was small and tough, And Wolfie wailed, 'That's not enough!
'I haven't yet begun to feel 'That I have had a decent meal!’ He ran around the kitchen yelping, I've got to have another helping!' Then added with a frightful leer, I’m therefore going to wait right here Till Little Miss Red Riding Hood 'Comes home from walking in the wood.' He quickly put on Grandma's clothes, (Of course he hadn't eaten those.) He dressed himself in coat and hat.
He put on shoes and after that He even brushed and curled his hair, Then sat himself in Grandma's chair.
In came the little girl in red.
She stopped. She stared. And then she said,
'What great big ears you have, Grandma.'
'All the better to hear you with,' the Wolf replied.
'What great big eyes you have, Grandma,'
said Little Red Riding Hood.
'All the better to see you with,' the Wolf replied.
He sat there watching her and smiled. He thought, I'm going to eat this child.
Compared with her old Grandmamma She's going to taste like caviar.
Then Little Red Riding Hood said, 'But Grandma,
what a lovely great big furry coat you have on.‘
'That's wrong!' cried Wolf. 'Have you forgot To tell me what BIG TEETH I've got?
'Ah well, no matter what you say, I’m going to eat you anyway.' The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers. She whips a pistol from her knickers.
She aims it at the creature's head
And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead.
A few weeks later, in the wood, I came across Miss Riding Hood. But what a change! No cloak of red, No silly hood upon her head.
She said, 'Hello, and do please note 'My lovely furry WOLFSKIN COAT.'
Popular references today
“Lil Red Riding Hood” by Sam The Sham and the Pharaohs This modern song plays with many of the same ideas as the old oral versions of this popular folk story.
By making this into a popular song, the ways the teller (singer) tells it become important again, just like it’s important for good story tellers to tell their stories in interesting ways.
Listen for ways, such as the howling, that make this oral version fun to listen to. How does this version treat some of the same issues that we have seen in older versions?
“A Wolf in Geek’s Clothing”
Owoooooooo! Who's that I see walkin' in these woods? Why, it's Little Red Riding Hood. Hey there Little Red Riding Hood, You sure are looking good. You're everything a big bad wolf could want. Listen to me. Little Red Riding Hood I don't think little big girls should Go walking in these spooky old woods alone. Owoooooooo! What big eyes you have, The kind of eyes that drive wolves mad. So just to see that you don't get chased I think I ought to walk with you for a ways. What full lips you have. They're sure to lure someone bad. So until you get to grandma's place I think you ought to walk with me and be safe.
I'm gonna keep my sheep suit on Until I'm sure that you've been shown That I can be trusted walking with you alone. Owoooooooo! Little Red Riding Hood I'd like to hold you if I could But you might think I'm a big bad wolf so I won't. Owoooooooo! What a big heart I have —the better to love you with. Little Red Riding Hood Even bad wolves can be good. I'll try to be satisfied just to walk close by your side. Maybe you'll see things my way before we get to grandma's place. Little Red Riding Hood You sure are looking good You're everything that a big bad wolf could want. Owoooooooo! I mean baaaaaa! Baaa?
! I mean baaaaaa! Baaa?
Cinderella
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