Spreading the Seeds of Folklore

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Spreading the Seeds of Folklore

• Tales From the Oral Tradition
• Susan Knell, Pittsburg State Universitty
• sknell_at_pittstate.edu

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Evaluating Traditional Tales

• The story should be appropriate to the
  developmental age of the children who will read
  and enjoy it.
• The oral storytelling style of the original tale
  should be preserved in the book retelling as
  evidenced in an oral read-aloud.

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• The integrity of the original culture of the tale
  should be retained through authentic names,
  cultural terminology, and cultural authenticity
  of language elements.
• The illustrated versions of traditional tales
  should be of high quality and provide assistance
  in interpreting story, plot, characters, and
  theme.

4

• An authors note or introduction should explain
  the origin of the tale and its connections across
  cultures and locations to reinforce the source of
  traditional tales.

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Peculiarities of Traditional Fantasy

• Character development is lean and spare.
• Characters are either all good or all evil.
• Plots are simple and direct.
• They are usually success stories of overcoming
  overwhelming odds.
• The story lines are accompanied by typical themes
  (mercy, kindness, perseverance, justice, etc.)

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The Universal Nature of Traditional Fantasy

• From culture to culture, these stories are
  amazingly alike.
• Modern literature almost constantly uses the use
  of allusions to traditional literature.(Sayings,
  political cartoons)
• It is the mother of all literature.

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No other literature better prepares children to
meet the complexities of adult life.

• --Bruno Bettleheim, noted child psychologist

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Traditional fantasy is a wonderful metaphor for
human existence, and because of its rich imagery
and dreamlike quality, it speaks to us deeply.
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The Values of Traditional Fantasy

• The sheer delight of lets pretend.
• The ability to work on our emotions with the same
  vividness as a dream
• The ability to develop a capacity for belief
• The ability to hope.

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Types of Traditional Fantasy

• Folktales (cumulative, pourquoi, beast,
  noodlehead, trickster, realistic, fairy)
• Tall Tales
• Fables
• Myths
• Epics, Ballads, Legends

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In Defense of Traditional Fantasy

• Psychological Fantasy A rich fantasy life is
  important for children.
• Violence Much of the violence involved the
  punishment of truly evil villains.
• Frightening for Young Children Dangerous
  elements are far removed in both time and place.
• Waste of Time No genre better fosters
  creativity than fantasy.

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Benefits of Traditional Tales

• Traditional tales carry on the strong oral
  tradition of storytelling.
• Traditional tales provide an important
  introduction to simple story structure as
  repeated readings contribute to comfort and
  confidence though the predictable nature of the
  tales.

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• Traditional tales provide a resource for
  classroom storytelling by teachers or retellings
  by children.
• Traditional tales provide an added dimension to a
  childs cultural literacy as she or he
  experiences tales from around the world.

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• Traditional tales provide moral models for
  children as the struggle between good and evil is
  applied to incidents in their own lives.