The Filipino Folklorist:

His Skills, Tools and Methodologies

Blasco, Joy Marie D.BEED-ENGLISH III

Structural Theory

Structuralism in academic

scene:

Has great impact on scholars in humanities

and social sciences

Made instant converts of anthropologists,

linguists and folklorists

The problem of structural analysis involves the discovery or definition of minimal structural units and understanding how these minimal units combine into traditional pattern.

Folklore materials are highly structured

Methodology is focused on isolation and description

Each proposed scheme is tested against empirical reality

Structural folklorist’s position:

Two distinct type of structural analysis in folklore:

By Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp

By French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss

PROPP’S MORPHOLOGY-chronological order or the linear sequence of elements-syntagmatic structural analysis

Propp felt that Aarne’s classification of folktales by dramatis personae was misleading for several actors

can perform the same action. Propp considered actors as variables and actions as constants.

-there is a logical structure within the human mind; and even the savage mind.

-seeks to describe the pattern (usually based upon a priori binary principle of opposition)-elements are taken out of the “given” order and are regrouped

in one or more analytic schemas.-can be termed paradigmatic

Levi-Strauss

Structural analysis is not an end in itself but only a means to an end.

Structuralism could very well be the approach that might possibly unify the diverse regional folklore materials of the Philippines.

Oral Formulaic Theory

Oral transformation of folk epic, ballad, romance and folktale and attributes that composition and structure of these forms to the narrator and his performance.

Albert Lord summarized his and Milman Parry’s findings and came

up with …

formula- involves the study of the line

ebjambment- involves the study of the way one line is linked to another

theme- involves the study of the structure of the poem as a whole.

1.

2.

3.

3 factors that

distinguish an oral

epic from a written

one

Lord explained that because of special demands of oral transmission, the folk singer or taleteller has to rely on a repertoire of descriptive phrases or formulas and a set of episodic structures to aid his memory and enable him to improvise each new revision.

Main objection of the oral formulaic theory aside from obvious inference:

FOLKLORE MATERIALS ARE VERBAL

Alfred Friedman: oral formulaic method overlooks the process of memorization and concentration only on improvisation

based on formulas by the transmitter of the lore.

Contextual TheoryTotal performance aspects of a folklore event, that is, the

personal aesthetics of the teller/performer and the nature of the understanding of the lore by the audience.

“relating folklore to the dynamics of culture”Robert Georges introduced a new concept- a holistic rather than an

atomistic study of “unique” social experience.Ben-Amos focused on the social interaction of teller and taleAlan Dundes gives great importance to context in his functional analysis of

materials. Dundes’ favorite expression: “text without context are like dead butterflies

without meaning”.

Three-dimensional perspective:1. the teller/performer2. the text3. the audience

Main objection: the tendency of its proponents to treat the audience as a totally homogeneous group.

Including context in the study is a complete departure from the text-oriented theories of the 19th theories.

Much more than gathering texts. It Involves the recording and analysis of group dynamics and psychocultural relationships between folklore performer-communicators and their audience.

Each country has its own specific cultural history and folkloric interpretation of the traditional materials found in the culture. Segal: Folklore theories are objective, some speculative, others empirical. It is best for a folklorist to be eclectic rather than confine himself/herself to just one approach. It is possible to combine one or more methodologies when the need arises.

Special Tools of a Folklorist

Isabelo de los Reyes ( Father of Philippine folklore): “No nursemaid or peasant who has a wide repertoire of stories

can be called a folklorist because there are specific rules to follow”.

A professional folklorist should also develop skills in the use of the special “tools” of his/her profession.

Bibliographic tools

Standard bibliographic tools save time and energy in tracking down local and international folklore

scholarship.

(a) International SourcesThe Internationale Volkskundliche

Bibliographie- most valuable international aid since 1917.

IndicesBibliographic aids go only so far and the folklorist must cultivate his skill to use indices in order to

identify and classify his materials.

There is no Philippine folklore index to assist local scholars.

There are two outstanding indices for Asian tales:Japan has Hiroko Ikeda’s A Type and Motif Index of Japanese

Folk Literature (1971)Korea has A Type Index of Korean Folktales by In-Hak Choi