Structural and Functional Analysis of Bansag Narratives in Barangay Maslog, Legazpi City, Albay Philippines

Abstract

This paper collected, transcribed, translated, and analyzed the folk narratives on bansag in Barangay Maslog, Legazpi City. It employed the Labovian method to examine the narratives’ structures and Bascom’s functionalism approach to determine the functions of the narratives. This paper concludes that the narrator’s storytelling technique greatly affects the structural pattern of the folk narratives. The completeness or incompleteness of the structure of the narratives will never diminish the essential nature and functions of folk narratives. Folk narratives over time will always be an important oral tradition. They still served their purpose in the community. However, folk narratives as a form of oral literature are under threat since many details of the narratives diminished or were lost through oral transmission from generation to generation. Since oral narratives are on the verge of extinction, this paper recommends incorporating these narratives into the curriculum to safeguard and preserve the oral narratives.