Ancient Folklore Research Articles

The Difficulty of Making Sense

To believe in the ‘infallibility’ of the Church is not to suppose that we are reliable, but that God is. It is to believe in the effectiveness of God’s act, God’s coming as Word and Spirit to the world he makes and, making it, makes his own, his dwelling-place, his temple. It is to believe that this effectiveness is un-failingly exhibited in the truthfulness of witness borne, in word and action, to this fact, this truth, this Word of life. But this is not easy to believe because the evidence surrounds us on every side that we have been given licence to corrupt, to falsify and to destroy—through egotism, carelessness, incompetence and greed—ourselves, each other, and the world.We know what needs to be said: there is (for example) nothing obscure or unfamiliar about the Apostles’ Creed. But how to say what must be said in such a manner as to enable our contemporaries (and ourselves!) to hear, in our utterance of it, that one word for all seasons, one same surprising Gospel for every creature—and not some alien, strange, purely particular and puzzling tale, some kind of ancient folklore or science fiction—this is no easy matter. The difficulty of making sense, of making Christian sense, is the difficulty of so expressing the content of the Creed, in word and action, as effectively and properly to clarify, to throw some light upon, our various circumstances, responsibilities and predicament: our politics and science, our poetry and plans and hopes and fears, our private pains and public enterprises, our disease, and happiness, and tedium, and death.This task, of saying simply what needs simply to be said, this teaching task, this ‘magisterium’ that is the Church’s mission, can only properly be executed in the measure that, always and everywhere, we are attentive, listening before we speak, inquiring before we answer, watchful. This is not a recommendation to regress to pre-critical patterns of interpretative practice. There is no going back upon the lessons learnt in the experiment of modernity, the freedoms (in principle) secured. It is, rather, an invitation to move towards post-critical maturity and, in so doing, to find fresh sense in ancient truth.

"Quo vadit poesis?": The Present State of Italian Poetry

"Quo vadit poesis?": The Present State of Italian Poetry Erasmo G. Gerato Florida State University The Italian peninsula has been blessed with a unique poetic experience this century. There has been such a variety and abundance of not only poets but of diverse poetic expositions, tendencies, directions, and distinct schools of thought that in at least two cases, the Futuristic and Hermetic movements, we can speak of a total Italian experience. Never as in this century has Italy been faced with so much production and so many distinct literary movements. The century begins with Corrado Govoni, Aldo Palazzeschi, and Sergio Corazzini, Symbolist-Crepuscular writers who were indirectly influenced by the great French Symbolists Mallarmé, Rimbaud, and Verlaine, and more directly by the later Belgian Symbolists such as Samain, Thailhade, Moréas, Verhaeren, Rodenbach, Maeterlinch, and Jammes. As a result of their study of these Symbolists, the Italian Symbolist-Crepuscular poets accentuated melancholy and sentimentality. This is particularly true in the cases of Sergio Corazzini, in whom these feelings reach the ultimate realm of an outright malady, and ofGuido Gozzano and Marino Moretti, whose works often approach the greater poetry of this century after the abandonment on their part of the aesthetic experience of the teachings of Gabriele D'Annunzio. Gozzano's masterful use of irony truly helped to change the course of Italian poetry. When we speak of the greater Italian poetry of this century, in addition to the unrivaled contributions ofUmberto Saba and Giuseppe Ungaretti, we must also add the works of the two Nobel laureates, Salvatore Quasimodo and Eugenio Móntale. The latter is undoubtedly Italy's most acclaimed writer in this century. The post-war period has seen a number of diverse poets who span from the New Classical approach to the Hermetic, from the New Realism and Naturalism to Experimental and Neo-avant-garde writers like Zanzotto and Edoardo Sanguinetti. To the above, one must also add those who have championed the use of their local dialects and who accentuated even further a traditional tie to the land and to ancient folklore. One of the most valued contributions in the field of Italian literature for the year 1986 has been an annotated critical anthology of modern and contemporary poets by the distinguished critic EHo Gioanola, Poesía italiana del Novecento testi e commenti. In addition to the accurate textual explanations accompanying each individual poem and the introductory passages for each artist, the sections on the various literary movements ofthis century confirm the superiority ofthis anthology, the best to date in our opinion. On the negative side, however, of the 45 poets included in the anthology, the reader will not find a single woman poet. As Gioanola's presentation makes clear, he was quite aware of this lacuna and his attempts at justifying it strike us as even more deplorable. But in Gioanola's favor we should note that in an unprecedented move, he invited Giorgio Caproni, perhaps Italy's most acclaimed living poet and winner ofthe prestigious annual prize, "Il Pasolini," to introduce his anthology. The peculiarity of this invitation lies primarily in the fact that Caproni 279 280Rocky Mountain Review himself is not only one of the writers included but the one who receives the most coverage after the poet Eugenio Móntale. This gesture on Gioanola's part produces quite positive results in the praise that Caproni eventually bestows on him. While acknowledging his difficulty in introducing an anthology in which he appears, Caproni succeeds in initiating a discussion on poetry itself. He first laments the state of Italian poetry and the unfortunate lack of popularity ofthis art form outside Italy. Searching for possible answers to help explain this, he sees the problem as one that arises from an overabundant production in which he likens the writing ofpoetry to the making ofhomemade egg noodles. He states, "É che in Italia tutti scrivono 'poesia' ma pochi si sa ne leggono. Quasi che ciascuno si reggesse su questo ragionamento: 'Perché dovrei comprare e leggere poesia altrui, quand' io me la faccio da me in casa mia, come le tagliatelle?' " (6). He concludes that there would be nothing wrong with "making one's own egg noodles at home...

"Quo vadit poesis?": The Present State of Italian Poetry

The Italian peninsula has been blessed with a unique poetic experience this century. There has been such a variety and abundance of not only poets but of diverse poetic expositions, tendencies, directions, and distinct schools of thought that in at least two cases, the Futuristic and Hermetic movements, we can speak of a total Italian experience. Never as in this century has Italy been faced with so much production and so many distinct literary movements. The century begins with Corrado Govoni, Aldo Palazzeschi, and Sergio Corazzini, Symbolist-Crepuscular writers who were indirectly influenced by the great French Symbolists Mallarme, Rimbaud, and Verlaine, and more directly by the later Belgian Symbolists such as Samain, Thailhade, Mor6as, Verhaeren, Rodenbach, Maeterlinch, and Jammes. As a result of their study of these Symbolists, the Italian Symbolist-Crepuscular poets accentuated melancholy and sentimentality. This is particularly true in the cases of Sergio Corazzini, in whom these feelings reach the ultimate realm of an outright malady, and of Guido Gozzano and Marino Moretti, whose works often approach the greater poetry of this century after the abandonment on their part of the aesthetic experience of the teachings of Gabriele D'Annunzio. Gozzano's masterful use of irony truly helped to change the course of Italian poetry. When we speak of the greater Italian poetry of this century, in addition to the unrivaled contributions of Umberto Saba and Giuseppe Ungaretti, we must also add the works of the two Nobel laureates, Salvatore Quasimodo and Eugenio Montale. The latter is undoubtedly Italy's most acclaimed writer in this century. The post-war period has seen a number of diverse poets who span from the New Classical approach to the Hermetic, from the New Realism and Naturalism to Experimental and Neo-avant-garde writers like Zanzotto and Edoardo Sanguinetti. To the above, one must also add those who have championed the use of their local dialects and who accentuated even further a traditional tie to the land and to ancient folklore. One of the most valued contributions in the field of Italian literature for the year 1986 has been an annotated critical anthology of modern and contemporary poets by the distinguished critic Elio Gioanola, Poesia italiana del Novecento testi e commenti. In addition to the accurate textual explanations accompanying each individual poem and the introductory passages for each artist, the sections on the various literary movements of this century confirm the superiority of this anthology, the best to date in our opinion. On the negative side, however, of the 45 poets included in the anthology, the reader will not find a single woman poet. As Gioanola's presentation makes clear, he was quite aware of this lacuna and his attempts at justifying it strike us as even more deplorable. But in Gioanola's favor we should note that in an unprecedented move, he invited Giorgio Caproni, perhaps Italy's most acclaimed living poet and winner of the prestigious annual prize, II Pasolini, to introduce his anthology. The peculiarity of this invitation lies primarily in the fact that Caproni

Handbook of Russian Literature

This first encyclopedia of its kind in English covers ten centuries of Russian literature and includes nearly 1,000 entries by leading scholars. It will be an indispensable guide for students or the general reader. Handbook is an Eden for browsers...a dependable, illuminating guide.-Robert Taylor, Boston Globe A comprehensive survey in one volume of one of the world's richest national literatures. The volume includes entries on authors, genres, literary movements, and period studies, together with reviews of notable journals. The lengthiest entries run to more than 6,000 words, the shortest have been kept to a single paragraph, giving the book value both for ready reference and as a collection of history and criticism.-Booklist achievement here is grand, the knowledge collected invaluable.-Theoharis C. Theoharis, Christian Science Monitor A vast and informative compilation...The magnificent panorama of Russian literature accumulatively unfolds, from its ancient folklore and earliest written texts...to our present century's structuralism, modernism, and socialist realism. -Gordon McVay, Times Higher Education Supplement For anyone interested in Russian literature, this new Handbook is the single most useful book to own.-J. Thomas Shaw, Slavic and East European Journal An indispensable source of concise information for all students of literature for years to come.-Ray Parrott, Philological Quarterly

European Fairy Lore in the New World

FAIRY lore was dear to the heart of Katharine Briggs, and she knew no rival anywhere in the English-speaking world for her thorough knowledge of these diminutive creatures of lower mythology. Like many scholars of her generation, Dr. Briggs worked mainly in the literary and historical dimension, though with her friend, Ruth L. Tongue, and others, she made an occasional collecting foray into the field in search of living folk traditions. These probings were made for her to see for herself how the corpus of ancient folklore had survived into modern times, despite almost universal education and the spread of enlightenment. (To her intimates Katharine Mary Briggs was herself a bearer of these traditions, being, among other things, an accomplished raconteur of old folk stories and verses.) It is of the tenacity of the ancient belief in fairies, and particularly of the transmission of European fairy lore to the New World, that I have the pleasure of writing in this special number of Folklore honouring one of Britain's greatest folklorists. Although my concern is mainly with fairies in the strict sense, I shall nevertheless advert to kindred species of wee folk such as elves, dwarfs, brownies, and other creatures of lower mythology that fall under the generic English term fairy mythology.' A considerable body of European fairy lore has reached American shores, but archival holdings have generally not been inventoried, and publication of accounts of fairies has been meagre. Apart from references in the Children 's and Household Tales of the Brothers Grimm, and in other collections of European folktales available in English,2 deposits of fairy lore are largely in folk beliefs and superstitions.3 With the publication of Donald Ward's fine translation of the Deutsche Sagen of the Brothers Grimm,4 the first to be made in English, much additional fairy lore will be put on the record. Subject and motif

The Sacred Bee in Ancient Times and Folklore

The Sacred Bee in Ancient Times and Folklore

Ancient Folklore - Greek and Roman Folklore (Our Debt to Greece and Rome, No. 44). By W. R. Halliday. Pp. xi + 154. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1927.

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Laurel in Ancient Religion and Folk-Lore

Laurel in Ancient Religion and Folk-Lore

The Colour of the Sky in the Symbolism of Ancient Art and Folk-Lore

The Colour of the Sky in the Symbolism of Ancient Art and Folk-Lore