Folktale Heroines and the Type and Motif Indexes
1983; Routledge; Volume: 94; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/0015587x.1983.9716283
ISSN1469-8315
Autores Tópico(s)Themes in Literature Analysis
Resumodifferent from the ones we find in popular collections and Disney's productions. She points out that Grimm's complete collection of tales does contain strong heroines, though not to the extent she has found in major Anglo-American collections. In Scandinavian folktales too, I would add, there are a number of proficient heroines who can take care of both themselves and others. Similar women appear in modern European collections.2 Careful investigation of folktale material reveals, in other words, that the model for female conduct reflected in folktales over a wide geographical area is far from confined to the submissive beauty promoted by popularizations of selected material. But editors and Disney are not the only ones responsible for promoting a sex-olased image of the folktale heroine. There is a similar tendency to present the image of a passive and subordinate heroine in such prestigious scholarly research tools as Aarne and Thompson's The Types of the Folktale3 (AT) and Thompson's Motif Index of Folk Literature.4 In fact, these works often do not acknowledge the fact that the heroine in many types of tales is the active leader of events. The misrepresentation of character in these works can be divided into different categories of bias, each with the same two dimensions: a) external; i.e., in reference to heroines as they appear in specific tales; b) internal; i.e., inconsistency in semantics of the indexes regarding identical events, depending on whether they refer to female or male character, or incongruity between title and plot synopsis disfavouring the female. In some instances there is an overlap between these dimensions. The largest category is characterized by selective labelling in which the female activities are made to seem less active or heroic than they in fact are. Selective labelling. A typical example of selective labelling concerns the concept of 'helper' in the folktale world. To 'help' carries with it a connotation of assistance rather than leadership. Both heroines and heroes in the folktales need and receive help to complete their tasks and overcome obstacles. They meet helpers in the form of animals, old women and men, magic objects and supernatural creatures who, for example, spin and weave, sift peas from the ashes, carry the protagonist from one place to another or give good advice. Helpers are supportive, their power is limited and they do not demonstrate a broader view of the situation. If we follow the Aarne and Thompson Type Index, the heroine of the Norwegian tale 'Mastermaid' would be classified as belonging to this useful but limited group of tools for the hero. But the title of this type 'The Girl as Helper in the Hero's Flight'
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