Order of Posts

Preface/Poster Contest

I. Introduction

II. Introducing Piaget

III. Looking into Folklore

IV. Understanding Folk Structure

V. Folk Structure and Vladimir Propp

VI. Introducing Claude Levi-Strauss

VII. Continuation of Levi-Strauss

VIII. Spread of Folklore

IX. Illustration's Link to Childhood Development

X. Looking at Narrative Illustration

XI. Personal Practice

XII. Conclusion

XIII. Citations

Citation List

CITATIONS

PRINT

Berger, Arthur, Asa. Narratives in Popular Culture, Media, and Eceryday Life. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997. 19-33. Print.

Harland, Richard. Superstructuralism The Philosophy of Structuralism and Post-Structuralism. New York, NY: Routledge, 1994. 20-32. Print.

Heiner, Heidi-Anne. Rapunzel and Other Maiden in the Tower Tales From Around the World. SurLaLune Press, 2010. 8-48. Print.

Levi-Strauss, Claude. Myth and Meaning. New York, NY: Routledge, 2001. Print.

Piaget, Jean. The Psychology of Intellegence. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Routledge, 2001. 170-182. Print.

Sarup, Madan. An Introductory Guide to Post-Structuralism and Postmodernism. 2nd ed. Hampshire: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1993. 32-42. Print.

Storey, John. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture An Introduction. 3rd. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2001.
37-44, 58-75. Print.


EBOOK

Liebeman, Anatoly. Theory and History of Folklore. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984. eBook.

WEB

Holden, Madronna. "What Folklore Does for us." Our Earth, Our Selves. Wordpress, 2008. Web. 1 Apr 2011. .

"Jean Piaget's Cognitive Developmental Theory ." Essortment your Source of Knowledge. Demand Media, 2010. Web. 5 Apr 2011. .

Conclusion

Folklore is as old as human history, without it’s help, it’s ability to spread out and bind civilizations, we have no telling of what human society could have been, or what actions man would live by. Folklore perpetually trickles into modern day, it is a force of narrative that will never die out, and a narrative that proves most strong in educating the young, in social response as well as with social ethics. Without the action of storytelling and the content of stories, a vital part of a child’s education is cut out of their lives. Little do people realize how important folklore is in not only childhood development, but to the whole of human’s collective growth.

“None of the humanities, be it ethnography, history, linguistics, or the history of literature can do without folklore. Little by little we are becoming aware that the solution to many diverse phenomena of spiritual culture is hidden in folklore.” (Lieberman, 3)

Personal Practice

Upon my arrival to university, my initial goals were to illustrate narratives intended for children. In current times I feel that I would enjoy creating narratives for all age groups, though my preference still harks a younger audience. In my level five course I had the luxury to solely work in narrative format. Beginning the second year with the Interpretation of Text and Professional Contexts unit, I chose to work on the texts, The Arabian Nights [1400], a folktale in it’s own right. I found that the project got me very involved and excited, as I especially enjoyed doing the research on the story’s cultural identity and trying to interpret the story through my eyes. The following brief received was the narrative unit, where students had the freedom to choose any narrative and narrative format they wished to render. I had been earnestly looking forward to this scheme of work and went with the ancient Japanese folktale, Urashima Taro [745 AD]. Again, I found my main interest in studying the different cultural works. I would say that I leaned more towards the narrative side of illustrating the story rather than appeal to a more decorative symbols-based theme. I also went out of the illustration field and composed my own retelling of the classic tale. I found much enjoyment in both processes of this project. With my research focused upon folklore and its delicate systems, I feel that my awareness of how stories function, and how universal and helpful it’s teachings are not only pushes my interest in illustrating folktales, but also to enrich and strengthen my illustrations in narratives.

“The tale offers more possibilities of play, its permutations are comparatively freer, and with time they acquire a certain arbitrary character.” (Levi-Strauss, 176)

I feel that this quote by Strauss is certainly true, and marks as a perfect answer to anyone who questions my particular interest in imaging out folklore. With a tale, there are so many ways of interpretation, so many functions to focus on and so many lessons to be learned out of one story. Thus the illustrator stumbles with few boundaries and is allowed to delve into their personal understandings and indulge the curiosities that come with folklore.

Click to see my Arabian Nights Project

Click to see my Urashima Taro Project

Looking at Narrative illustration

Fig. 3

Image done by Jillian Tamaki, 2008

Folktale illustration of older periods, such as the golden period of illustration during the turn of the 20^th century are very contrasting to the illustration found in modern times. Taking a look at modern illustrator, Jillian Tamaki, for instance (see fig.3), Tamaki is capable of using modern means to paint, by means of a graphics tablet, and skim over the narrative scene-depicting imagery. Instead Tamaki uses semiotics in order to make connections visible to children. She also uses Levi-Strauss’ binary oppositions to create a distinction between Rapunzel and her Witch-Mother. The youthful carefree beauty of Rapunzel at top creates a crisp visual in comparison to the old struggling figure of the witch at the bottom of the image. Though this image is more decorative than narrative, readers are quickly able to identify what is the intended good versus evil.

Fig. 4

Plate done by Arthur Rackham,

When we look at Rackham’s taken illustration of Rapunzel, we get a very classic image of what Rapunzel is in fig.4. She is domestic, beautiful and fair, hoisting up her Witch-Mother. However the witch does not evoke darkness and evil, but instead kindles curiosity and intrigue, thus making this image more narrative based than Tamaki’s more semiotics-charged decorative piece.

Illustration's link to development

Understanding how powerful and everlasting folktales stand in mans societal and personal growth is key in creating new narratives. These narratives are not only to be condemned to paper, or only released in verse, but to instead be exposed in any form- illustration being one in particular. Illustrators have a lot of power in tackling folktales and their symbols. Their mercy and severity in translating folklore into images can have the effect of changing views, or original ideas of a story. This is an especially powerful tool when it comes to having the opportunity to change the mind of a child. According to Piaget’s cognitive development theory,

“The preoperational stage, which lasts from approximately two to seven years of age, is the second Piagetian stage. In this stage, children begin to represent the world with words, images, and drawings. Symbolic thought goes beyond simple connections of sensory information and physical action.” (anon, 2010)

In this creation stage it is important to understand that their symbolic and spatial registry begins to advance. Thus the linkage children make to illustrations from their commonly read folktales will be very significant at this stage of their growth.

Spread of folkore

“The mythologist usually notices that in an identical or remolded form the same tales, the same characters, and the same motifs reappear in the tales and myths of a given community. “ This quote made by Levi-Strauss (176) is quite accurate in most of this quote, though he fails to see that folktales and myths hold no boundaries. Such tales have such a long life expectancy and impact that it’s impossible for them to be withheld behind a community’s borders.

fig. 1

For reference to this argument, we can take a look back to the folktale, Rapunzel. Rapunzel, like a surprising amount of other folktales, has many links across the globe. "Though the version most are acquainted with in modern day is German (Grimm,), there are many versions throughout the world, such as the earlier Italian, Petrosinella [1634], and South Africa’s Uzembeni [1987]" (Heiner, 4). However the root of the Rapunzel stories are linked back to the Iranian epic, Shahnameh [1010], to a Princess named Rudaba. Rudaba provides the same symbolic visuals as well as functions the European Rapunzel does. A girl with an overprotective parent and long stair-like tresses is ‘saved’ by a suitor hero. Though Rudaba (fig.1) first appeared in 1000 AD, the basis of her story still lives on through modern times.

fig. 2

Traveling to the opposite end of the spectrum of Rapunzel’s timeline, we can see the most modern spinning of this tale found in Disney’s recent motion picture, Tangled [2010], shown in fig. 2. All of these stories, regardless of how huge the time difference between them, still follow the main component and storyline. They all share 15 of Propp’s given functions (though the movie, Tangled, holds 28 functions due to a more stretched in-depth narrative). Overall the shining values found in this folktale have survived and proven itself to still be valid through the last thousand years.