Transformation of Stories/Use-Value and Genre

One way of looking at the evolution of anonymous stories is to trace their transformations. Here are the four major kinds of transformation I will be looking at:

Transformation of stories when they travel from:

1.one genre to another in the same period and the same culture (e.g. history to literature);

2. one culture and language to another (e.g. Latin to vernacular, Old French to Middle English, Sanskrit to Arabic, Arabic to English);

3. one period to another (e.g. pre-literacy and literacy, pre-modern and modern, before and after copyright law);

4. one medium to another (e.g. oral to written,  literature to film.)

What can narrative transformation tell us about the function of ‘tradition’ in the ways texts, literary or otherwise are shaped?

Why are the seemingly same stories re-told in a variety of ways?

Genres are unstable because they are produced intertextually; they exist not as essences but as differences, and thus those places where genres "collide" reveal the connections between generic status, interpretive strategy, ideology and the use-value of language. 

Here are some of my questions using ideas from Genre Studies:

Which cultures and periods have been the most "genre-sensitive" or "genre demanding?"

Might use-value be a better way of defining genres than critical or popular labels? (However, to find and in particular to express the exact use-value of genres is not always such an easy matter.)

In what ways may the changes be attributed to genre ideologies, and what are the other causal factors?

Can genre ideologies explain the formations of literary or other canons and traditions?

What can these genre ideologies tell us about the culture, genre or medium that produced the story?

Mimesis in the Public Domain

Literary works with multiple oral and textual sources such as such as the Bible, the ancient epics of Greece and India, The 1001 Nights, or The Lancelot/Grail Cycle, create dense and fluid textual networks that survive and grow over time. Most of these works were either orally or collectively composed and remained multiform even after they became texts. For the past decade or so I have been working toward an informed grasp of the similarities and differences between these Anonymous Masterpieces and their widespread influence. Why have they branched out and flourished for so long? Is it because of innate characteristics that transcend cultural barriers and remote origins? The study will trace the history of the concept of authorship as it evolves from ascribing voice and identity to ownership of intellectual property. If I ever finish the resulting project, the book will be a response to Auerbach’s Mimesis  using heuristics adapted from studies of cultural evolution. I will have a section on what are in the West lesser known epics and collections of stories from Native American, African, Indo-European, Middle-Eastern and Asian languages. So, it will be a sweeping but detailed, simplified but learned, and scholarly but entertaining, big old-fashioned book. The only polemics are arguments for the importance of the Public Domain and for reading the biggest stuff first.

Strange experience, not supernatural

I picked up a sheet of paper off the floor. When I stood up I was more than a little light headed. I couldn’t figure out what was printed on the sheet. I looked for a heading and couldn't focus.  I wondered if I might be dreaming, because I can never read very well in dreams.  I forced myself to keep looking at it.  It was some sort of list. I picked up on a couple of names that sounded like they might be archetypes from mythologies I was unfamiliar with. I might have printed this out from something like Propp’s Morphology of Folk Tales….or …..then I realized: IT WAS THE RACING FORM. I just don't see them often. I printed this out the one day we went to Santa Anita, and we didn't even wager. This was a trap I set for myself. Time to start getting up slower.

A thought-and-a-half on knowledge and originality from the Quixote.

"There are some people who wear themselves out learning and discovering things that, once learned and discovered, don't matter one bit for our comprehension and retention."- Don Quixote, Vol 2 Ch. 22

This is an interesting moment in the Quixote. They are talking to a pseudo-scholar who is compiling a book of "who did what first." This college graduate is referred to as the cousin (primo) of a scholar they met earlier. Primo, of course, also means first! Sancho makes fun of the fake humanist and asks him who was the first man to scratch his nose, and tells him, "it must have been out father Adam." Then Sancho stumps the pedant by asking him "Who was the first acrobat?" Why, Lucifer, of course. Most Cervantes scholars think this is a sardonic interpretation of the decadence inherent to the compilation of data for its own sake, an accumulation that is then allowed to pass for erudition. But I think this chapter is really about originality. The scholar's knowledge of firsts is not only useless but mere compilation. Sancho's questions and answers are creative and original compared to those of the scholar, and of course, the squire's examples are closer to the original creation! Cervantes is also critiquing the use of "formulas" for composition, such as those used by his arch-rival Lope de Vega. If nothing else, the Quixote is unpredictably original.

My Barbara Ore Story

     I taught Drama for a decade at Sacramento Country Day School and Barbara was Middle School Principal for all that time. From my first day on, she was helpful and encouraging to me.

     One spring the Middle School Play was “The Madwoman of Chaillot.” It was a comedy/fantasy with political overtones. Basically, the Paris street people spread reports of vast oil deposits under the Madwoman’s house. This rumor lures all the greedy rich people into a sort of hell-mouth in the basement, and they close a giant trap door on them. The sun comes out, the birds sing, and the street people are happy.  A silly fairy tale, but a good show for a big cast and more than the usual good female roles.

    One afternoon we were rehearsing the play and Mrs. Ore walked in calmly and asked to speak to me.

      “I have read the play and I must tell you that I think we may have a problem” she said.  “Doing a play about sending rich people to hell may not go over well with the patrons of the school. I think we’ll get calls from parents once they know what it’s about and we’ll have to cancel. So, we probably should head off a painful last-minute cancellation and just cancel the play now.”

I was completely flabbergasted. I hemmed and hawed, “But, we’ve done things much more political than this and got no complaints…. I can’t believe this. Do you really think we’ll have to cancel?”

Barbara just sighed and said, “I think we should ask the students what they think.”

The kids had been sitting quiet as statues, looking down and feeling, I thought, embarrassed for me and disappointed, since they liked the play. I turned around to the entire class shouting, “April Fool.”

     It was April the 1^st and I was so busy with the play that I forgot. I fell to floor. The cast had asked Mrs. Ore to participate in this scheme, although I think it was mostly Tracy Minicucci. Barbara’s prank on me was the absolute best performance that year, and the best trick anyone ever played on me. I completely fell for it.