Herbert Rowland argues that the American reception of Hans Christian Andersen in the nineteenth century has a respectable place in the international reception of Andersen and his work. Rowland demonstrates that American critics used Andersen's works to support their views of key American issues in the nineteenth century.
An exploration of Sussex traditional culture in its geographical, religious, ritualistic social and economic context, including seasonal customs, mummers plays, folk songs, legends, smuggling and shepherding.
2017 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in Jewish Literature and Linguistics Honorable Mention, 2016 Baron Book Prize presented by AAJR A monster tour of the Golem narrative across various cultural and historical landscapes In the 1910s and 1920s, a "golem cult" swept across Europe and the U.S., later surfacing in Israel. Why did this story of a ......
A scholarly work of synthesis and interpretation that focuses on encounters with light, this book tells the story of its seducing individuals through the ages. Rather than the historical investigation of light's "essential" nature, the book's subject is our relationship with light, as revealed in works of art and literature.
Named by the Library of Congress in a 2012 exhibit as among the top "100 Books that Shaped America," this two-volume set contains 500 stories and 100 songs collected from the author's time as national folklore editor for the Federal Writer's Project (1938-39) as well as his work as archivist of folksongs at the Library of Congress. As Carl ......
How the Wise Men Got to Chelm is the first in-depth study of Chelm literature and its relationship to its literary precursors. When God created the world, so it is said, he sent out an angel with a bag of foolish souls with instructions to distribute them equally all over the world-one fool per town. But the angel's bag broke and all the ......
Like its more famous sibling, the Thousand and One Nights, this collection opens with the frame story of Shahrazad, the gifted vizier's daughter who recounts imaginative tales night after night in an effort to distract the murderous king from taking her life. It is distinctly rooted in Arabic literary culture and the Islamic tradition.
Part of our new and growing Myths, Mysteries and Legends series, Myths, Mysteries and Legends of New Mexico explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in the Land of Enchantment's history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience ......
Since the publication of John Polidori's The Vampyre (1819), the vampire has been a mainstay of Western culture, appearing consistently in literature, art, music (notably opera), film, television, graphic novels and popular culture in general. Even before its entrance into the realm of arts and letters in the early nineteenth century, the vampire ......
Venus of Khala-Kanti is a tale of life-altering loss and mystical recovery. Set in an imaginary West African village that becomes a charming cul-de-sac, the unintended consequence of a national roadwork project gone awry, the story follows characters drawn with humor, irony, and empathy. The heart of the story beats with the laughter and tears of ......
The major purpose of this book is to illustrate and explain the fundamental similarities and correspondences between humankind's oldest and newest thought-technologies: oral tradition and the Internet. Despite superficial differences, both technologies are radically alike in depending not on static products but rather on continuous processes, not ......
Remembering a life devoted to preserving working-class traditionsArchie Green: The Making of a Working-Class Hero celebrates one of the most revered folklorists and labor historians of the twentieth century. Devoted to understanding the diverse cultural customs of working people, Archie Green (19172009) tirelessly documented these traditions and ......
