The Meaning of Folklore. The Analytical Essays of Alan Dundes

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Cracking Jokes: Studies of Sick Humor Cycles & Stereotypes

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1928 Morphology of the Folktale published.

- 31 funtions which he claimed defined the Russian fairy taleAT types 300-749.

 - to Levi-Strauss, there was an order, but it was not as important or rigid as what Propp worked with

-  Levi-Strauss is explicit on this point: "Finally, one detail in the Bororo myth that remained incomprehensible when viewed from the angle of syntagmatical relations, becomes clear when compared to a corresponding detail in the Kayapo myth"  -- more interested in "paradigmatic structure", a comparative format

- "Levi-Strauss's methodology is consistent and explicit: "By dividing the myth into sequences not always clearly indicated by the plot, and by relating each sequence to paradigmatic sets capable of giving them a meaning, we eventually found ourselves in a position to define the fundamental characteristics of a myth..." (1979:199). Sometimes the comparative paradigm could come from within the same culture as the original myth; sometimes from without."

- if it's about how the world came to be, myth. if it's considered historical, legend. all else, sort of, is folklore.

-even Levi-Strauss was mistaken on this point, citing Oedipus as a "myth" in an analysis

Levi-Strauss, "The Structural Study of Myth"