A Psychological Interpretation of Mythology. Translated from the German by Drs. F. Robbins and Smith Ely Jelliffe; Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series No. 18.

"If there is one genre that has captured the imagination of people in all walks of life throughout the world, it is the fairy tale. Yet we still have great difficulty understanding how it originated, evolved, and spread--or why so many people cannot resist its appeal, no matter how it changes or what form it takes. In this book, renowned fairy-tale expert Jack Zipes presents a provocative new theory about why fairy tales were created and retold--and why they became such an indelible and infinitely adaptable part of cultures around the world. Drawing on cognitive science, evolutionary theory, anthropology, psychology, literary theory, and other fields, Zipes presents a nuanced argument about how fairy tales originated in ancient oral cultures, how they evolved through the rise of literary culture and print, and how, in our own time, they continue to change through their adaptation in an ever-growing variety of media. In making his case, Zipes considers a wide range of fascinating examples, including fairy tales told, collected, and written by women in the nineteenth century; Catherine Breillat's film adaptation of Perrault's "Bluebeard"; and contemporary fairy-tale drawings, paintings, sculptures, and photographs that critique canonical print versions. While we may never be able to fully explain fairy tales, The Irresistible Fairy Tale provides a powerful theory of how and why they evolved--and why we still use them to make meaning of our lives."--Jacket.

Tales of magic and wonder can be found in every phase of Jewish literature, from the sacred to the secular. The fairy tale in particular--set in enchanted lands and populated with a variety of human and supernatural beings, both good and evil--holds a very special place in the Jewish tradition. For in the fairy tale, where good and evil engage in a timeless struggle, we have a clear reflection of the Jewish world view, where faith in God can defeat the evil impulse. In Elijah's Violin, Howard Schwartz offers a sumptuous collection of thirty-six Jewish fairy tales from virtually every corner of the world. At once otherworldy and earthy, pious and playful, these celebrated tales from Morocco and India, Spain and Eastern Europe, Babylon and Egypt, illustrate not only their Jewish character but also their universality of themes. Invoking the biblical tale of David and Goliath, we read as King David defeats the giant by hovering above its spear in King David and the Giant. In the romantic tale of The Princess in the Tower, a variant of Rapunzel, we watch as the cautious King Solomon recognizes the vanity in trying to prevent Providence from taking place. And we see the religious nature of the quest for Elijah's violin in the title story. The successful completion of the king's quest enables the violin's imprisoned melodies, emblematic of the Jewish spirit, to be set free. Throughout this richly illustrated collection, one can find the quests and riddles of the traditional fairy tale along with the divine intervention that characterizes the Jewish fairy tale. Skillfully translated, these stories will captivate children and adults alike in which romance and magic become enchantingly entwined with faith, duty, and wisdom.

Over 150 tales from the Talmud, the Zohar, Jewish folktales, and Hasidic lore.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

In this lively and intellectually engaging book, Galit Hasan-Rokem shows that religion is shaped not only in the halls of theological disputation and institutions of divine study, but also in ordinary events of everyday life. Common aspects of human relations offer a major source for the symbols of religious texts and rituals of late antique Judaism as well as its partner in narrative dialogues, early Christianity, Hasan-Rokem argues. Focusing on the "neighborhood" of the Galilee that is the birthplace of many major religious and cultural developments, this book brings to life the riddles, parables, and folktales passed down in Rabbinic stories from the first half of the first millennium of the Common Era.

In this important study Ernst Cassirer analyzes the non-rational thought processes that go to make up culture. He demonstrates that beneath both language and myth there lies an unconscious "grammar" of experience, whose categories and canons are not those of logical thought. He shows that this prelogical "logic" is not merely an undeveloped state of rationality, but something basically different, and that this archaic mode of thought still has enormous power over even our most rigorous thought, in language, poetry and myth. The author analyzes brilliantly such seemingly diverse (yet related) phenomena as the metaphysics of the Bhagavat Gita, the Melanesian concept of Mana, the Naturphilosophie of Schelling, modern poetry, Ancient Egyptian religion, and symbolic logic. He covers a vast range of material that is all too often neglected in studies of human thought. These six essays are of great interest to the student of philosophy or the philosophy of science, the historian, or the anthropologist. They are also remarkably timely for students of literature, what with the enormous emphasis placed upon "myth" in modern literary speculation. This book is not superficial speculation by a dabbler, but a penetrating study by one of the most profound and sensitive philosophic minds of our time.

Although folklore has been collected for centuries, its possible unconscious content and significance have been explored only since the advent of psychoanalytic theory. Freud and some of his early disciples recognized the potential of such folkloristic genres as myth, folktale, and legend to illuminate the intricate workings of the human psyche. In this volume Alan Dundes, a renowned folklorist who has successfully devoted the better part of his career to applying psychoanalytic theory to the materials of folklore, offers five of his most recent and mature essays on this topic.

Extraordinary Adventures of Mullah Nasruddin : Naughty, unexpurgated tales of the beloved wise fool from the Middle & Far East. Revised Edition collected & retold by Ron J. Suresha Lambda Literary Awards, Finalis t Rainbow Book Awards, Honorable Mention. This award-winning folklore collection details the exploits of the beloved 800-year-old Turkish "wise fool," Mullah Nasruddin (Nasreddin Hoca), presenting 255 authentic, hilarious, outrageous folk tales, dozens appearing in English for the first time. Author Suresha has done extensive research to locate, translate, and retell these centuries-old "naughty Nasruddin" stories from around the globe. Some are relatively simple, straightforward "traditional" anecdotes and jokes that depict the Mullah as he daily interacts with his family, neighbors, donkey, community, and strangers during his myriad journeys in the ancient hills and rural villages of the Levant. Many bawdy, ribald tales, previously suppressed for moralistic reasons, explore taboo themes inappropriate for children. Mature readers will be amused and amazed by this unadulterated account of the truly Extraordinary Adventures of Mullah Nasruddin. + ". . . ridiculously funny . . . . The Mullah Nasruddin's tradition is marked by illuminative stories that can be appropriately shared by the Imam at the Friday prayer in the masjid while another might be delivered by the boisterous pottery merchant in the tea room after prayers. Such is the stuff of real humans. The author has done an excellent job researching and adapting these stories from the originals to provide us with a better view of the unpredictable reality of human beings. The author's roundup is exhaustive, perhaps one of the most honest of all English collections that have been published as popular Mullah Nasruddin literature. - from a review by Prof. Sandra Bird in Storytelling Society Self (2018)

Le livre intitul����� ""Proverbes Abyssins"" a �����t����� �����crit par Jacques Faitlovitch en 1907. Il s'agit d'un recueil de proverbes et de dictons traditionnels de l'�����thiopie, �����galement connue sous le nom d'Abyssinie. Ces proverbes sont pr�����sent�����s en amharique, la langue officielle de l'�����thiopie, ainsi qu'en fran�����ais. Le livre est divis����� en deux parties. La premi�����re partie est consacr�����e ������ une introduction ������ la culture et ������ la langue amharique, ainsi qu'������ une pr�����sentation de la m�����thodologie utilis�����e pour collecter les proverbes. La seconde partie est compos�����e des proverbes eux-m������mes, qui sont class�����s par th�����mes tels que la sagesse, l'amiti�����, l'amour, la vie et la mort. Le livre est consid�����r����� comme une contribution importante ������ la compr�����hension de la culture �����thiopienne et de la langue amharique, ainsi qu'������ la pr�����servation de la tradition orale de l'�����thiopie. Il est �����galement un t�����moignage de l'int�����r������t de Faitlovitch pour les cultures africaines et son engagement en faveur de leur pr�����servation.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.