Jack Haney's Introduction to the Russian Folktale Is the First Volume of an Ambi- Tious Project to Translate Anew Aleksandr Afans'ev's Russkie Narodnye Skazki
Jack V. Haney. An Introduction to the Russian Folktale. Armonk, NY and London: M. E. Sharpe, 1999. viii, 135 pp. $40.00 (cloth); $18.95 (paper). An Anthology of Russian Folk Epics. Edited by James Bailey and Tatiana Ivanova. Armonk, NY and London: M. E. Sharpe, 1998. 464 pp. $69.95 (cloth); $29.95 (pa- per). Jack Haney's Introduction to the Russian Folktale is the first volume of an ambi- tious project to translate anew Aleksandr Afans'ev's Russkie narodnye skazki. To help the North American reader cross over into the world of the Russian tale, it discusses the collecting and publication of Russian tales, performers and performance, tale con- tent, and the probable mythic and ritual basis of tales. Haney performs an especially valuable service by concentrating on the Russian perspective on this genre. Folktales are ubiquitous and one of the richest and most varied narrative types. They can be, and have been, approached in many ways. The Russian approach is probably the least familiar to the North American reader and the one most in need of explication. Folktales tend to be associated with the past, either the historical past or the past of an individual, namely childhood. In the West, Bruno Bettelheim's Uses of Enchant- ment and the works of Marie von Franz have encouraged us to look at tales in the con- text of human development, to see parallels between the psychological growth of the child and the adventures of tale heroes. More recently, Jack Zipes and Marina Wamer have drawn our attention to the political dimension of tales, the messages beneath the surface and even the commercial intent behind the folktale versions produced in film studios.
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