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INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, prim bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note wfll indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. A Bell & Howell information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 THE PAST IS ANOTHER COUNTRY: A FOLKLORIC INTERPRETATION OF MARRIAGE AND COURTSHIP NARRATIVES FROM THE 1930S TO THE PRESENT DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Gretel Young Hickman, B.A., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1995 Dissertation Committee: Approved by E. K. Halasek P. Mullen A. Shuman Adviser Department of English UMI Number: 9612194 UMI Microform 9612194 Copyright 1996r by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17# United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor# MI 48103 For my husband and family ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are not enough kind phrases to thank all the people who have propelled me to this point, but there are words that may offer some small sign of the warmth and gratitude I feel for everyone who, in working with me on this project, has become a part of me. For my husband,Woody Hickman, the words are trust and love. For my mother and father, Ida and Rairdon Young, the word is faith. For my grandmother, Irene Cunningham, the words are comfort and certainty. For my sister, Mollie Fannin, the word is honesty. For my adviser, Patrick Mullen, the word is openness. For my friend, Ruth Staveley Bolzenius, the words are kinship and laughter. For my mother-in-law, Janet Hickman, the words are encouragement and tenderness. For my sister-in-law, Holly Heer, the word is insight. For my friend, Kam-Chi Chan, the word is compassion. For my friend, Susan Kates, the word is spirit. For my friend, Lucinda Kirk, the word is heart. For my friend, Mindy Wright, the word is perception. For reader, Kay Halasek, the word is clarity. For reader, Amy Shuman, the word is vision. Thank you. VITA January 28, 1965...............................................Born - Columbus, Ohio 1987.......................................................................... B.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1990...........................................................................M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1988-1994................................................................Teaching A ssistant, Department of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1994-present.........................................................Lecturer, Department of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1994-present......................................................... Instructor, Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: English Folklore, Creative Writing, Studies in Composition and Rhetoric TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION.........................................................................................................ii ACKNOW LEDGEM ENTS..................................................................................iii VITA............................................................................................................................iv PREFACE................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION............................................................................. 12 On Reciprocal Ethnography........................................... 12 Toward a Poetics of Ethnography, or What Speaks and Sings to Us ...........................................................................20 Performance Theory and Ritual Studies Scholarship: The Rhetorical and Theoretical Frame of this S tu d y......................................................................................... 29 Marriage as Part of the Life Story, and Words from a Participant-Observer..........................................................36 II. THIN RINGS AND IMPOVERISHED NARRATIVES: MARRIAGE, DEATH AND HUNGER IN DEPRESSION-ERA WEDDING STORIES................................................................. 44 Secrets in an Old Body: Working with the Elderly.... 45 Thin Rings and Impoverished Narratives: An Overview of the Typical Depression-Era Wedding......................47 Considering Specific Narratives: The Stories of Irene Cunningham, and Dick Lundgren................... 59 Irene Cunningham...................................................... 59 Dick Lundgren ...............................................................72 III. SURVEYING OUR MOTHER’S HEARTS: WEDDING STORIES FROM THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES................. 85 A View from Inside the House .............................................. 85 An Overview of Marriage in My Parents’ Generation 87 Considering Specific Narratives: The Stories of Ida Young and Paul Kindinger.................................... 99 Ida Y oung ........................................................................99 Paul K indinger............................................................110 v C onclusion 123 IV . WEDDINGS IN THE 1990S: AESTHETICS AND THE WEDDING PLOT.........................................................................124 The Telescopic Versus the Microscopic Lens: the Conflation of Emic and Etic Categories in a Reflexive Ethnographic Text................................. 124 Wearing the Dress: Never a Bridesmaid, Always a B rid e..........................................................................................128 An Overview of Weddings in the 1990s........................137 Creating “Simultaneity” Through Aesthetic C h oices ................................................................................... 145 Considering a Specific Narrative: Mollie Young Fannin .................................................................... 151 Mollie Young Fannin ..................................................152 C onclusion ............................................................................ 162 V. CONCLUSION............................................................................... 163 Connecting Lines .............................................................. 163 Connecting Wedding Stories Across Generations.... 165 The Effect of the Wedding Industry on this R esearch.................................................................................. 175 BIBLIOGRAPHY 177 PREFACE Where myth fails, human love begins. --Anais Nin :|: :|: $ The princess began to cry because the cold frog frightened her. She did not even have enough courage to touch him, and yet, now she was supposed to let him sleep in her beautiful, clean bed. But the king gave her an angry look and said, "it's not proper to scorn someone who helped you when you were in trouble!" (Zipes 1986:3) In the tale, "The Frog King" a princess is forced to accept an ugly frog as a sleeping companion because he has retrieved her most cherished possession, a golden ball, from a deep well. She is repulsed by the frog, but her father insists she keep her promise to him. In the end, she gets so angry with the situation that she throws the frog against her bedroom wall. Promptly he turns into a handsome prince, and while only the frog could have retrieved the ball, it is only the princess and her patience with, and acceptance of, the frog that can restore him to human form. Bruno Bettelheim sees this type of tale, which fits in the animal-groom/animal- bride cycle of stories, as a metaphor for the young adult’s struggle for maturity and independence and places these tales neatly within the framework of the human life cycle. He writes: There are many fairy stories which start where those like “Cinderella” or Snow White” end, and they communicate that, charming as it is to be loved, not even being loved by a prince guarantees happiness. To 1 find fulfillment through and in love requires one more transition. Merely being oneself is not enough, even when it is selfhood won through struggles as difficult as those of Snow White and Cinderella. One becomes a complete human being who has achieved all his potentialities only if, in addition to being oneself, one is at the same time able and happy to be oneself