SLFK 211, Thursday, October 31, 2002
Happy Halloween!
To what extent is Halloween counter-cultural?
Folktales are one of the few genres that exist in all cultures that we know about
There is something to them
One thing is the pattern of action
This was isolated from Russian magic tales by Vladimir Propp in his Morphology of the Folktale.
Human narrative, at least in the areas that we know about, tends toward this pattern
Even personal narratives, as they are repeated and become "traditionalized" will tend toward this pattern
Even scientific narration, which tries to enlighten rather than entertain, will tend toward this over time
Not to mention presentation of historical material
In terms of popular culture and mass media, almost everything that is popular seems to follow this pattern
Which of the Star Wars movies is the best?
If you vote number 1, it is the one closest to the folktale patterning isolated by Propp
BattleStar Gallactica came out same time as Star Wars and it bombed
Why? No folktale patterning
Madhu and birth control education in India
Star Trek, Ninja Turtles and the like
The pattern is NOT an outline
Rather, works more like hypertext in that the connections are not flat
They are not on a single level or dimension
It is NOT a linear pattern
After talking about the actions, or as Propp calls them FUNCTIONS, I started on the actors, or as Propp calls them dramatis personae
These are peculiarly flat, as in they don't have the traits we normally associate with characters in literature
They do not grow and develop over the course of the narrative
The person who hears the narrative, the audience, grows as a result of hearing the story, but not the characters in the story
Characters don't have motivations
Villains are villainous just because; not because they have been wronged in the past and hold a grudge
Heroes are not terribly heroic and can lie, cheat and steal
As when a hero outwits what Propp would call an unwilling donor, say thieves arguing over the division of the spoils
Hero outwits them and gets the items over which they argue
Later uses them as magic agents
The actors have contradictory qualities
The witch is usually villainous, but can provide the hero or heroine with knowledge, with magic items like horses
Some of the sought-after characters don't seem terribly desirable
What someone like Jung proposes is that these are not separate characters at all, not individuals
Rather, they are PARTS of the self
This is not something Jung himself says, but one of his followers, Marie von Franz
Just as Freudian theory is applied to tales not by Freud himself, but by Bettelheim
That is why they do not develop
It is exactly the person outside the narrative who develops, the listener or audience, who, through the tale, gets to explore aspects of the self and thus grow as a person
These aspects of the self, according to Jung, are there when you are born
Jung says they are part of a collective memory, a memory of the human race or collective unconscious
These days people may not buy collective memory idea, but they do think that many mental faculties, including ideas and images are innate
Language, for example, is innate, at least the capacity for language
Hard-wired, in a way
So are the "archetypes"
"Hard-wired" but very amorphous and flexible, because they are in the unconscious and you are only partially aware of them
Thus villain, a Propp dramatis personae term, is like the archetype Jung calls the shadow
It is the negative aspects of the self
Destructive
Anti-social
Devouring and frightening
If the shadow is a part of the self, then you can understand why the villain can be helpful as well as harmful and why encounters with the villain yield wisdom
The way tale characters learn from Baba Iaga or Koshchei
Because shadow is negative aspects of the SELF, it is also very hard to deal with it and that is why there is reluctance to explore the negative
The shadow archetype in Star Wars is Darth Vader
And the encounter with the shadow is when Luke visits Yoda in the swamp to get an education and Yoda makes him confront the shadow
It is Darth Vader and, in the confrontation, Luke realizes that it is also Luke himself
The girl dramatis persona (which can also be a boy, depending on the gender of the main protagonist, essentially it is the opposite sex peer sought during the course of the narrative) is, in Jung terms, the archetype of the anima/animus
Anima for men and animus for women
It is the opposite sex aspect of the self, the feminine side of a man and the masculine side of the woman
The anima aspect of a man allows him to be sensitive and gentle
It also leads him to union with an a woman
The animus allows a woman to exhibit traits that are normally considered masculine
Which she might need at work, for example
And leads her to union with a real-life man
In Star Wars, since it is a film done from the male perspective by a male director, there is an anima and she is Leia
She seems to be a desired opposite sex partner
But she is also a sister and very much like Luke
She is gentle and sexy and feminine and vulnerable
And she is also a leader and a fighter and exhibits traditionally masculine traits
Helpers, as I noted, often are multiple and have complimentary traits
As for the helpers in Star Wars
Han Solo and Chewbaka are the animalistic aspects of the self
C3PO and R2D2 more cerebral with special mental abilities
C3PO and language
R2D2 and code
Just like in tales there are helpers who are animal &endash; the grey wolf in Firebird
And helpers with special knowledge or with the ability to understand the language of animals
In Jungian terms, what you do as you grow up is explore your unconscious in various ways
Become acquainted with your various archetypes
Each such foray into the unconscious is like a journey, an adventure into the other world
And, in that sense, it like a tale
Again, whether or not you accept Jung's idea of a collective unconscious and where it comes from, there are certain images that seem to be universal, or nearly so
Images that are akin to what Jung calls the archetypes
And we see in the dramatis personae found in tales
Uniting Jung and Propp
Jung's archetypes are like Propp's dramatis personae
And the journey of exploring the archetypes is like Propp's morphology of the tale
The set of functions that tell a story of exploration and discovery
It is not the characters in the story and explore and change and grow as the result of the tale
It is the listener who explores aspects of the self and grows and develops as a result
In short, you have enormously powerful material
Of the people who use this material to make successful popular culture
Some read Propp
Some read Jung
Some read both
Some read neither, but had extensive familiarity with tales
Gene Rodenberry of Star Trek fame does not admit to either, but uses tale patterning consistently
Same true of the creators of Ninja Turtles
This is unconscious material, in a sense
Some people can access without ever becoming conscious
Others cannot and need to have the material made conscious
If you need the material made conscious and if you want more see:
Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale
Carl Gustav Jung, Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
Or Man and His Symbols
Or the books of Marie von Franz
This is material that helps children grow
This is material that adults often revert to in times of stress
Tales in prisons
German Never-Ending Story
The use of a tale fragment by the Washington area sniper
Use of tales and parables for people in therapy
Unconscious is often seen as threatening and scary, perhaps as a legacy of Freud
But not necessarily so &endash; can be comforting
Unconscious is the structuring and order faculty rather than the conscious
Patterns come from there
When there seems to be chaos and disorder
Resorting to this for comfort
In short, tales are really pretty basic stuff
In terms of the action: Propp's functions or Jung's journey of exploration of the unconscious, integration of the personality
In terms of actors: Propp's dramatis personal and Jung's archetypes of the collective unconscious
It is pretty powerful stuff which hits the audience below the belt, in a way
In terms of the idea that it goes for the unconscious
Zipes discusses how people have used this material
Sometimes unintentionally, but sometimes on purpose, for personal gain
Be it for something as simple and relatively innocent as personal expression
Or more crass like financial gain
Background:
In an oral situation, the five traits of folklore apply
You have a variant and it fits the story-telling situation
The way a person tells a story is very much tied to that person and the issues that are important to him or her
Have analyzed the narratives by people I know and about whose lives I know and can show the various issues in the stories that relate to their lives
Certain signatures of various tellers &endash; I can tell who the story is from, if it is a person who is a good narrator and someone I have worked with extensively
In an oral situation, however, it is not only the narrator who determines what happens
The audience also matters &endash; their feedback
Actually other stuff too &endash; time of narration, ambiance of the place, how comfortable it is
When you have someone WRITING a tale &endash; all that matters is your narrator
To a certain extent, the perceived audience, the people for whom he or she is writing
But they are distant, and part of the narrator's imagination, if you will
What happens then is that the personal issues of the narrator come more to the fore
He gives you examples of the various versions of Puss in Boots
Furthermore, because the stuff is in print, it affects many more people, gains a certain authority.
Oral situation &endash; a limited number of people present to hear a certain tale
With no record of the tale (it is not written down)
Nothing remains of the tale, except in the memories of the teller and the audience
You have something in print, it hangs around for a LONG time
Acquires authority
People take stuff that is in print more seriously
Legacy of connection to religion?
Privileging of reading as a skill, and writing also, over telling and listening?
More difficult skill to acquire
Disney sticks lots of his own personal issues into films
And, of course, there is commercial intent
The culture industry
What about Russian material?
Russian parallels are quite disturbing indeed
Russia has not worked out a commercial cultural industry, analogous to Disney
But DID have a very powerful and effective cultural industry in the Soviet era
Cartoons with Soviet themes &endash; seem so innocent
And based on folklore