Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Tales and legends'

This research aims to examine Chinese myths, legends and tales from the perspective of analytical psychology. Considering that analytical psychologists have paid little attention to Chinese myths and that previous studies on Chinese myths from the standpoint of analytical psychology are lacking, this thesis investigates the universal archetype and its cultural carrier, or archetypal image, in Chinese mythical texts. First, this study examines both Jung’s engagement with Chinese culture, in order to see the function and significance of Chinese thought in analytical psychology, and the reception of Jungian thought in China, in order to demonstrate the lack of research on Chinese myths from the perspective of the theory of analytical psychology. Second, the study defines the concepts of archetype and archetypal image, and adopts the method of myth analysis from Jung and his followers to interpret Chinese motifs and symbols. Third, interpretations from the perspective of analytical psychology are applied to three motifs in Chinese culture: creation myths, flood myths and erotic anima figures. These provide materials for exploring similarities and differences in the mechanism and development of the human psyche between East and West. Fourth, this research concentrates on discussing two important Chinese symbols – Long (dragon) and Qi lin (unicorn) and their counterparts in western culture – by analysing these symbols at both the archetypal and cultural levels. The final part of this study explores the possible therapeutic value of Chinese myths in helping analysts to comprehend the human psyche and analysands to understand themselves in greater depth. This thesis fills a gap in the understanding of Chinese myth by means of Jungian psychology with the hope also of applying analytical psychology to Chinese culture more thoroughly and insightfully in both theoretical and practical contexts.

I will examine Martin Buber’s Tales of the Hasidim, and the limits of his concepts of “ecstatic joy” and “spiritual wholeness.” To Buber, Hasidic legends present the possibility of overcoming tensions between the quotidian present and the messianic future, divisions of sacred and profane, divine and self. I argue that Buber does not present clear instructions on how to achieve this unity, so I turn to his other writings on Hasidism in order to trace his definition of “ecstatic joy” and “spiritual wholeness.” While Buber accurately depicts the Zaddik-Hasidim relationship, he downplays the importance of Jewish Law (Halacha) in facilitating the goal of ecstatic joy and spiritual wholeness which he posits as the essence of Hasidism. Ultimately, I conclude that while Buber ignores “authentic” aspects of Hasidic life, he indeed uses the Hasidic tale to effectively present a message of ecstatic joy and spiritual wholeness to a universal audience.

This study investigates the content, collection and dissemination of the Legends of the Cars, a group of tales published in Folk-Lore in 1891, as having been collected in North Lincolnshire from local people. The stories, have been criticised for their relatively unique content and the collector, Marie Clothilde Balfour has been accused of creating the tales. The stories are today used by artists, writers and storytellers, wishing to evoke the flatland and beliefs of the past, yet despite the questions raised regarding authenticity, neither the collector, the context or the contents have been thoroughly investigated. The tales have also, due to their inclusion in diverse collections, moved geographically south in the popular perception. This thesis documents the research into the historical, geographical and social context of the Legends of the Cars, and also validates the folkloric content and the dialect as being from North Lincolnshire. The situation within the early Folklore Society prior to, and after the publication of the stories, has also been investigated, to reveal a widespread desire to collect stories from the rural populations, particularly if they demonstrated a latent survival of paganism. Balfour followed the advice of the folklorists and, as well as submitting the tales in dialect, also acknowledged their pagan content within her introductions. Shortly after the publication, she became a member of the Folklore Society, and though she continued to collect stories these appeared not in Folk-Lore but in the popular collections of Jacobs. The story collecting methods used in the late nineteenth century and the narrative content of the Legends of the Cars, have also been explored to demonstrate clear links to the oral rather than literary traditions. These factors have been set alongside an exploration of the life of Balfour to highlight her potential motivations. Using clues within the introductions, I believe I have managed to locate the tellers of four of the stories, and whilst the original creators of the narratives may never be known, their influences have placed these tales firmly within the Ancholme Valley, a fact that is of growing interest to the people of the Lincolnshire Carrs today.

My work on the thealogy of Mary conveys a largely subjective way of thinking, it does not claim to present the view of any group, and it does not profess a theoretical agenda for a cult or a religious movement of Mary. The framework of this work is grounded in symbolic (legends, fairy tales and images), psychological (the structure of the psyche according to Carl Gustav Jung: the Self, the conscious, the unconscious, the Shadow) and imaginative (individual interpretations of narratives and images) spheres that are combined with feminist spirituality theories, religious philosophy and literary analysis. In my thesis, I offer a non-Christian myth of Mary which I form out of the folklore narratives about Mary. In my work, Mary is understood as the female divine archetype on the collective level, and as an expression of the Self on the individual level. Following Jung’s theory, the archetypes are forms and not contents, that is, an archetype can be comparable to an empty shell, which we fill with our own experience or with narratives that are meaningful to us. I take the image of Mary out of the Roman Catholic context and give it a new mythological narrative. This means to me a possibility not only to acquire a non-Christian myth of Mary but also to develop an individual relationship with the divine in its female personification. On the collective level, the thealogy of Mary creates a spiritual and psychological sphere in which the female divine has a possibility to outweigh the one-sidedness of the past few thousand years of the male predominance in the religious philosophy in the West.

Este trabalho trata da trajetória de um intelectual e político do Níger, uma das colônias da então chamada África Ocidental Francesa, ao longo do século XX. Interessado pelas culturas de povos que compunham aquela região do continente, Boubou Hama trabalhou arduamente pela coleta e salvaguarda de costumes e tradições de modo a preservar e divulgar aquele arcabouço cultural. A partir da aproximação de algumas de suas obras escritas, buscamos investigar seus projetos político-intelectuais e relacioná-los à produção de uma coletânea em especial, intitulada Contes et légendes du Niger [Contos e lendas do Níger]. Tanto durante o período colonial quanto após a independência nigerina, que se deu em 1960, Boubou Hama procurou fazer com que a África conhecesse seus próprios valores e concepções de mundo. Para ele, a preservação da cultura compunha um passo chave para o que idealizava em relação ao futuro do Níger e do continente africano como um todo.
This thesis broaches the trajectory of a Nigerien intellectual and politician throughout the 20th century. Boubou Hama was a man deeply interested in the cultures of West African peoples. He worked hard to collect and safeguard costumes and traditions, so that the African past and present culture could be kept alive. Through the reading of some of his books, I aim to investigate his political-intellectual projects and relate them to one piece in particular, entitled Contes et légendes du Niger [Tales and legends of Niger]. During French colonial rule, as well as after Nigerien independence (1960), Boubou Hama channelized his struggle and actions to the spread of knowledge about African values and worldviews. For him, the preservation of culture was a key step in the plan he envisaged for Nigers future and for Africa as a whole.

The medieval Christian attitude towards Jews cannot be easily characterised. Legend often portrayed Jews as hostile, grotesque and murderous. Yet close reading of medieval Christian stories about Jews reveals a more complex picture. The Legenda Aurea, compiled by Jacobus de Voragine in the thirteenth century from earlier sources, includes among its recitals of saints’ lives, miracles and related religious themes a number of tales in which Christian miracles are brought forth, albeit perhaps unwittingly, by the agency of Jews. Christian theological and social ambivalence toward Jews (discussed in Chapter One) developed from the Pauline doctrine of the Jews as the first, though undeserving recipients of Christianity, and the Augustinian concept of Jews as outcast and subjugated, but still crucial witnesses to Christian truth. This truth was attested to in early and medieval rhetoric about miracles (Chapter two); miracles involving saints, icons and Christian symbols were cited to affirm divine sanction for Christ and Christianity, and could be instrumental in converting Jews. Following this discussion of Jews and of the miracle, the three final chapters discuss tales from the Legenda Aurea that depict miracles being enabled by Jewish actions. These could be hostile Jewish attacks on Christian images or personages (Chapter Three). However, other tales depict Jews inviting miracles by behaving as if they had some belief in, or secret knowledge of, Christ or the cross (Chapter Four). Finally, the ‘Silvester’ legend (Chapter Five) depicts Jews disputing with Christians and turning to magic when rhetoric fails, but being vanquished by a Christian miracle that they themselves have challenged the saint to perform.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--West Virginia University, 2009.
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The aim of this thesis was to compare the use of the Hasli legend in Sweden and Switzerland during the 19th century. The Hasli legend, which derives from the middle ages, talks about Swedes and Frisians that emigrated to the central part of Switzerland. By comparing the use of the myth in the two nations I wanted to analyze how it was used for shaping identities and how the use varied with, and was affected by, the social context. I have studied historians work about the national Swedish and Swiss history, published during the 19th century. I chose the comparative method and have taken the social context and transnational aspects into consideration. The use of the myth was more uniform in Sweden than in Switzerland, but in both countries the myth was related to the nation and its origin. The national identity is emphasized, but is overlapping other identities. In both countries the use of the myth originates from the ideas of nationalism and national romanticism, but while the use of the myth in Sweden can be explained by the Gothicism and the idea of a Scandinavian nation, the use of the myth in Switzerland was a result of the creation of the Swiss nation in the 19th century.
Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka Haslisagans identitetsskapande funktion i Sverige och Schweiz under 1800-talet. Sägnen som härstammar från medeltiden handlar om att utvandrare från Sverige och Friesland ska ha bosatt sig i Schweiz. Genom att jämföra bruket av sägnen i de två nationella rummen ville jag undersöka hur skapandet av identiteter varierade med och påverkades av den samhälleliga kontexten. Jag har undersökt historikers verk utgivna under 1800-talet, som behandlar den schweiziska respektive svenska nationella historien. Bruket av sägnen har undersökts genom en komparativ ansats, där den samhälleliga kontexten och transnationella aspekter har tagits i beaktande i analysen av resultatet. Undersökningen visar att bruket av sägnen var mer enhetligt i Sverige än i Schweiz, men i samtliga verk länkas sägnen samman med den egna nationen och dess ursprung. Den nationella identiteten betonas, men är överlappande med andra identiteter. Bruket av sägnen kan i båda länderna länkas samman med nationalismen och nationalromantiska idéer, men medan det svenska bruket av sägnen förklaras med göticistiska och samskandinaviska idéer, så svarar det schweiziska bruket av sägnen mot behovet att skapa en schweizisk nation.

This essay takes its starting point in Legenda Aurea, a hagiographical compendium written in the thirteenth century by an Italian catholic friar, Jacobus de Voragine. The essay aims to find out how the Roman history in the third century is shown in Legenda Aurea, a Christian book written about a thousand years later. The purpose of this essay is to show how a part of the history of the Roman Empire is understood and remembered during the Christian hegemony that was during the thirteenth century. The main results of this essay show that the history of the Roman Empire during the reign of named emperors is remembered as a violent, brutal and authoritarian history, but also that Christianity seems to have been widespread within the Roman Empire during this time.

« Il était une fois »… un professeur autrichien, Theodor Vernaleken, qui souhaitait diffuser les récits populaires et coutumes traditionnelles des régions alpines. Ce « Grimm autrichien » les restitue si fidèlement dans ses Contes des Alpes pour les enfants et le foyer et ses Légendes des Alpes qu’il adopte la forme dialectale. Pédagogue émérite, il annote ses récits de nombreuses remarques explicatives rendant ainsi ces témoignages accessibles. Le conte est un récit se déroulant « autrefois » « dans une contrée lointaine ». Les êtres fantastiques surgissent tout naturellement au moment opportun, pour permettre ou empêcher le héros de vivre heureux et d’avoir beaucoup d’enfants. Pour sa part, la légende vise à être crue. Dans ces contes et légendes, les habitants ou un membre de la communauté villageoise ont vu de leurs propres yeux, dans leur village, des êtres surnaturels. Ils nous racontent leur étonnement, leur peur découlant de leur confrontation à cet autre monde peuplé de démons. C’est ainsi qu’apparaissent des homoncules, des géants, des dragons et autres animaux fantastiques, qui parlent, se transforment, etc. L’homme est également confronté à des protagonistes démonologiques tels que sorcières, diables et revenants. Celui qui a transgressé les interdits ne pourra échapper à son destin, tel est le message de ces récits exemplaires et instructifs. Jusqu’à présent, aucune étude exhaustive, ni classification de ce genre littéraire n’a été réalisée. Ainsi, cette étude analysera, par une approche comparative, les récits démonologiques à travers l’étude des êtres fantastiques des textes rassemblés par Theodor Vernaleken
“Once upon a time”… an austrian professor, Theodor Vernaleken, wanted to spread popular stories and traditional uses from the alpine areas. This “Austrian Grimm” restores them in his books Tales From the Alps for children and home and Legends from the Alps so faithfully that he writes them in dialect form. Highly skilled teacher, he writes lots of explicative notes on his stories making them understandable. A tale is a story, which takes place “a long time ago” “in a far faraway country”. Fantastic creatures appear quite naturally at the right time to allow the heroes to live happy and have lots of children or to prevent it to happen. As for it the legend aims to be believed. In these tales and legends inhabitants or a member of the village community have really seen supernatural creatures in their village. They tell us about their amazement, their fear from the confrontation with this other world populated with daemons. So dwarfs, giants, drakes and other fantastic animals and so on appear, speak and are completely transformed. Humans are also confronting demonologic protagonists such as witches, devils and ghosts. Who transgresses the interdicts cannot escape from his fate. That is the message of these exemplary and instructive stories. Up to now, no exhaustive survey or classification of this literary genre has been carried out. So, this work will analyse demonologic stories in a comparative way through the study of fantastic creatures in texts gathered by Theodor Vernaleken

碩士
國立中正大學
台灣文學研究所
102
We depend everything on lands. All our activities, including foods, clothing, houses, and moving, connect to it tightly. Even wealth which people care a lot comes from lands. Therefore, believing in an earth god shifts from the highest god of the earth to be personated that closes to our life. Even more, whoever contributed to the society could become an earth god. The ancestors of Taiwanese went through risks and came to Taiwan from China. For the security of their lives and properties, they brought their earth gods from their mother land. Although the rank of an earth god is not the same as it was, he earns our hearts. While an earth god interacted with people, it happened that an earth god did miracles to them. These miracles which became stories spread among persons. Every story has its own profound lesson to people. Hoping by studying these stories, we can understanding the influence and image of an earth god.

Alfredo Vieira de Freitas (AVF) é o autor sobre quem nos vamos debruçar neste relatório de estágio do Mestrado em Linguística: Sociedades e Culturas, devido ao interesse linguístico e sociocultural do seu espólio, abrindo caminho para um melhor conhecimento da sua obra e da sua vida dedicada às recolhas populares, orais e tradicionais, madeirenses. No relatório é feita uma abordagem à vida e obra de AVF, destacando a sua intervenção pedagógica como professor de Português, motivando os alunos a recolherem contos ou lendas, histórias e quadras populares, como redações a entregar ao professor, que constam do seu espólio, juntamente com outras recolhas manuscritas feitas por si. O principal objetivo do nosso trabalho de estágio foi inventariar, catalogar, separar, transcrever e sistematizar a grande quantidade e diversidade de manuscritos com recolhas populares do acervo de AVF. Depois, surgiu o desafio de propor uma classificação para os contos e lendas, romances tradicionais e quadras populares, publicados e inéditos, que constam do seu espólio. Finalmente, do confronto entre as versões recolhidas e as publicadas, podemos confirmar a tendência de AVF para a normalização da escrita, não conservando alguns dos traços da fala popular e regional madeirense, nas publicações das composições orais e tradicionais. Nas recolhas de AVF predominam as quadras populares, algumas das quais publicou em O Amorno folclore madeirense e O Humor no folclore madeirense (do povo e para o povo). Seguem-se os contos e lendas populares, alguns publicados em Era uma vez… na Madeira. Lendas, contos e tradições da nossa terra (1964) e em Continhos Populares Madeirenses (1988). De seguida, destacam-se os romances tradicionais, as adivinhas, as expressões populares, formas da linguagem popular, provérbios e alcunhas coletivas que AVF não publicou. Com este trabalho, pretendemos contribuir para o tratamento, estudo e divulgação das recolhas populares, orais e tradicionais, madeirenses do acervo de AVF, valorizandoas ao mostrar o seu interesse linguístico e sociocultural, enquanto património linguísticoetnográfico da Madeira e do Porto Santo.
Alfredo Vieira de Freitas (AVF) is the author we will focus on this internship report from the Master in Linguistics: Societies and Cultures, due to the linguistic and sociocultural interest of his holdings, paving the way for a better knowledge of his work and life dedicated to popular oral and traditional Madeiran collections. The report presents an approach to AVF's life and work, highlighting its pedagogical intervention as a Portuguese teacher, motivating students to collect tales or legends, stories and popular songs, such as essays to be given to the teacher, which are contained in his assets, along with other handwritten popular collections he made. The main objective of our internship work was to inventory, catalog, separate, transcribe and systematize the large number and diversity of popular collection manuscripts from the AVF holdings. Then came the great challenge of proposing a classification for the published and unpublished tales and legends, traditional novels, and popular songs in his assets. Finally, from the confrontation between the collected and published versions, we can confirm the option of AVF for the normalization of the writing, not always preserving the traces of popular and regional Madeiran speech, in the publications of the oral and traditional compositions. In AVF collections, the popular songs predominate, some of which he published in O Amor in Madeiran folklore and O Humor in Madeiran folklore (of the people and for the people). Following are the tales and legends, some of them published in Once upon a time… in Madeira, legends, tales and traditions of our land (1964), and Madeiran folk tales (1988). Then there are the traditional novels, riddles, popular sayings or expressions and proverbs that AVF didn’t publish. With this work, we intend to contribute to the treatment, study and dissemination of popular, oral and traditional collections made by AVF and his students, valuing them by showing their linguistic and sociocultural interest, as a linguistic-ethnographic heritage of Madeira and Porto Santo.

O nosso trabalho intitula-se ″Contos e lendas tradicionais Ovimbundo em português: um contributo didáctico para a melhor compreensão da literatura, pelos alunos da 10ª classe do Instituto Médio Politécnico da Humpata, Província da Huila, em Angola″, tema que norteou a nossa investigação. Após apresentação de alguns aspectos introdutórios, abordamos a fundamentação teórica e a contextualização dos contos. Pelo que, no segundo capítulo, estudamos os conceitos básicos do tema, a importância dos contos e lendas tradicionais, os tipos de contos e lendas tradicionais, a origem histórica dos Ovimbundu, a cultura do povo Ovimbundu, a localização geográfica do Município da Humpata, a caracterização dos contos e lendas tradicionais Ovimbundu e a comparação entre os objectivos dos contos de autor e os contos tradicionais. Em relação ao terceiro capítulo, analisamos os dados de um inquérito aplicado duas vezes, em momentos diferentes do processo de ensino-aprendizagem. No quarto capítulo, apresentamos as conclusões e recomendações. Nestes termos, concluímos que os contos e lendas tradicionais são de extrema importância, pelo facto de os mesmos ajudarem grandemente os alunos, no âmbito da melhor compreensão da literatura, pelos alunos da 10ª classe, do Instituto Médio Politécnico da Humpata. Quanto às recomendações, as que mais se destacaram traduzem-se na necessidade de introduzir inovações, enquanto docentes, no sentido de aprender e partilhar questões culturais e literárias, à medida que vamos progredindo na academia. A Dissertação inclui ainda alguns anexos relacionados com o trabalho de pesquisa realizado.
Our research work is entitled ″Traditional stories of Ovimbundo people in portuguese: a methodological contribute for a better compreension of literatureby the pupils of the tecnical secundaryschool of humpata Municipal, Huila province, in Angola″, which was the guide for the written work. After presenting some introductory aspects, we deal with theoretical aspects and the contextualization the stories. For this reason, in chapter two, we studied the basic concepts of the topic, the importance of traditional tales and legends, the types of the stories, the historical origin of the Ovimbundu people, Ovimbundu people culture, we have illustrated the map of Humpata Municipality, the characteristics of traditional tales and established a comparison between the objectives of author′s stories and traditional ones. As for the third chapter, we analysed the information of a questionnaire applied twice, in different moments of the teaching-learning process. As for the fourth chapter, we presented the conclusions and the recommendations. We concluded that, traditional tales are extremely important, because they help pupils of 10th Grade of Technical Secondary School in Humpata, Huila Province, in Angola to better understand Literature. In terms of recommendations, the most important is that we teachers must introduce innovations, in order to learn and to share literary and cultural issues, while we progress in academy. Finally, our Dissertation includes some annexes related to the research work developped.