The Hebrew Folktale
"The most comprehensive account of its subject now available, this impressive study lives up to the encyclopedic promise of its title." —Choice\ The Hebrew Folktale seeks to find and define the folk-elements of Jewish culture. Through the use of generic distinctions and definitions developed in folkloristics, Yassif describes the major trends—structural, thematic, and functional—of folk narrative in the central periods of Jewish culture.
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"The most comprehensive account of its subject now available, this impressive study lives up to the encyclopedic promise of its title." — ChoiceThe Hebrew Folktale seeks to find and define the folk-elements of Jewish culture. Through the use of generic distinctions and definitions developed in folkloristics, Yassif describes the major trends — structural, thematic, and functional — of folk narrative in the central periods of Jewish culture.
ForewordAcknowledgments1Introduction: Jewish Culture and the Hebrew Folktale12The Biblical Period: The Folktale as Sacred History8AThe Myth10BThe Legend15CThe Fable23DThe Novella27EThe Story Cycle30FDevelopments and Transitions333The Second Temple Period: The Casting of Narrative Patterns38ANarrative in the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha: Continuation and Renewal38BThe Historical Legend40CThe Expanded Biblical Tale46DThe Martyrological Narrative as Folktale52EThe Hagiographical Cycle57FThe Novella and Wisdom Tale61GThe Fairytale64HThe Contribution to the History of Hebrew Narrative674The Folktale in the Rabbinic Period: Between Folk Culture and Rabbinic Literature70AIntroduction70BPerformance Events72CThe Expanded Biblical Story79DNarrative Traditions from the Second Temple Period89EThe Biographical Legend106FThe Exemplum120GThe Historical Legend132HTales of Magic and Demonology144IThe Comic Tale166JParables and Fables191KThe Story Cycle2095The Middle Ages: External Perils and Internal Tensions245AIntroduction245BRabbinic Aggadah as Folk Narrative250CTales from International Folklore265DThe Exemplum283EThe Historical Legend297FThe Saint's Legend321GThe Novella and Gender Stories343HTales of Magic and Demonology3516The Later Generations: The Folktale in Confrontation with a Changing World371AThe Hasidic Story as Folk Literature371BLegends of the Saints and Israeli Society407C"Return to the Faith" Stories: Religious Rhetoric in a Secular World429Notes461Abbreviations Used in the Notes543Index549
\ ChoiceThe most comprehensive account of its subject now available, this impressive study lives up to the encyclopedic promise of its title. Yassif (Tel Aviv Univ.) examines the Hebrew folktale chronologically in the context of Jewish culture, and so affords thoughtful critical analyses of how the genre evolved and developed through the centuries in terms of the indigenous national literature. After an introduction describing the evolution of modern scholarship on the folktale, Yassif considers five historical periods: biblical, Second Temple, Rabbinic ,Middle Ages, and Changing World—the last delineating the Hasidic story, legends of saints in contemporary Israel, and tales of returning to the faith in a secular society. The discussion in each chapter is dense and lucid; Teitelbaum renders the original Hebrew in fluent, jargon—free English. Yassif brings an extraordinary amount of learning to his task, leaving this reviewer in no doubt that this volume will henceforth be the authoritative reference on the subject. It will also be an invaluable resource for students of narratology in general, since its exposition of folk narrative deals with such modes as the legend, the fable, the fairy tale, the comic tale, the saint's legend, among many other literary forms. Some 80 pages of notes add valuable information concerning source material. Upper—division undergraduates through faculty.M. Butovsky, Concordia University, Choice, May 2000\ — M. Butovsky, Concordia University\ \ \
