Retelling Stories, Framing Culture

Traditional Story and Metanarratives in Children's Literature

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism
Cover of the book Retelling Stories, Framing Culture by John Stephens, Robyn McCallum, Taylor and Francis
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Author: John Stephens, Robyn McCallum ISBN: 9781136601491
Publisher: Taylor and Francis Publication: January 11, 2013
Imprint: Routledge Language: English
Author: John Stephens, Robyn McCallum
ISBN: 9781136601491
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Publication: January 11, 2013
Imprint: Routledge
Language: English

What happens to traditional stories when they are retold in another time and cultural context and for a different audience? This first-of-its-kind study discusses  Bible stories, classical myths, heroic legends, Arthurian romances, Robin Hood lore, folk tales, 'oriental' tales, and other stories derived from European cultures.  One chapter is devoted to various retellings of classics, from Shakespeare to "Wind in the Willows." The authors offer a general theory of what motivates the retelling of stories, and how stories express the aspirations of a society. An important function of stories is to introduce children to a cultural heritage, and to transmit a body of shared allusions and experiences that expresses a society's central values and assumptions. However, the cultural heritage may be modified through a pervasive tendency of retellings to produce socially conservative outcomes because of ethnocentric, androcentric and class-based assumptions in the source stories that persist into retellings. Therefore, some stories, such as classical myths, are particularly resistant to feminist reinterpretations, for example, while other types, such as folktales, are more malleable. In examining such possibilities, the book evaluates the processes of interpretation apparent in retellings. Index included.

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What happens to traditional stories when they are retold in another time and cultural context and for a different audience? This first-of-its-kind study discusses  Bible stories, classical myths, heroic legends, Arthurian romances, Robin Hood lore, folk tales, 'oriental' tales, and other stories derived from European cultures.  One chapter is devoted to various retellings of classics, from Shakespeare to "Wind in the Willows." The authors offer a general theory of what motivates the retelling of stories, and how stories express the aspirations of a society. An important function of stories is to introduce children to a cultural heritage, and to transmit a body of shared allusions and experiences that expresses a society's central values and assumptions. However, the cultural heritage may be modified through a pervasive tendency of retellings to produce socially conservative outcomes because of ethnocentric, androcentric and class-based assumptions in the source stories that persist into retellings. Therefore, some stories, such as classical myths, are particularly resistant to feminist reinterpretations, for example, while other types, such as folktales, are more malleable. In examining such possibilities, the book evaluates the processes of interpretation apparent in retellings. Index included.

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