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Elo-Hanna Seljamaa. Perfected Truth: Walter Anderson's Law of Self-Correction |
2007, nr. 11 |
The aim of the article is to analyse the notions
of folklore and folklore research held by Walter Anderson (1885–1962),
one of the eminent adherents of the historic-geographic method
and the first professor of folklore at the University of Tartu.
While several of Anderson's concepts are touched upon, the focus
lies on the Law of Self-Correction formulated by Anderson in his
1923 monograph Keiser und Abt. Geschichte eines Schwanks.
The purpose of the law was to explain why folktales preserve their
integrity despite the variations occurring in each performance.
In Anderson's view, the stability of folktales results from
storytellers
having heard their stories several times and from different sources.
The article seeks to connect the Law of Self-Correction to the
theoretical and methodological principles of the historic-geographic
method and claims that the explanation offered by Anderson helped
to naturalize the position of the historic-geographic method as
the dominant paradigm in folklore research. It is argued that
the Law of Self-Correction is founded on a concept of folktales
as autonomous entities governed by their own inherent laws.
Keywords: folkloristics, history
of folkloristics, Walter Anderson, Law of Self-Correction in folktales,
historic-geographic method, storytelling, folktale studies,
monogenesis,
variation, caleidoscopically changing stories, experimental
folkloristics.
Elo-Hanna Seljamaa (b. 1980), MA, doctoral
student of Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio)
elo-hanna.seljamaa[at]ut.ee
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