CLASSIFYING TALES: REMARKS TO INDEXES AND SYSTEMS OF ORDERING
CLASSIFYING TALES: REMARKS TO INDEXES AND SYSTEMS OF ORDERING

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with the historical and recent situation in classifying international folk tales and gives an overview of new developments, for example new catalogs for types and motifs. From the outset up to date, folk narrative researchers have been creating systems for ordering large masses of tale material according to genres, actors and incidents. The concentration on oral traditions, however, has largely neglected the important literary history of many tales. It was necessary to include such information into the new international catalog ATU (Aarne/Thompson/Uther). The concept of tale type and here must be understood to be flexible. It is not a constant unit of measure or a way to refer to lifeless material from the past. Instead, as part of a greater dynamic, it is adaptable, and can be integrated into new thematic compositions and media. Some former catalog makers also had used the system of numbers for expansion beyond number 2400 in order to describe other genres such as legends, riddles, ballads, etiologies, etc. Although a satisfying system for classification of folk narratives has not yet been found the present system has provided scholars with many valuable and practical research instruments, and numerous methodological and theroretical by-products.

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