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Problems of Collecting Oral Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

MacEdward Leach
MacEdward Leach*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 4
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Extract

Problems of collecting oral literature range from the purely technical to the esthetic. A top collector must be an engineer capable of operating and often repairing complicated recording machines; he must be a scholar and an historian, bringing a broad knowledge of the culture he is collecting; he must be a public relations man; he must have a sturdy stomach, capable of digesting all manner of food, and a good head to withstand all manner of drink; he must be physically in top shape, capable of hiking up lonesome mountains, of rowing a boat, even of taking a turn at cutting wood, haying, or butchering; he must have a reassuring bedside manner, able to soothe those who think he is planning to put their songs and stories on radio or record and make millions for himself.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 77 , Issue 3 , June 1962 , pp. 335 - 340
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1962

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References

Note 1 in page 335 This paper in somewhat different form was read before the Comparative Literature 2: Popular Literature discussion group at the MLA convention in Philadelphia, December 1960.

Note 2 in page 335 Francis P. Magoun, Jr., and Alexander H. Krappe, The Grimms' German Folk Tales (Carbondale, Ill., 1960).

Note 3 in page 335 Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story (London, 1907); Martha W. Beckwith, Jamaica Anansi Stories (New York, 1924).

Note 4 in page 335 Anansi, spider, is the hero of many West African and Caribbean tales.

Note 5 in page 336 For extensive discussion of this point with much concrete material, see these outstanding works: Albert B. Lord, The Singer of Tales (Cambridge, Mass., 1960), Part 1; Melville Jacobs, The Content and Style of an Oral Literature (Viking Fund Publications 26, New York, 1959); Melville Jacobs, The People are Coming Soon (Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press, 1960).

Note 6 in page 338 See Francis J. Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Boston, 1892–98), v, 397.

Note 7 in page 339 New York, 1952.

Note 8 in page 339 New York, 1950.