Department of Religion and Culture

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Browsing Department of Religion and Culture by Author "Fine, Emily C."

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    In Defense of Literary Dialect: A Response to Dennis R. Preston
    Fine, Emily C. (Journal of American Folklore, 1983)
    If folklorists were to accept Dennis R. Preston's (1982) charges against their attempts to record dialect in print, they might feel embarrassed that their textmaking of the 1970s was so bad. Few folklorists would like to admit that their efforts at representing folk speech are culturally or racially biased; nor would they like to think that their uses of literary dialect respellings "having as their primary effect on the reader a demotion of opinion of the speaker represented" (Preston 1982:323). Yet if we accept Preston's data and premises, and adopt his "rules" for determining what to respell, then we will seriously undermine the study of folklore as artistic verbal performance. While Preston's interest in improving the quality of texts is laudable, there are serious problems with his presentation of data, his attitude toward the print medium as a vehicle for recording performance features, and his rules for respelling.
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    Review: Traditional American Indian Literatures: Texts and Interpretations
    Fine, Emily C. (Journal of American Folklore, 1983)
    This book is a welcome addition to studies of American Indian folklore and ethnopoetics. Karl Kroeber has compiled five essays by himself, Jarold Ramsey, Dennis Tedlock, Barre Toelken and Tacheeni Scott, and Dell Hymes to support his argument that Indian narratives are first-rate works of art that need sophisticated critical attention. The book's purpose is twofold: to correct critical ethnocentrism and to enable readers to recognize the artistry of traditiononal American Indian narratives.