Legend and Life
Examples from the Biographies of ‘Ā'ishah Bint Abī Bakr, Mary Carleton, and Friedrich Salomo Krauss
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8933837 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Christine Shojaei Kawan (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 116 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 140-154 |
| Publication date | 2005-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Folklore (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0015-587X • E-ISSN: 1469-8315 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00155870500140164 |
| OpenAlex | W1571453071 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 12 |
Contemporary legends correspond to the concerns of our times. It is a well-known fact, however, that many of them are updatings of older stories. Here three antecedents of contemporary legends are discussed. The widespread legend of “The Wife Left by the Roadside” is paralleled by an episode from the life of Muammad's favourite wife, ‘Ā'ishah. While the modern legend is often used to ridicule women, ‘Ā'ishah's adventure gave rise to slander and political intrigues. An antecedent for a legend that may be called “Expensive Tickets” is found among the exploits of the so-called “German Princess,” a famous seventeenth-century swindler and thief. It is a good example of how legends are developed and modified over time. Finally, an episode from the life of the nineteenth-century Austrian folklorist Friedrich Salomo Krauss, told by himself as a means of self-excuse and self-stylisation, is considered in the light of the folklore of disease. Notes [1] See also in this connection Shojaei Kawan (Citation1995a; Citation1999). [2] For variants and a discussion of this legend type, see Shojaei Kawan (Citation1995a, 22–5 and 30–2; Citation1999, 153–6). [3] A comment made by a female folklorist after my presentation of the “Wife Left at the Roadside” and the “Slander Affair” at the ISFNR Congress in Mysore, India, 1995. An Iranian man had earlier made essentially the same remark. A presentation of my paper at the university of Dharwad, India, drew very strong comment from two gentlemen, one an anthropologist and the other a chemist, who apparently thought that I had invented the story and suggested I would be better off talking about a story from the Bible. I was in turn surprised that they seemed to be totally unacquainted with the names of authors such as Ibn Isaq and a-abarī who are uncontested authorities in Islamic tradition. [4] For a discussion of recent scholarship, see Schoeler (Citation1996, 142–4; see also 164–6). [5] Arabic: adīth al-ifk. [6] [“Wurde wegen ihrer Schönheit und ihres] muntern, alles andre als spröden Wesens [seine Lieblingsgattin”]; [“nach ihrem ganzen Naturell kann man jedenfalls sicher sein,] daß sie die Begegnung mit afwān nicht von der tragischen Seite nahm.” [7] “das Spielzeug eines sechszigjährigen Wüstlings.” [8] This did not occur, for example, to Islamic feminists who have considered the case (Mernissi Citation1991, 177–9; Djebar Citation1994, 356–70). Although Assia Djebar (Citation1994, 360) remarks in passing that afwān had preserved ‘Ā'ishah from the hyenas, jackals and snakes of the desert, her long account centres almost exclusively on adultery in terms of accusation and justification. While Djebar's representation is impressionistic and apolitical, Mernissi makes a stand against the veiling of women, which she explains as the result of political constraints. [9] For Arsène Lupin see, for example, Ferté (Citation1992) and Shojaei Kawan (Citation1995b, 671). [10] “Nun wissen Sie wohl, von wem die Theaterkarten stammen.” [11] FOAFTALE NEWS 38 (December 1995): 8; see also 18. [12] The Des Moines Register (4 April 1996) from: snopes lt ([email protected]) (18 April 1996) and newsgroups (alt.folklore.urban). I am most grateful to Peter Burger, Leiden, who very kindly supplied numerous Aids Mary variants, including the Des Moines case, as well as a documentation of English and French press reports on the Irish case from Dungarven, Co. Waterford. These latter, however, do not mention boys from the same school as victims but a young women infecting a group of five friends, and up to eighty infected men in all (The Sunday Times, 17 September 1995, 14); in one case school boys as possible victims are mentioned quite incidentally (L'Express, 21 September 1995, 77). Here and in the other press reports on the Irish case there is a strong emphasis on the motif of revenge ascribed to the spreader of the disease, which is a central element in many Aids Mary legends. [13] Medical sites on the Internet also provide information on syphilis. [14] Ulrich von Hutten (1488–1523), German knight, humanist, adventurer and poet. [15] Girolamo Fracastoro (1478–1553), Italian physician and humanist who proposed an early scientific theory of contagion and after whose poem Syphilis sive morbus Gallicus the disease is named
Adventure · Art · Art history · Folklore · Folkloristics · Legend · Literature · Scots · Theology · Wife · Classics · Cultural and Sociopolitical Studies · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History · Literature, Magical Realism, García Márquez · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,05 |
| Citation span | 2005 - 2005 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |