Summary
Folklorist at Berkeley whose foreword to Speak, Bird, Speak Again presents the collection as a scientific departure from the rewritten, composite, and censored folktale anthologies of the Grimm tradition and of colonial collectors (Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, lines 76-125).
Details
- Dundes argues that collections of tales from India or the Middle East by European administrators, missionaries, and travellers contain only the blandest tales, with bawdy motifs omitted, and that what is needed are collections by fieldworkers rooted in the region who speak the tellers’ language (Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, lines 76-125).
- The Acknowledgments thank Dundes for his enthusiasm for the work, his encouragement during difficult moments, and his guidance in folkloristic matters (Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, lines 126-145).
- His foreword is signed from Berkeley, California (Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, lines 76-125).
Related pages
Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, Ibrahim Muhawi, Sharif Kanaana