Ben-Amos, Dan
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Publication Review of A.T. Hatto, Traditions of Heroic and Epic Poetry, Volume One: The Traditions(1984) Ben-Amos, DanFor aficionados of the epic, to be in London between the summer of 1964 and the winter of 1972 must have been very exhilarating. During that period the London Seminar on Epic convened 31 times to hear lectures on diverse epics from both nearby and remote cultures, delivered by specialists of these poetic narratives and their literary traditions. The 12 articles that constitute the present volume are partial result of the seminar work. They are devoted to the "heroic and/or epic traditions in general terms," while a second volume, planned for the future, will include "detailed investigation, quoting original texts, of problems of diction, prosody and versification, observations on voice-production of bards" (p. 1), and similar concerns.Publication Review of Robert Ackerman, J.G. Frazer: His Life and Work(1990) Ben-Amos, Dan"Darwin, Marx, Frazer and Freud are among the most important thinkers of the past century, and are significant shapers of the modern mind and of the present century" (Stanly Edgar Hyman, The Tangled Bank: Darwin, Marx, Frazer and Freud and Imaginative Writers [1966], p. x). Of these four, Frazer is probably the only one who has written more books than has books written about him. Surely, references and allusions to his works abound. In 1922 T.S. Eliot cited in his "Notes on 'The Waste Land' " Frazer's The Golden Bough as a work "which has influenced our generation profoundly" (The Complete Poems and Plays: 1909-1950 [1952], p. 50). In addition to T.S. Eliot, John Vickery counts William Butler Yeats, D. H. Lawrence, and James Joyce among the literary masters that cam under the influence of The Golden Bough (The Literary Impact of The Golden Bough, 1973).Publication Solutions to Riddles(1976) Ben-Amos, DanAmong the many genres of folklore, the riddle is the most amenable to semiotic inquiry. In short dialogue sequences, riddling includes verbal metaphors, interpretations, and their rejections or validations. The immediate succession of a message, a decoding, and a feedback condenses a process that extends over a longer span of time in the communication process of many other genres. Moreover, inherent in the riddle is a deliberate ambiguity which is designed to reveal and conceal its subject at one and the same time. Success in untangling the true meaning of the riddle-sentence from the knots of verbal deceit depends upon the confirmation of the solution by the riddle poser. However, his acceptance of the answers is often whimsical and manipulative; he can reject certain solutions on one occasion and acknowledge them the next time, as long as he is able to maintain his socially advantageous position.1Publication Obituary: Raphael Patai (1910-1996)(1997) Ben-Amos, DanFirst memories are formative. Raphael Patai, who died on July 20, 1996, opens his autobiography with a memory of himself as an infant sliding down three flights of stairs into the street and placing himself between the two rails of the tramline, only to be saved at the last minute and carried back into the safety of his home by his mother. Whether recalled or reinforced by parental retelling, both aspects of this recollection, the spirit of independent exploration and the protective warmth of home, mark his path in life.Publication Review of David Assaf, The Regal Way: The Life and Times of R. Israel of Ruzhin(2000-01-01) Ben-Amos, DanHagiography and history tell their stories at cross-purposes. While hagiography glorifies, even sanctifies its heroes, history strips them of their traditional greatness, seeking to bare the factual truth to which documents and testimonies attest. Nowhere is this contrast more evident than in the history and study of Hasidism. Legends (shevahim) are the building blocks of the Hasidic tradition, in which the rabbi is a leader, a miracle worker and a storyteller. He is the narrating subject, who, in turn, becomes the object of stories subsequent generations tell.Publication The Cultural Mediators of Folklore(1981) Ben-Amos, DanWhen William Thoms coined and defined the term 'folklore' he unwittingly opened a Pandora's box which neither he nor others could put the lid back on. Definitions of folklore have been pouring out ever since (Ben Amos 1971:3-9; Legros 1962). With this gesture of nationalism Thoms naively thought that he had offered "a good Saxon compound" that would replace the Latin-derived "Popular Antiquities" (1846; 1965:5); but what he actually did was to propose a name to an as yet unborn, or worse, ill-formed, concept. Logically there is no necessary connection between "the manners, customs, observances, superstitions, ballads, [and] proverbs, etc." (1965:5) that Thoms considered to be the substance of folklore. He brought them together into one category on the basis of three factors: the attribution of antiquity, the observation of their approaching demise, and the goal of salvaging them from total oblivion. He considered the cultural elements he enumerated to be of 'olden time', and then drew two conclusions, "the first, how much that is curious and interesting in these matters is now entirely lost, the second, how much may yet be rescued by timely exertion" (1965:5).Publication Review of Eli Yassif, Jewish Folklore: An Annotated Bibliography(1988) Ben-Amos, DanA thematic bibliography has the dual function of research summation and discipline boundary-demarcation. When a discipline is still forming, and its patterns are still pliable, a bibliography could have a stabilizing effect, laying the foundation for future scholarship. The admittance of entries from a variety of relevant fields into the bibliography establishes them as the scholarly canon, and they become the core around which subsequent research clusters. This function is apparent in particular in this bibliography of Jewish folklore.Publication Alt- und mitteljidd. Erzählungen(1992) Ben-Amos, DanGeschicte und Verbreitung. Die jidd. Sprache entstand um das 10. Jh. in den jüd. Gemeinden in Lothringen. Von dort verbreitete sie sich mit den aschkenas. Kolonien nach Norditalien, Nordfrankreich und Holland sowie durch die Kreuzzüge im mitteleurop. Raum, danach ostwärts in die slav. Länder33. Altjiddisch (1250-1500) war hauptsächlich eine gesprochene Sprache, in der mündl. Erzählungen, Lieder, Fabeln und Sprichwörter ihren Platz hatten. Aus dieser Periode existieren verstreute Glossen und Redewendugen. Der älteste datierte Sprachbeleg ist ein Segen in einem illuminierten Wormser Gebetbuch (1272)34. Das früheste literar. Dokument in jidd. Sprache ist die Cambridger Hs. von 1382Publication Review of Haim Schwarzbaum, Jewish Folklore between East and West. Collected Papers(1991) Ben-Amos, DanIn his obituary for Haim Schwarzbaum (1911-1983), Dov Noy tells that upon his arrival at Bloomington, Indiana in 1952 to begin his graduate studies, Stith Thompson asked him whether he knew Haim Schwarzbaum in Israel. He did not, and Professor Thompson invited Dov Noy to his office and showed him the thick file of correspondence that he conducted with Schwarzbaum, saying: "You should know that I correspond with over a hundred folklorists worldwide, and your Haim Schwarzbaum is the most erudite of them all" (Noy 1986, 88). At the time Schwarzbaum was in his early forties. Most of his publications to that date appeared in the literary supplement of newspapers; only two of his articles were published in Hebrew scholarly journals (GANUZ 1984, 10). Yet in his private scholarly correspondence he had already demonstrated his overflowing erudition to be deserving of such an accolade from the leading folktale scholar of our time. Folklorists learned about his scholarly acumen only in the late fifties, when his articles began to appear regularly in scholarly publications.Publication Shivhei Habesht(1996) Ben-Amos, DanShivhei HaBesht is the first collection of tales about the Besht. It contains biographical details about his parents, childhood, acquisition of mystical knowledge, travels, teachings, miracles, and death. Interspersed among these are stories about a few other hasidic leaders, followers of the Besht.