Folklore Theory in Postwar Germany

by Sadhana Naithani

Overview

Can the study of folklore survive brutal wars? Does folklore make sense in this age of technology? These are two of the several questions that this book addresses with specific reference to the history of folklore studies in Germany. As is well-known folklore studies were pioneered in Germany in the early 19th century in the ideological context of romantic nationalism by the works of the Brothers Grimm. The relationship of the discipline with the political history of the country reached a peak in 1930s under the Nazi regime. From this peak the fall was ensured in 1945 with the end of the World War II and defeat of Germany. What happened to folklore studies in Germany henceforth is the subject of this book. The subject is explored with focus on Lutz Röhrich (1923-2006) whose work spans the decades from 1955 to 2006. Lutz Röhrich returned from the warfront in 1945 at the age of twenty-three with an amputated leg. Returning to the University to complete his education he emerged with the publication of his seminal work Märchen und Wirklichkeit (Folktale and Reality) in 1956. Through this and a huge body of work on folktale, folksong, proverbs and riddles over the next decades the author argues that Lutz Röhrich transformed the nature of folklore scholarship by critically challenging the legacies of Romanticism and Nazism in German folklore scholarship. Sadhana Naithani's book is the first full-length work on this extraordinary German scholar, written in English as the author feels that Lutz Röhrich's work has significance and relevance beyond Germany.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781617039935
Publisher:	University Press of Mississippi
Publication date:	03/01/2014
Pages:	142
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Sadhana Naithani is a professor at the Centre of German Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. She is the author of In Quest of Indian Folktales: Pandit Ram Gharib Chaube and William Crooke and The Story-Time of the British Empire: Colonial and Postcolonial Folkloristics (University Press of Mississippi).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgment ix

Introduction: Does Folklore Matter? 3

Part I Parallel to History

Chapter 1 Mega Legacies: German Folklore Studies in Historical Perspective 11

Part II Lutz Röhrich: The Advocate for Folklore

Chapter 2 Triangles of Analysis 33

Chapter 3 Circles of Interpretation 61

Chapter 4 Folksong for History from Below 82

Part III Continuity of Folklore

Chapter 5 Röhrich beyond German Borders 109

Notes 125

Works Cited 133

Index 137

Editorial Reviews

"Scholars and students of folklore will be deeply indebted to Sadhana Naithani for this compelling study of German folklorist Lutz Röhrich. Naithani not only demonstrates Röhrich's role in the transformation of folklore studies in postwar Germany, she also argues convincingly that Röhrich's illuminating ideas and rigorous methodology—especially in the study of folktales and folksongs—can benefit contemporary folklorists around the world. After reading this book, anyone interested in folklore will want to put Lutz Röhrich at the top of their reading (or re-reading) list."

—Donald Haase, professor of German and senior associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Wayne State University and editor of The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales

"Sadhana Naithani's fascinating study is a major contribution to our understanding of how the study of German folklore has undergone profound changes since the nineteenth century. She explains in great detail how the original notions of 'folk' and 'folklore' conceived by Herder and the Brothers Grimm as representing the culture of ordinary people were politically manipulated by Nazi propaganda in the 1930s and how the study of folklore had become tarnished at the end of World War II. By focusing on the significant folklore studies of Lutz Röhrich and other young German folklorists since the 1950s, however, Naithani demonstrates that there has been an important re-invigoration of the field through original interdisciplinary work. Thanks to scholars like Röhrich, the study of folklore has regained its stature in unified Germany."

—Jack Zipes, professor emeritus, University of Minnesota, and author of The Irresistible Fairy Tale

From the Publisher