Narrative Structures in Burmese Folk Tales

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Can I view this online? Members of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Maori communities are advised that this catalogue contains names and images of deceased people. Book , Online - Google Books. Tales -- Burma -- Structural analysis. Tales -- Burma -- Classification. In understanding a story on the basis of its function, Brewer and Lichtenstein However, as pointed out by Stein There should be no doubt about a large number of stories which carry other functions beyond entertainment.

Other functions of stories can be to resolve personal social problems and to recapitulate and reorganize personal experience Labov and Waletzky ; to establish social identity and social relationship, social hierarchies, and emotional bonds Bloome ; to educate, persuade, warn, reassure, justify, explain, and console among members of an organization Gabriel In the case of folktales, it can be generally accepted that the function or the social purpose of storytelling is to preserve the culture of a civilization, to explain natural phenomena, to transmit historical and important social information, or to teach important moral and ethical issues Taylor With the culturally determined setting for such folkloristic storytelling, it can also be argued that there is the thematic restriction of the subject matters in folktales Fludernik As discussed earlier, what is at issue in a study of folktales in particular, and stories in general, is how the structural features of a story can be related to its contents and functions.

Through an illustration of the relationship between the narrative structure form , the social purpose function and the story content filed , this study aims to suggest a structural analysis as a means, rather than an end, to understand the nature of stories in general. For this purpose, the study takes a tale with didactic moral as a tutor text from a collection of folktales of Myanmar Burma , where folktales have been preserved for generations not only as a reflection of a particular culture, but also as a means of instilling certain concepts in the society.

First, the notion of contrastive narrative structure needs to be explained. In the selected tale The Golden Crow Maung , there are two protagonists, one of whom behaves according to certain specific rules, and is rewarded. The other breaks these rules and is punished. The four narrative roles in the tale are distributed as follows. Protagonist A is the main character in the first part of the story, and Protagonist B in the second part. They are comparable and stand in contrast to each other. The donor role is distributed among several characters who set a test for the protagonists. The structure of the sequence of events can be summarized as.

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Moreover, a tale may be made up of more than one elementary sequence of events. Hence in order to explain the linkage between events, the notions of move by Propp and connectives by Jason have to be considered. Move is a label introduced by Propp for a series of events. A connective may be of two varieties: Such connectives should be regarded as another type of fundamental constituents like events which serves as a device through which tales are arranged into a well-organized storyline.

With events, moves and connective as the units of analysis, the elementary sequence of events or the basic story structure of The Golden Crow can be outlined as in Table 1. Table 1 The elementary sequence of events in the tale The Golden Crow. Long ago there lived an old widow who was very poor.

She had a daughter who was pretty and good-natured. One day the mother asked the daughter to scare away the birds from the tray of paddy which was being dried in the sun. So the daughter sat down near the tray and scared away the birds. When the paddy was nearly dried, however, a strange bird came flying towards the tray. It was a crow with gold feathers. My mother is so poor! The rice is so valuable to her.

Come to the big tamarind tree outside the village at sunset, and I will give you something. At sunset, the little girl went to the big tamarind tree and looked up at the branches. To her surprise, she saw a little house of gold at the top. But, of course, I must drop the ladder first. Do you want the golden ladder, the silver ladder, or the brass ladder? But your mother needs you more, so I must send you back before it gets too dark.

Then he went into the bed room and brought out a big box, a medium-sized box, and a small box. When she reached there, she gave the little box to her mother. Together they opened it, and they were surprised and delighted to find in the box a hundred priceless rubies. The mother and daughter became very rich and lived in luxury. There was another old widow in the village, but she was not poor. She also had a daughter who, however, was greedy and bad-tempered. This widow and her daughter heard about the gift of the Golden Crow, and became very jealous of the other widow and her daughter.

Narrative structures in Burmese folk tales.

They decided to try to get a similar gift for themselves. So they put out a tray of paddy in the sun, and the greedy girl kept watch. But as she was lazy, she did not try to scare away the birds that came to eat up the paddy. When the Golden crow at last turned up, there were very few grains left. But, to her disappointment, the crow lowered the brass ladder. Do you want to eat your food from the gold dish, the silver dish or the brass dish?

But to her disappointment, it was the brass dish she was served. The food was delicious but it was no more than a tiny morsel, and the greedy girl was annoyed. The greedy girl, of course, chose the big box, and without remembering to thank the crow, she struggled down the ladder with her burden. When she reached home, she and her mother joyfully pulled open the big box.

Narrative structures in Burmese folk tales. - Free Online Library

But to their surprise and terror, a big snake lay coiled inside. The snake hissed at them angrily, and then glided out of the box and out of their house. Information connective - Protagonist A is introduced. Guide leads Protagonist A to Donor. Protagonist A meets Donor. Protagonist A performs successfully. Protagonist A is rewarded. Information connective - Protagonist B is introduced. Protagonist B learns about Donor.

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Guide leads Protagonist B to Donor. Protagonist B meets Donor. Protagonist B is punished. The parallel sets of contrasting narratives in the above analysis show s how good actions are rewarded and evil actions are punished. It outlines one of the primary functions of this particular type of tale, which is the moral teaching. Despite the outwardly simple appearance, the tale addresses themes and issues that are profound for all humanity.

It touches on such psychologically significant ly themes as honesty, kindness, generosity, jealousy, arrogance, greed, etc. The morally significant issues on what is right and its consequences are foregrounded when it is placed in parallel against what is wrong and its consequences.

Thus the contrastive narrative structure of the tale can be said to be complementing and reinforcing the moral and ethical messages that lie behind the content of the tale.