First publ. in: Review of Ethnology 3(1971), 14, pp. 105-108
The Structural Study of Oral literature:
Preliminary Survey
(continuedfrom the last issue)
by
Karin Knorr
Results
The identification of action units and structural
patterns 'Nithin the single tales represents only the
first and preliminary step ofa morphological study,
A second and equally important step outlined in
the present work for" the first time consists of the
quantitative description and analysis of existing
cOJUlections between the structural units 'ofaction
and episcxle studied so far. Besides providing a host·
of quantitative parameters of the material, this
analysis allmvs for an establishment of structural
relationships operating on the level of the system
of oral literature as a jph6-fe. In order to succeed
in the latter, the attempt must be made to integrate
fonn and content of .motifenies and motifemic
patterns, including the actors. This means, that the
global relations to SpecifY should consist of substantial· correlations and regularities grounded in
formal, structural categories such as action unit,
structural pattern or narrative pattern of the tale.
The aim ohhis analysis is to provide some insight
into' the prevailing cultural patterns and value'orientations, as manifested in the data material.
_In the present case the analysis included the
follolNing steps: 1) statistical summary in regard to
total number of specific motifemes, motifemic
patterns, simple (1 pattern), extended (several
structrijal patterns one after the other) and complex
(intervening structural patterns) Jales; 2) proportion
of motifemes in different structural patterns and
tales, as well as motifemic depth (number of intervening motifemes 'Nithin a structural pattern) and
pattern depth (number of intervening patterns per
tale) of the literature in comparison 'Nith the results
of Pro pp (1968) and Dundes (1964); 3) regularities
of content and ~onsequences derived from mqifernes of the same type in different structural patterns; 4) global relationships of actors in the
Guarasug'wa literature, i.e. statistical significant
interaction patterns between certain actors or types
of actors; 5) statistical significant correlations between the Guarasug'-..va motifemes, that is motifemes
occuning together in a significant number of cases;
and 6) formal combination ofall types of motifemes
and structural patterns leading to a kind of superstructure, which sets the limits of choice for single
tales (compare Lavi-Strauss 1960).
The results of this analysis have a great impact
not only on our understanding ofthe Guarasug'wa
culture, but above all on cross-cultural comparisons
of morphologically analysed 9ralliteratures. In the
frame of reference of the present article only one
Konstanzer Online-Publikations-System (KOPS)
URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-opus-80263
URL: http://kops.ub.uni-konstanz.de/volltexte/2009/8026/
example can be given. A detailed examination of
every occurrence of the motifeme "punishment"
according to the executing instance, the dramatis
personae affected, the kind of offence and the kind
of punishment led to the follmving conclusion:
"With one exception, all lasting neg<:t ive facts in the
life of theGuarasug''Nl1' as described in the literature,
such as the lost Eternal Light, the origin ofjaguars,
the origin of mosquitos and the origin of war, derive
from false, or failing sanctions imposed and executed by the human (Guarasug'lNll-) group and not
by individuals or supernatural beings. The same
holds for lasting unpleasant effects' and consequences of the other motifemes ofthe literature .
The almost exclusive responsibility of the human
group for common disadvantages as expressed in
the narratives constitutes an indirect reflection of
the profound pessimism of that society (Riester
1969-70/6). It should prove especially fruitful to
validate this self-conception by confronting it "With
the self-image of other Tupf-Guaranf tribes, such
contributing to a more precise and intense grasp of
their underlying cultural orientations.
Relevance and further development
The adequacy and 'usefulness of the approach
described above for' the structural analysis of oral
or lNlitten literature has been especially stressed by
Dundes (1964). The basic advantage seems to lie in
the fact that the approach allows for a valid, obj ective and systematic description of the narrative
structure, either of special genres of ora1literature
or ofthe literature ofa whole so.ciety. The structural units provided by motifemes or motifemic patterns constitute the framework "Within which the
culturally determined action content as well as
the conception of actors or types of actors can
easily be studied. The possibility of devising out of
this content a host of quantitative characteristics
of the material must be considered a prerequisite
of a comparative ~ysis , the latter constituting
the second enoimous advantage of the approach.
Future research in the field to a vast degree should
concentrate on the establishing of morphologically
analysed material which in a second step can be
compared cross-culturally in regard to structural
equivalent motifemes, motifemic patterns and pattern combinations. By this it should be possible to
identifY universal trends and regularities in the
conceptualization of narrative action as well as to
account for structural differences as manifested by
genre and type. The U;vi-Straussean aim of explaining the working of the human mind would, as
such, be approached from one more promising
angle. The third advantage of the method has already been mentioned and lies in its pot·ential for
cross-genre comparisons, such one being of great
importance for literary and folkloristic research. The
inherent subjectivity of the historic-geographic
practice of indexing motives leaving the identification of the latter to the opinion ofthe researcher
can be considered overcome in the approach presented here, but up to now only at the price oftaldng into account but the narrative structure ofthe
tale. For a structural rendering of other aspects of
ora1literature further research is needed.
Further research into the suqject should on the
one hand concentrate on the providing of morphologically analysed material, devoting as much attention as··Possible to the question of data collection
- how can we get at such exact and comprehensive
recordings of oral literature as to be able to validly
discern the relevant struc'tural elements? A second
field offurther studies could be based on the strong
possibility of constructing mathematical models
of structural patterns and pattern-relations "Within
systems of literature. This might allow an equally
adequate handling of the complex literature' of
modem societies.' The mathematics to be used
could be based on set theory and general topology
and could lean heavily on mathematical models
of formal network structures as are developed
presently in the United States (Lorrain 1971). It
must, however, not be forgotten, that the proof
of the method "Will :finhlly not be grounded on its
quantitative mathematical elabor"ation and refinement, but on its oqjectivity and validity, that is
to say on its power to adequately grasp the meaningful emic distinctions as expressed in the narrative
structure ofan oral literature.
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