American Storytelling, Myths, and Tales

Author(s):  
Frank de Caro

Folktales (fictional stories, told orally) have been popular generally for various reasons, as have myths (orally told stories about creation and the gods). They offer models for human behavior and in particular give the message that people must use their wits to trick others when necessary. Folktales can be analyzed from this viewpoint, although they can also be interpreted using psychoanalyis and other methods (much of the scholarship on them has been concerned with collecting and “typing” them) to determine what they mean. In the United States, several kinds have been popular, including tall and other humorous, hero, John and Old Marster, animal, and fairy tales. There have been well-known tellers of such stories, though they have not received their due, because they have chosen to be performers of existing tales rather than creators of new ones, although they may have created new ways of narrating.

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
Sabina Magliocco

This essay introduces a special issue of Nova Religio on magic and politics in the United States in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election. The articles in this issue address a gap in the literature examining intersections of religion, magic, and politics in contemporary North America. They approach political magic as an essentially religious phenomenon, in that it deals with the spirit world and attempts to motivate human behavior through the use of symbols. Covering a range of practices from the far right to the far left, the articles argue against prevailing scholarly treatments of the use of esoteric technologies as a predominantly right-wing phenomenon, showing how they have also been operationalized by the left in recent history. They showcase the creativity of magic as a form of human cultural expression, and demonstrate how magic coexists with rationality in contemporary western settings.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 49-71
Author(s):  
Anastasia Ulanowicz

“We are the People”: The Holodomor and North American-Ukrainian Diasporic Memory in Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s Enough. Although the Holodomor — the Ukrainian famine of 1932–1933 — has played a major role in the cultural memory of Ukrainian diasporic communities in the United States and Canada, relatively few North American children’s books directly represent this traumatic historical event. One exception, however, is Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s and Michael Martchenko’s picture book, Enough 2000, which adapts a traditional Ukrainian folktale in order to introduce young readers to the historical and polit­ical circumstances in which this artificial famine occurred. By drawing on what scholar Jack Zipes has identified as the “subversive potential” of fairy tales, Skrypuch and Martchenko critique the ironies and injustices that undergirded Soviet forced collectivization and Stalinist famine policy. Additionally, they explicitly set a portion of their fairy tale adaptation in Canada in order to gesture to the role played by the Holodomor in structuring diasporic memory and identity, especially in relation to post-Independ­ence era Ukraine.«Мы — народ»: Голодомор и североамериканско-украинская диаспорная память в книге Enough Марши Форчук Скрыпух. Несмотря на то, что Голодомор — голод в Украине 1932–1933 гoдов — сыграл важную роль в культурной памяти украинских диаспорных общин в Соеди­ненных Штатах и Канаде, относительно мало североамериканских детских книг описывает это травматическое событие. Важное место в этом контексте является книга Марши Форчук Скры­пух и Майкла Мартченко «Достаточно» 2000, которая адаптирует традиционную украинскую сказку для того, чтобы познакомить молодых читателей с историческими и политическими обстоятельствами этого искусственного голода. Опираясь на то, что ученый Джек Зайпс назвал «подрывным потенциалом» сказок, Скрыпух и Мартченко критикуют иронию и несправедли­вость советской принудительной коллективизации и политики сталинского голода. Кроме того, они установили часть своей сказочной адаптации в Канаде, чтобы показать роль Голодомора в структурировании диаспорной памяти и самобытности, и связи последних с независимой Украиной.


Author(s):  
Jack Zipes

This chapter concentrates on two key features of the Americanization of the Grimms' tales: the English and American translations and adaptations of the Grimms' tales from 1823 to the present, and the filmic adaptation of the Grimms' tales in the age of globalization. It also briefly discusses three significant essays and an anthology of European folk and fairy tales that provide important information and analyses of the Americanization of the Grimms' tales: “The Tales of the Brothers Grimm in the United States” (1963) by Wayland Hand; “The Americanization of the Brothers Grimm” (1998) by Simon Bronner; and Cinderella in America: A Book of Folk and Fairy Tales (2007), edited and compiled by William Bernard McCarthy. The chapter then analyzes the literary translations and the cinematic adaptations of the Grimms' tales.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josh Stenberg

The 1946 Broadway premiere of Lute Song represents a milestone in reception of the Chinese dramatic tradition in the United States. Despite its yellowface and ‘Oriental pageantry’, it must be situated at the beginnings of a more respectful relationship to China and Chinese people, as the American stage began to move beyond treatments of China dominated by racist vaudeville or fantastical fairy tales. Instead, Lute Song emerged from a classic text, the long drama Pipa ji ‐ even as its own casting and staging inherited some of the same problematic habits of representing Asia. Lute Song, one of several indirect adaptations of Chinese dramas in the American mid-century, represents a milestone as the first Broadway show inspired by American immigrant Chinatown theatre and the first Broadway musical to be based on Chinese classical drama, mediated through European Sinology.


CORAK ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deni Setiawan

Culture and the type of clothing cosplay, sustainably develop in some parts of theworld, such as in the United States, Japan, Australia, Paris, London, Italy, and not least inIndonesia. As well as the animation concept inherent in Japanese culture, cosplay clothingbervisual be, of course, has its advantages and disadvantages, as well as shifting ideas whendiadobsi by a particular country. It is inevitable, characteristics and character animation as areference cosplay clothing manufacture, changing its form, concept, and material when appliedin Indonesia. Cosplay Indonesia, for example, how this all adopt dialihmaterialkan business, aswell as experienced changes in search of ideas to show all the elements of Indonesia 's. Makingthe next cosplay outfit based on stories, fairy tales, novels, legends, and comics in Indonesia.This arrangement is not without reason and without creativity, but more depth can bediscussed as a form of acculturation between the ideas of Japanese and Indonesian culture,which is packed into a cosplay outfit. On the other arts areas, the concept of cosplay is oftenshown as a costume show. For example, in the theater, revue, or a play-play in an event thatfeatured performances on the stage space . The concept of clothing with a special place andtime, is a simple concept of cosplay. Visualize concepts ideas or writings on clothing image andmakeup, which is transformed into three- dimensional shapes. Cosplay should be viewed as adiscourse of culture and art, by adopting textual ideas, concepts imagination image, into formssuch a unique and beautiful. Key words : cosplay, cosplayer, aesthetic principles, various forms, and ideology. Budaya dan jenis pakaian cosplay, secara berkesinambungan berkembang di beberapabelahan dunia, seperti di Amerika Serikat, Jepang, Australia, Paris, London, Italia, dan tidakterkecuali di Indonesia. Seperti halnya dalam konsep animasi yang melekat pada budayaJepang, bervisual menjadi pakaian cosplay, tentunya memiliki kelebihan dan kekurangan, sertamengalami pergeseran ide-ide manakala diadobsi oleh negara tertentu. Tidak dapat dipungkiri,ciri khas dan karakter animasi sebagai rujukan pembuatan pakaian cosplay, mengalami perubahan bentuk, konsep, dan material ketika diaplikasikan di Indonesia. Cosplay Indonesiamisalnya, bagaimana usaha adobsi ini dialihmaterialkan, serta mengalami perubahanperubahandalam pencarian ide-ide dengan menampilkan unsur-unsur ke-Indonesia-an.Pembuatan pakaian cosplay pada selanjutnya berdasarkan pada cerita, dongeng, novel,legenda, dan komik-komik di Indonesia. Penggubahan ini bukan tanpa alasan dan tanpakreativitas, tetapi lebih mendalam dapat dibahas sebagai bentuk akulturasi antara ide-idekebudayaan Jepang dan Indonesia, yang dikemas menjadi pakaian cosplay. Pada wilayahkesenian lain, konsep cosplay juga sering ditampilkan sebagai sebuah kostum pertunjukan.Misalnya pada pertunjukan teater, pertunjukan tari-tarian, atau sebuah lakon-lakon yangditampilkan dalam sebuah acara pertunjukan diatas ruang pentas. Konsep pakaian dengantempat dan waktu khusus, adalah konsep sederhana dari cosplay. Konsep-konsep yangmemvisualkan ide-ide gambar ataupun tulisan tentang pakaian dan tata rias, yangditransformasikan menjadi bentuk tiga dimensi. Cosplay seharusnya dipandang sebagaiwacana kebudayaan dan kesenian, dengan mengadobsi ide-ide tekstual, konsep imajinasigambar, menjadi bentuk-bentuk rupa yang unik dan indah. Kata-kata kunci: cosplay, cosplayer, prinsip estetika, ragam bentuk, dan ideologi.


Author(s):  
Shelby K. Long ◽  
Nicole D. Karpinsky ◽  
James P. Bliss

Researchers have heavily debated the definition and role of trust in human behavior over the past few decades. As robots begin to be used more often, particularly in international military applications, understanding human-robot trust becomes increasingly important. The current study aims to investigate trust differences in robotic peacekeepers between Americans living in the United States, China, and Japan using a simulated environment. We predicted that trust in robots would differ as a function of culture. Results showed that Americans residing in Japan were significantly more trusting than Americans in the United States or China overall. Further, Americans living in America trusted robotic peacekeepers significantly more than Americans residing in China. This suggests that people who adopt a certain trust framework are those who have chosen to live abroad, but more research is needed to understand the differences between resident and expatriate Americans.


2021 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 356-360
Author(s):  
Andrew G. Atkeson ◽  
Karen Kopecky ◽  
Tao Zha

A simple model of COVID-19 that incorporates feedback from disease prevalence to disease transmission through an endogenous response of human behavior does a remarkable job fitting the main features of the data on the growth rates of daily deaths observed across a large number of countries and states in the United States in 2020. This finding, however, suggests a new empirical puzzle: very large wedges that shift disease transmission rates holding disease prevalence fixed are required both across regions and within a region over time for the model to match the data on deaths from COVID-19 as an equilibrium outcome exactly.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin van Rooij ◽  
Anne Leonore de Bruijn ◽  
Christopher Reinders Folmer ◽  
Emmeke Barbara Kooistra ◽  
Malouke Esra Kuiper ◽  
...  

The COVID-19 mitigation measures require a fundamental shift in human behavior. The present study assesses what factors influence Americans to comply with the stay at home and social distancing measures. It analyzes data from an online survey, conducted on April 3, 2020, of 570 participants from 35 states that have adopted such measures. The results show that while perceptual deterrence was not associated with compliance, people actually comply less when they fear the authorities. Further, two broad processes promote compliance. First, compliance depended on people’s capacity to obey the rules, opportunity to break the rules, and self-control. As such, compliance results from their own personal abilities and the context in which they live. Second, compliance depended on people’s intrinsic motivations, including substantive moral support and social norms. This paper discusses the implications of these findings for ensuring compliance to effectively mitigate the virus.


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