the structures of everyday narration 20(1,2) 7-37

8/12/2019 the Structures of Everyday Narration 20(1,2) 7-37

1/31

TRANSLATION

The Structures of Everyday NarrationTranslator's preface

On September 17, 1986, Hermann Bausingerturned sixty and his colleagues and studentsboth in Germany and abroad honored h m notwith one but with two Festschriften. Thepublication of two separate Festschriften isindicative of Bausinger's tremendous impactas a person and scholar on the internationalcommunity of folklorists, and this despitethe fact that only very little of his workhas been translated to date 1986 alsomarked the twenty-fifth year since Bausingerpublighed Volkskultur in der technischenWelt. This work illustrated that folkculture is not thing of the past, doomedto extinction with the onslaught oftechnology. "Structures of EverydayNarration" appeared three years prior to thepublication of Volkskultur in dertechnischen Welt and in many ways can beregarded as a precursor of that work. Thisessay highlights the continuity andevolution of narrative themes and structuresin a modern world no longer bounded bytraditional narrative genres and contexts.It took decades for this analytic insight tobe accepted by European folk narrativescholars--indeed here are many whocontinue to disregard contemporary modes ofnarration in favor of traditional genres.In the United States, however, where thesocio-cultural conditions conducive to someof the "classic" European genres, such asthe folktale, scarcely existed, there was agrowing interest in everyday, conversational

(c) Folklore Forum 20:1/2 (1987)


2/31

Steinnarration. This interest culminated in thecoining of a new genre the personalexperience narrative. ' ndeed, of allBausinger's work, Structures of EverydayNarration is probably most frequentlyquoted by American folklorists. Thetranslation of this seminal article,therefore, is long overdue. With thistranslation, we hope to provide Americanfolklorists with an English translation ofthis important essay and to extend a belatedbirthday wish to the author.1. Jeggle, Utz, Gottfried Korff, Martin Scharfe and Bernd JUrgenWarnecken, eds. Volkskultur in der Moderne (Hamburg: Rowohlt.1986); and Jeggle, Utz, Wolfgang Kaschuba, Gottfried Korff, MartinScharfe, and Bernd JUrgen Warnecken, eds. Tubinner Beitrlge zurVolkskultur vol. 29. (Tubingen: TUbinger Vereinigung furVolkskunde, 1986)

2 Hermann Bausinger, Volkskultur in der technischen Welt.(Stuttgart: Kohlhamner. 1961). A second, revised edition appearedin 1986.

3. Sandra K.D. Stahl, The Personal Narrative as Folklore, Journalof the Folklore Institute 14 (1977): 9-30, and idem, The OralPersonal Narrative in its Generic Context, Fabula 18 (1977): 18-39.


3/31

y Hermann BausingerTranslated y Mary Beth Steinwith Regina Bendix

Every narrative researcher knows the delight--surpassing he mere pleasure of discovery--which a true storyteller can evoke, a bubblingfountain in a sparse landscape whom one mayencounter to this day. Researchers from allcountries report unanimously how quickly contactis established and how warm the rapport is, forfrequently not only the researcher is happy tohave found a narrator, but the narrator ispleased to have found an attentive listener.Precisely this reciprocity contributes to thedelight. I don t know whether every researcherhas felt the uneasiness which is the necessarycomplement to this delight. The reason that thenarrator so willingly opens up to the researcheroften derives from the fact that the narrator saudience has declined over the years. Throughhis interest, the researcher reconstructs a pastsituation. There is certainly no wrong in this,and everyone knows the rich findings such inter-est has promoted to date. However, behind allthis the question about contemporary narration**and the narrative as an effective force in con-temporary folklife looms uneasily and urgently.One can answer this question by pointingto the fact that the fairy tale continues toplay a significant role at least in the nursery.One can also point to various accounts of modernlegend formation, which could certainlybe fur-ther ac umulated through comprehensive obser-vation. Developmental psychology maintains thata child, faced with difficult obstacles or afrightening situation, reverts to earlier stages

c ) Folklore Forum 20:1/2 (1987)


4/31

10 Baus ingerof development. Such regression occurs alsoin the thought and behavior of adults. It canbe repeatedly observed how the logical attitudeof individuals is broken in critical situations,and how that is articulated in his stories. Tolight come not merely harmless rudiments, ratherthe often very strong magical notions. Theextent to which the latest stages of developmentcan meet and correspond with the earliest canonly be ind'cated here: the fragmentary formof a legend can be very similar to its Urform;the anthropomorphic conceptions of demons andrevenants can signify the humanization of thelegend; they can, howeve5, also go back to theearliest stages of myth. The surrealist joke ishardly distinguish ble from the animal tale infits external form. Such examples illustrate theproblems and correlations that should perhaps beexamined under the topic of magic and technol-ogy, which however, lead to fundamental anthro-pological questions as articulated in the titleof Arnold Gehlen's most recent work, PrimitiveMan and Civilized Culture.

As powerful as such regressions may be, theyare nonetheless only understandable as anom-alies, albeit tradition-oriented, roup specificanomalies. The notion of anomaly is used herein its theoretical, rather than evaluativesense. The researcher, who records suchattitudes and expressions, understands them asdeviations from the norm, as exceptions in theeveryday. At this point one should ask whetherit would be worthwhile to examine this every-day. In costume research the inclusion ofeveryday dress has opened important avenues ofresearch. Even if we should not expect suchadvances in narrative research, it would appearto be advisable to also consider everydaynarrative. The important, festive emphaseswhich pervade fairy tale and legends are thesame as those marked by the Sunday costume;however, they determine very little of the


5/31

Folklore Forum 20:1/2 11continuous everyday of the folk.Brief references to narrative forms outsidethe traditional genres are occasionally found infolklore scholarship. Mathias Zender notes:"Today the travels which one has undertaken playan important role in conversation. Stories fromone's military period, however, were verypopular at all times." "Today [people] occasion-ally tell stories they have read--not onlyfairy tales and humorous tales, but alsonovels." "Many have traveled quite a bit ?roundthe world, this is told and politicized."Robert Petsch mentions everyday narratives,which he labels "con uctor stories" after anexpression by Unold. Andre Jolles combines allthese stories under the designation "memorabile"(not casus, as Petsch indicates ). Jollesattempts to give these narratives a commondesignation a d assigns them to G istes-beschlft igungga with the factual.Geistesbeschlftigung with the factual means theunderstanding of facts as facts, whereas theother forms which are products of the Geistes-beschlftigung with facts relate them more to themetaphysical. The concept of the factual iswell chosen, for it more or less includes thislack of connection, and it emer es at a time--regardless of the circumstances --in hich thedismantling of metaphysics began. Nonetheless,this designation is unsatisfactory; or it issatisfactory only where the researcher iscontent with the opinion of Valery on modernliteratu e: "Modernity contents itself withtialittle." Meanwhile the literary historian canmeasure the modern and classical periods,although he will not believe he has provided asufficient characterization if he labels themnon-classical. Thus here, too, we have tocontinue seeking the sense and variety of thatwhich Jolles terms memorabile and which heperceives as growing out of a Geistes-beschlftigung with the factual.


6/31

12 Baus ingerJolles sees only one single Geistes-

beschaftigung at work in the memorabile.However, he also makes the attempt to trace theGeistesbeschgftigung responsible for other formsinto the world of the factual. Thus he believesthat, "the simple form of the legend" is presentin that section of the newspaper which is exclu-sively dedicated to the reporting of sports; forif "sports records" are not a "wonder in thesense of the Middle Ages," then they are a"wonder in the sense of an accomplishment, whichhad previously not been achieved, which appearedto be unattainable and im ossible and whichconfirm an active power." The topic of recordand wonder requires some evaluative annotations;however, the basic idea is significant, whichallows Jolles to draw a correlation betweenlegends and sports reports. It follows thatGeistesbeschtlftigungen that led to othertraditional narrative forms also persist incontemporary, everyday narrative."Thef-6 s a Geistesbesch lftigung," ritesJolles, "in which the world is constructed asa family, in which the world in its entirety isconceptualized in terms of race, kinship, orblood relationship." This Geistesbeschtlftigungstill effsts, less so in the sparse "kinshiplegend" than in the frequent discussion offamily relationships. From the outsider's per-spective, a group of people can converse for anunbearably long time about who is whose nephew'schild, how this nephew's child is related to thebranches of other families--as is often the casein villages--and ow they converge withbranches of one's own family. The world isconstructed as an organic structure in suchdiscussions, although such conversations clearlydo not constitute actual narratives.

Even the Geistesbeschtlftigungen that lead toother narrative forms are still effective in thedomain of the factual. The living reference tothe factual, to the factual as factual, appears


7/31

Folklore Forum 20:1/2 13to be more thay2a mere Geistesbeschgftigung.Werner Spanner is correct in recognizing thatnovel and film have, to a great extent, replacedthe fairy tale. He concludes that, a psycho-logical impetus, which strives to conquer thereality of the world, no longer finds room in analready existing narrative form and creates, inthat it remains the same, new forms. If that ispossible, then yet another motive must be oper-ative at the birth of narrative forms: it is thecultural-historical general situation of thenarrating class. The cultural-historicalgeneral situation changes the 'reality' ofmankind and creates a new collective attitude.The turn toward the factual is one such perva-sive mental attitude. It modifies even theindividual Geistesbeschtlftigungen, the basicorientation and spiritual impulse of whichnonetheless remain the same. As C.G. Jung onceapproximately defined archetypes as dominantstructures of the psyche, so too is theGeistesbeschgftigung a type of spiritualdominant structure. Jung writes expressly thatthe manfgestations of the archetype canchange. n the same manner manifestations oSone and the same Geistesbeschgftigung areapparently capable of change due to a change inthe collective mental attitude. We shouldtherefore be able to approach everyday narrationof our own time period as well, if we take thetraditionally structured narrative forms andtheir underlying Geistesbeschtlftigungen as ourpoint of departure.Present day reality, that is the world of thefactual, offers no fairy tales. However, asparts of the fairy tale derive from reality, soare such parts still to be found in reality.Here one should think not so much of individualspecial motifs, such as trees blossoming inwinter or roasted ducks, supposed to haveplummeted in a storm when hit by lightning. 4This resembles indeed a fairy tale motif, but in


8/31

14 Baus ingerthis case is not a motif; it does not advancethe plot but is rather an absurd specialinstance. Rather one should think of shortsequences of motifs, events which take asurprisingly happy turn. An older boy tells thefollowing storyWhen y father was in the war, they all had horses at one time. Nowall the others had new horses, only y father had received an old one,and the others ridiculed him. But he said: "Just laugh " And thenduring an attack all at once the other horses started in fear andjumped into a waterhole, and many drowned. Only my father's horsecontinued to run as if nothing had happened.[l51

Perhaps this story is reminiscent of one'sown war experiences and their rendition innarrative; it is the happy ending after theimpending danger which often appears to makesuch an experience worth telling in the firstplace. It is the economy of wish fulfillment,which Paul Groth identified as an essentialfeature of the fairy tale, the thought thathappiness is only felt g proportion to itscontrast to misfortune. The same thoughtprevails in the story about a rich factoryowner, which one can often hear in SwabianZillertal: When he left home, he had only onesmall bundle. The father pressed a goldentwenty mark piece in his hand, but he was soexcited that he dropped it. It rolled into acrevice in the floor. Then carpenter had tocome and saw out a piece of the floor, becauseotherwise the father had nothing more to givehis son than a tarnished penny. Today thisstory often concludes with a jump across cen-turies; the factory owner has a (very success-ful) firm, employing over three thousandworkers. Precisely this type of short bio-graphy--if this designation is not too preten-tious--illustrates he structural relation ofsuch stories to the fairy tale. Their material-ist nature in no way stands in contrast to the


9/31

Folklore Forum 20:1/2 15fairy tale; for in the fairy tale, too, materia+gain is often the actual content of happiness.One may therefore also consider the many storiesof unforseeable material success in thiscategory.There was t h i s lab ore r-- I don ' t know where t h i s was, b ut t was a longtime ago--yeah, he had j u s t p ut up something, th en t h e window panef e l l in . Now na tu ra l l y he cursed and raved , b u t whi le he was s t i l lcu rs in g, h i s wif e came i n and s a i d , You won a thousand marks i n th el o t t e r y . Now o f cou rse he was plea sed .Even in this simple story the happiness iscontrasted to the previous misfortune which isnot further explained, and which is expressed ina blind motif, as it were.All of these stories may have actuallyoccurred. The Geistesbeschtiftigung, the innerperspective, which used to lead to the form ofthe fairy tale, would then be effective as aprinciple of selection: it can in fact beobserved that such happy events are preservedmore gladly and longer in a person's narrativerepertoire than others, which do not lend them-selves to this inner form. It is, however,entirely questionable whether the stories reallyhappened as they were told. Among the parabl-esque Stories About Mr. Keuner, Bertolt Brechthas one with the title, If Mr. K. loved apersonWhat do you do, Mr. K was aske d, when you love a pe rso n? I make

a d r a f t o f h im, s a id Mr. K and s e e t o i t t h a t he i s s im i la r t o i t .Who? The d r a f t ? No, s a i d Mr. K t he man . [ l b ]

One may take this story as evidence ofBrecht's desire for revolutionary change, whichpervaded even intimate human relationships.However, this story says much more: it points toan epistemological problem which touches alsoupon our question. In fact we do transformeverything that we love, or in other words


10/31

16 Baus ingereverything that we are thoroughly engaged in.We shape it according to a draft--which e havepreconceived--or ore frequently--according o adraft which is prescribed within us. TheGeistesbeschgftigungen are precisely suchdrafts. They provide the forms, in which wefashion and order the events and stories. Thusin reality only parts of the happy occurrencesactually occurred; in part we trans rm theminto the fabulous in the narration. This isperhaps most apparent if we think of a self-experienced story, which led through severaldangerous situations to a happy ending, such asa war experience with a good ending or even anarrowly averted car accident. In no way is itonly the boastful braggart who exaggerates theperils beyond the actual event. Even thelanguage itself provides an abundance of words:just then, almost, hardly as well asexaggerations within folk speech such as amillimeter wide. These words give the

narrative the abstract precision of the justbarely successfy~, s identified by Ltithi inthe fairy tale.

It has often been said that in many ways themovie has assumed the role of the fairy tale.Hans Arnold compares fairy tale and film ingreat (tftail in his work The Magical Element inFilm. He identifies a similar course ofevents, a similar character through the prim-itive wish for a world as it should be, asimilar type of person, and--without sing theterm--the one-dimensionality, hich prevails infilm as well as in fairy tales. Berendsohn'sbroad definition of the fairy tale as a lovestory with hindrance which ends with the finalunion of the couple includes many films aswell.We appear to stand at a point in which acontinuous psychological need that had previ-ously been articulated in storytelling is nowsatisfied by a representation coming from


11/31

Folklore Forum 20:1/2 17outside of narration. To speak of a Geistes-beschlftigung would make little sense as suchrepresentations require no formative inter-vention. At a closer glance, however, theevaluative distinction between passive attitudeand active creation proves to be premature andinadequate. Indeed in many cases young peoplelive through film and do not have the oppor-tunity to project beyond it. Karl Bednarik haspointed to this in his study of today's youngworkers and has entitled one of his chapt55sthe culture realm of the movie theater. Theidentification, however, in no way preventsarticulation through a particular Geistes-beschlftigung. On the contrary, even this caseappears to suggest that intensive interestchanges the object of that interest, as Brecht'sshort story illustrated. This becomes apparentwhen one analyzes narrative adaptations fromfilms. Such adaptations are by no means scarceand constitute a significant portion of everydaynarrative. They often depict the characters,who are often quite round and complex in thefilm, a?&simple, flat, and strictly opposi-tional. One speaks of a wicked woman or aman who helped everyonev--the ne-dimensionaldelineation of character is thoroughlyreminiscent of the fairy tale.The similarity between film and fairy tale isevident in the depiction of love relationshipsas well. Max LClthi wrote about the fairy talethat courting and marriage play a large role inthe fairy gale, but they have no real eroticelement. This is also the case in thenarratives of happy occurrences. The happywedding is frequently reported; the erotic,however, is too subtle and is essentially toldonly in those situations in which it is simul-taneously ridiculed, as in the schwank or joke.Love relationships constitute a large part offilms, but when retelling the story, the averagefilmgoer condenses it to the two were really in


12/31

18 Baus ingerlove with each other.In such retellings the Geistesbeschiftigung,which once gave rise to the fairy tale, is thuseffective in shaping a happy occurrence orhowever we want to name the stories with thattype of structure. Hence this Geistes-beschiftigung would not reflect simply aprinciple of selection, but an energy whichcontinues to exert a creative and shapinginfluence. It appears to be even more deeplyingrained as an actual category of perception.In other words, there appears to be a type offairy tale thought with which we approach

those facts of reality that we are unable toperceive in any way other than through thelenses of this Geistesbesch3ftigung. A perfectexample of this is the situation before an exam.Even though experience contradicts such expec-tations, the period after passing the exam isinstinctively expected to be non plus ultrhappiness and despite all earlier rationalconsiderat3gn is expected to become a permanentcondition.The euphoric thoughts of happiness wouldtherefore be a category of perception. Althoughthe concept of the factual would suggest thatthis factual element is something inalterableand objective, closer examination indicates thatit is subject to internal creative laws as towhere it is perceived, and in particular whereit is narrated. Even the theory of poeticnaturalism is forced to recognize an unavoidablesubjective factor. One thinks of Zola's obser-vation: A w o r k o f a r t i s a corner natureseen via a particular temperament. We attemptto understand this temperament as an orderingprinciple. Thus we move along the paths thatErnst Cassirer took in expanding Kant's categor-ical system or that Dilthey introduced intoliterary studies by characterizing literature asthe organ of world understanding. The conceptof inner form is useful, for the external


13/31

Folklore Forum 20:1/2 19distinction between form and content is sus-pended in favor of an integration, which doesnot allow lgr distinction without doing harm tothe whole. This involves an elementary themeof narration, of speaking, of comprehension--soelementary that it may appear banal. However,it is by no means superfluous. The manyattempts to analyze the fairy tale, whichneglect the grounding of the fairy tale in afundamental eistesbeschilftigung and thereforeoften ar ve at absurd conclusions, are evidenceof this.In his study of folktales and folktalenarrators, Franz Heyden identifies the narrowhorizon of the narrator as conditional for theviability of the tale.For as soon as the horizon of the people surpasses the narrowboundaries of a limited possibility the wide world of reality stepsin place of the previous fantasy world that began already at the edgeof the next forest. And as the belief in the fairy tale worlddisappears the need to narrate from it dies and the traditionalfanciful images are repressed by colorful pictures of reality.[301

What we are attempting to illustrate is acertain lawfulness in this process of repres-sion, which is indispensible to understandingHeyden's provocative, yet thoroughly correct,statement. The narrowness of horizon in no wayappears to determine and accompany the fairytale alone. The entire trinity of traditionalnarratives--fairy ale, legend, schwank--derivefrom a world which is marked by its comprehen-sibility, its closeness, its depth. The unknownand the feeling of being at the mercy of others--not nly strangers but above all supernaturalpowers as well--begin t the border of theclose, familiar sphere. The fairy tale mayadopt the foreign; it bears the colors, formsand customs of foreign countries, but is unableto order this foreignness. In the fairy talethere is the desire that yearns to leave this


14/31

2 Baus ingercloseness. However, the adventure of the fairytale does not lead into carefully registeredforeign areas as does a travel report. Insteadit leads plainly into the otherworldly, magicalworld that nonetheless stands on the same levelas the world of the everyday. The schwankseizes the most extreme possibilities of ahumorous nature, possibilities, too, of one'sown confined existence. The legend is situatedon the border of one's own close area, fromwhere it confronts the outside world. Thenarrowness in the narrative is overcome in thisway: through the confrontation with powers ofthe depths, through the escape in the other-worldly, and through the poetic extension ofhumorous possibilities. However, this narrow-ness is not eliminated. A great deal hasremained from the original bipartition of theworld that distinguishes everything else outsideof thegfamilial and familiar home as second-rate.The historical development, however, resultsin the outgrowing of this closeness and theretreat of traditional narrative forms. LotharBrixius surmises for the legendthat toward the end of the last century superstitious attitudes haveventured forth more openly. They even defined the image of communitybefore being contaminated by the suddenly expanded vision broughtabout by technology and transportation.[321

The knowledge of the real world and of realrelationships in this world has been expanded inconnection with technology and transportation.The way and manner in which even simple peopletoday experience events on the other side of theearth illustrates the universality, howevervague, of world consciousness. Korea, Algeria,Budapest--all re tremendously close. There isno longer a remote and distant Turkey.However, not only the experience of feelingthreatened has been shifted to the real world.


15/31

Folklore Forum 20:1/2 2general leveling has set in, which for thetime being need not mean a devaluation. If the

close, familiar world was previously integratedinto the metaphysical world, it now achieves itswholeness in breadth. This development cannotbypass narrative without a trace. It has longbeen acknowledged that folkloric narration inessence communicates to the folk communitythe experience of a supernatural world r53chinginto real, familiar life circumstances. Inaddition, another task is increasingly ascribedto the narrative: to tell of the laws and of thediversity of the phenomena of the natural,real world.The realistic development allows the reportto pass by the story. In earlier times thepoint at which the unknown began was not thatfar from one's familiar surroundings and couldonly be reached in narrative. In this way eachreport rapidly developed inty4a story. However,reality in the new worldview is much moreprecise, and there are many institutions whichhave the responsibility of reporting the eventsof this reality. Even oral exchanges occur muchmore frequently on the level of the report.This is due to the fact that showing interest--that is sympathy corresponding to one'sresponsible position--is o longer as narrowlybounded as in previous times.After a short while, however, each report isopen to narrative fashioning, namely as soon asan event has enough import of its own--whichmost often means that it is recent--and s notmerely interesting as an historical fact. Forthis reason there is still folk narrative. Eventhough one experience report today follows uponthe heels of another, there still exists folknarrative surpassing the merely descriptivereport. The descriptive report rarely belongsto the traditional narrative genres, although itis governed by a similar orientation.As we discovered the happy occurrence to be


16/31

Baus ingerthe successor of the fairy tale, it is now worthasking what has become of the legend or moreprecisely: Which form represents the Geistes-beschgftigung in the world of the factual thatamong other circumstances leads to the legend?We cannot turn to Jolles in identifying the formof this Geistesbeschxftigung, for his chapter onlegend is oriented toward the ancient saga andcan almogg only hold true for the clanlegend. Moreover, the harmless expression,legend, is in no way common where the legendthrives. Designations such as ghost storiesand the like or just plain stories step intoits place and often allow the dark powers ofthese stories to be forgotten. We could offerthe following characteristics: a Geistes-beschaftigung underlies the genre of the legendin which the world is divided according toinside and outside, familiar and foreign, inbeing safe and at the mercy of others, the hereand beyond. It is a Geistesbeschxftigung whichwatches the boundaries between these two spheresin order that the outside, the foreign, thehelplessness, the beyond, and the other arenot forgotten in one's own sphere, and that itcannot be harmed by these otherworldly powers.Even this definition does not limit thelegend to the discussion of supernatural powers.The other, the foreign, the threatening, thatwhich one feels powerless in the face of, neednot be demons. For example, stories about arunner amuck were told for a week long. Theexperiences underlying the stories were similarto old werewolf legends; feelings of helpless-ness prevail in a similar manner. The differenceis that only the werewolf is associated withsupernatural powers. The runner amuck is sick,crazed, and mad, but there is no attempt to finda supernatural reason for this. The followingstory with the title Gruesome Rumor appearedin the Schwgbische Zeitung from January 27,1956


17/31

Folklore Forum 20:1/2 2

The rumor of a te r r i b l e murder i n Ravensburg ci rc ul at ed and con tinu est o spre ad no t only i n th e comnunities of Ravensburg, Tetnang, andSaulgau, bu t al so i n Wangen. t i s s a i d t h a t t h e c h i l d of a f am i l yto re a f i f t y mark b i l l . In a f i t o f r age the fa th e r s udde nly choppedoff th e ch il d s hands . The mother i n her de spa ir d id not know what t odo and f l e d i n shock. s a re su l t t he second ch il d , which th e motherwas bathing a t the t ime of th e inci den t , drowned i n th e bathtub. Evenwit h two corps es, t h e rumor-mongers f e l t th a t th er e was no t enoughbloo d. They knew y e t t h a t t h e mother hanged he r se l f a s she came homeand saw t h e consequences of her d es pa ir . The old ex perie nce wasconfirmed: Nothing can be so unb elie vabl e t h a t t i s n o t b el ie v ed .

This story corresponds quite closely to anewspaper legend reported by Hermann Krfigler,with the difference that the latter reports itas an actual occurrence, while the former warnsof a rumor. In this case as well, it is thefantastic, the unbelievable which apparentlymakes the story worth telling. For example, thestory that frequently emerges about the smallchild ocked in a pig sty and dismembered by the3pigs, which is only slightly modified in JohnSteinbeck's St. Katy belongs to this category.We can collect these stories, which are thesuccessors of the legend, under the categoryterrible occurrences. In the word 'terrible'what is 'not right' is unified in its doublemeaning (as the wrong and as that which suggeststhe supernatural--just s one says of a hauntedplace that it is not right there). It is theunlimited--the dmirable and damnable thatsurpasses the norm. In speaking of the occur-rence, rather than the narrative, we indicatethe proximity of such narratives to the actualreality from which they derive and are fostered.Clearly, these stories are not new. Even inthe Grimrn legend collection, Hermann Schneiderhas found some stories, ybich have no super-natural characteristics. And even among allkinds of humorous anecdotes ( ) in Montanus'WegkUrtzer there is the story Adam Stegmann


18/31

2 Baus ingerstrangles his two children, dating back to atrue occurrence on April 10, 1556. Such storieswere also common in broadsides and ballads. Inhis novella Goethe summarized their meaning withthe following observation: The good people wantto be intimidated so that they can later feelhow wonderful and laudable it is to breathefreely. However, such gruesome stories not onlyfrighten and evoke pleasure merely in reaction,but maintain in themselves a peculiar pleasure,due to their excess, outrageousness, andmadness. Willy Hellpach has examined thequestion of why evil is such an ineradicableobject of human interest from a sociopsychol-ogical perspective. He noted that above all itis the fact of evil for which desire craves, andthat means for proof of 5Qe grim realization ofunlimited imaginations. It is the unconsciousexperience of one's own possibilities whichmakes the terrible occurrence so popular. Thiscan also be seen in a harmless way in the manystories about various kinds of betting. Bettingchallenges the limits of human potential. Theexperience is essentially the same for thehighest or lowest bet; even when it onlyrevolves around whether it is possible toconsume fifty cents of yeast followed by threeglasses of beer, or drink an enti~g ottle ofwine and in addition eat a mouse.In both cases, the person who wagered the betdies, and that, too, is an important ingredientof such stories. The limits of one's potentialthereby only appear to be extended. In realitythey remain stationary, and the experience ofsafety within one's limited potential joins theexperience of the grim realization of unlimitedimaginations. Montanus supplements his accountof Stegmann's crime with a moralistic judgmentas was the style of the time. Today it is cus-tomary for the bipartition of the gruesome andmoral to be less abrupt. Instead the moralisticcommentary pervades the entire narrative. Riehl


19/31

Folklore Forum 20:1/2 2points to the frequengy of the "Story of theUngrateful Children." Stories about thetorture of animals are also frequent in whichthe animal torturer finally receives his punish-ment. Though precisely here it is sometimesapparent that the torture is described with apeculiar type of pleasure.An obvious moralistic judgement and warningis embedded in the following story:There was also a man who played the lottery and he apparently gave thewrong house number. Now the notice was sent to a butcher that he hadwon I don't know how many thousands of marks. The man grabbed hiscleaver and destroyed the entire butcher shop, all the while shouting"I don't have to work anymore " Only later did he find out that hisneighbor, not he, had won.

This story constitutes the counterpart to thepreviously cited happy occurrence. As theformer expressed the "economy of wish fulfill-ment," this latter occurrence obtains itspeculiar character through an economy ofmisfortune. Stories about lottery winners whomeet with misfortune shortly after their fortuneare abundant: the happy winner gets drunk anddoesn't notice that his three-year-old hildruns away and drowns in a pond, whereupon hecommits suicide. The winner buys a motorcycleand has an accident shortly thereafter. Orfortune and misfortune are condensed in a singlemoment: a woman is told that she has won firstprize and the sudden announcement causes her todie of a heart attack. The following announce-ment ran in the newspapers as well:A poverty stricken Algerian named Mustafa bought a lottery ticket inParis, in final desperation. He had a learned man read him the listof drawings as he could neither read nor write. He was half crazywith delight when he found out that he had won half a million francs.A businessman lent him money so that he could buy a decent suit. Inorder to prove that his impoverished days were now over, he set hisold rags on fire and danced joyfully around the fire. Only when the


20/31

6 Baus ingerrags were en ti re ly burned did t occur t o him tha t he had l e f t thelo tt er y t ic k et i n the pocket of h i s old pants. Now he does not knowhow to pay f or t he new su i t .

It has been proven that this occurrence, whichfollows the same pattern, also entered into oraltradition.

As with all realistic narratives, the under-lying eistesbeschgftigung of the terribleoccurrence expresses itself more in the selec-tion, embellishment, and formulation of actualoccurrences than in the free invention of suchevents. For the most part, the stories are readin and developed from the large number ofreports, which are offered new daily. Inspecific instances, however, one can assume afree formulation, as in the example of gruesomewar stories that are in circulation in multipleform. Typically it is rare that the situationon the front serves as the basis for suchstories, for the gruesome is practically amatter of course on the front. There are noterrible occurrences there because the entirelife and events exceed the usual. Therefore,conditions which could be found in one s ownvillage are frequently depicted: an old womanwith whom one is quartered; a hairdresser whohas cut one s hair. The outrageous, however, isconcealed in the everyday. The old woman hashidden a long knife under her apron and can onlybe overpowered with effort. The hairdresserslits the soldier s throat with his razor andthrows the body into his cellar.

Demons become less frequent, but the out-rageous and dangerous are still concealed in theeveryday. This is expressed almost symbolicallyin the following narrative, which is exception-ally widespread and continues t be localized:There was a man who was driv in g through a f o r e s t wit h an ambulance.nun who had a ver y sweet fa c e was standing t he re and wavedind ica tin g that she wanted a ri d e. He picked her up and then noticed


21/31

Folklore Forum 20:1/2 2as he drove on that she had thick and hairy hands. He stopped and toldher to get out and push because something was broken. And as she wasoutside, he laid on the gas and drove directly to the police. Therethe nun s two suitcases were opened; there were a pair of very longknives still covered with fresh blood.

The lovely face and the nun's habit are noguarantee for security either: danger, a bigand hairy hand, reaches everywhere out of theeveryday and seemingly harmless. The terribleoccurrence conjures up danger. At the same timedanger is exorcised and averted.In contrast to the fairy tale and legend, theschwank has always stood closer to the factualworld. It draws, of course, upon the super-natural, but usually only when measuring itagainst the factual n order to reveal itsdisproportionality. Thus, the humorousoccurrences--as e must label them in order tobe consistent--are ot a late development, butrather a continuous characteristic of theschwank. The ransition from schwank legend toschwank story was and is fluid. The schwankstories compiled by Aarne-Thompson in the TaleType Index are also continually revitalized, notas signs of an old tradition, but on the basisof their occurrence in reality. An example isAT 1361, The flood. New humorous occurrencesreplace the old schwank about the expectedflood, as happens and will always happen whenthe end of the world is expected. In the lastcentury, the south Swabian doctor, poet, andfolklorist, Michael Richard Buck, recorded suchevents i-p4a dramatic schwank, The Brbller isComing. When prophecies about the near end ofthe world circulated in Germany a few years ago,one could note similar reactions everywhere,which quickly became the subject of narrativesand have remained part of the narrativetreasures of many communities to date.A certain development has certainly occurredin the realm of the Geistesbeschaftigung


22/31

8 Baus ingercreating the schwank as well. However, beforewe address this we should characterize once morefrom this perspective the development of thelegend to terrible occurrence and the closecorrelation between the two. There are Schwhkewhich at first lead straight into the realm ofthe legend and then suddenly take a turn andyield to the realm of the ludicrous. To thiscategory belongs the complicated and colorfulstory, which tells of a girl crossing a bridgewhen suddenly a black hand reaches out of thewaters and the cry "Who will make my handclean?" is heard three times. Final&xatheanswer is also called out. "Persil " To thiscategory also belongs the story, which is wide-spread among soldiers, of a soldier who isquartered in an old castle. In the night hesees a ghostly white hand emerge from under hiscovers repeatedly. Finally he grabs for hisrevolver, shoots, hits, and screams. He hadshot his own foot. As in this case with alegend, so the terrible occurrence can concludehumorously in other cases, whereby the borderbetween legend and terrible occurrence is notalways easy to determine. Popular and well-known are the types of jokes which, withoutspecific details, nonetheless tell with gruesomeclarity, for instance, of someone found under abridge with his tongue cut out. Only once thelistener has shown signs of believing the horrorand frightfulness of this occurrence does theexplanation follow that it was about an oldshoe.

The schwank has always la~ghingly~yegatedhebelieving imagination of the legend. Peuckertcorrectly maintains that the schwank iyounger than the legend or fairy tale. gnatThisappears to challenge our distinction betweenmere Geistesbeschlftigung and the overlappingmental attitudes. It seems to indicate that theworld of the factual is not new, but rather onepossible perspective which has always existed.


23/31

Folklore Forum 20:1/2 2Although this is correct, the emphases haveshifted to such an extent that one may speak ofa different mental attitude. Many true legends,which originate today next to the terribleoccurrence, reveal that the surreal can invadethe world of the factual. That is the counter-part to the invasion of rational thinking inthe earlier attitude, as is manifest in theschwankThe humorous narrative has also undergone acertain development, which one can best charac-terize as the path from the schwank to joke. Anexhaustive delineation of the differences is notpossible here. Only the most prominent shall bepointed out, namely that the joke is shorterthan the schwank. Whereas the schwank indulgesin colorful description and history, the joke isgenerally short and told in the present tense.This development points to the social conditionsoutlining and shaping the world of the factual.The comprehensible world of the past offerspeople a specific place and a uniform history inwhich they can become integrated. The world ofthe factual is no longer comprehensible and, toa certain extent, puts the encounter in theplace of the community, a contemporary andsingular phenomenon in place of the historical,traditional, spatial, and spiritual community.Urban sociology has clarified these circum-stances most lucidly, illustrating how thesocial life of urban people is disintegratinginto many partial encounters, to which theindividual tyither can nor may give himselfcompletely. However, today's everydaynarratives are told in the context of suchrelatively brief encounters.Social psychology is in the process ofdissolving the myth of the shapeless mass andillustrating that organized groups are formedeven in a rapidly changing society theb is nolonger so closely bound to tradition. Folklorealso has a similar task. It must attempt to


24/31

3 Baus ingertrace instances of order in the seeminglychaotic confusion of today's everyday life, andfind traditional bonds in the seemingly disinte-grated folk culture that is accessible onlythrough fashion. This is also the purpose ofthis study. The responsibility which folklorebears in this regard is evident in the fact thatits findings are not only accepted in general byculture critics, but also adopted by scholars ofneighboring disciplines in their works. PaulBOckmann writes:The living narration of stories and one's own experiences disappearsfrom public view, as does social singing and dramatic play. One turnson the radio and is then sentenced to passivity when earlier one hadto develop one's own initiative and thereby transmit living narrativefurther. It is this one phenomenon which concerns not only thefolklorist but must also alter the relationship of man to language andfiction, and threaten his ability to find himself in representationalimagery. 4 9

Just as the widespread and exclusively negativeimage of the decay of storytelling was capableof influencing the attitudes of this Germanscholar, the opposite in thought and observationis perhaps also possible, namely that in all theconfusing haste of motion and change, patternsthat stand in a long and great tradition appearto have survived. That these patterns aresubject to the law of diminishing returns,however, does not istinguish them from the moresignificant literary forms.

Many observations and efforts are stillneeded in order to clarify the picture. Ahigher mathematic of form should also be

developed, corresponding to that of Walzel. 0aAbove all, it would be important to conductcorresponding studies in other language areas.In light of the German narratives, it would belogical to begin with the trinity of fairy tale,legend, and schwank, which other narrative formseither closely resemble or from which they


25/31

Folklore Forum 20:1/2 3recede as insignificant 51 As far as thetransmission of narrative motifs is concerned,one knows today that one should generally figureon a world-wide dimension. The overall style ofnarration, too, appears to exhibit strong simi-larities, regard$&ss of regional or nationalcharacte stics. Despite many preliminary5studies, the extent to which uniform genericterms can be developed, however, has not yetbeen adequately clarified.

Nonetheless, the structures, models, andpatterns which have been touched upon hereappear to be so deeply rooted that they may beactive everywhere, perhaps resulting indifferent genres. Perhaps further insightscould be reached if a psychiatrist were toreport about the pathological borderline casesof narration and the related worldview. Thenormal is often better understood from theperspective of the abnormal, and precisely astudy which examines the everyday should begrateful for such help. Above all, it appearsto be imperative that the narrative scholar notunderestimate the everyday, but rather attemptto collect, classify, and understand everydaynarrative in the same way as traditionalnarrative.

Notes* Strukturen des allttlglichen ErzBhlens originally appeared inFabula 1 (1958): 234-254. We wish to thank both Hermann Bausingerand the editors of Fabula for granting permission to translate thisessay.

**Translator's note: The German word ErzBhlen is a substantivenoun of the verb erzBhlen (to tell or narrate). Whereas ErzBhlungtranslates s narrative (the thing), Bausinger's use of ErzBhlen(the act of the thing) stresses the active element of everydaystorytelling, i.e. the act rather than the thing.

1. See, for example, Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann. Berliner


26/31

ausingerSagenbildung 1952, Zeitschrift fur Volkskunde 52 (1955): 162-170.

2 Regarding this concept, see Lothar Brixius, Erscheinunnsformendes Volksnlaubens. (Halle: Niemeyer, 19391, p. 16.

3. See Lutz Rehrich, Die dbonischen Gestalten der schwlbischenVolksUberlieferun&. Typed Diss. TUbingen 1949, p. 176; andBausinger, Lebendines Erzlhlen. Typed Diss. TClbingen, 1952, p.120.

4. Recent historical-philosophical writings, e.g. those ofTroeltsch and Toynbee mark an obvious meeting of the beginning andlate period. To a certain extent they recommend the return to mythonce the boundaries of historical understanding have been reached,so that history as past would again pass over to history as story,to the invention of 'fiction.' See in this regard Ernst RobertCurtius, Europlische Literatur und Lateinisches Mittelalter. SecondEdition. (Bern: Francke, 1954), p. 17.

5. Mathias Zender, VolksmBrchen und SchwBnke aus der Westeifel.(Bonn: Rehrscheid, 19351, p. xv-xxii.

6. Robert Petsch, Wesen und innere Form des Volksmlrchens,Niederdeutsche Zeitschrift far Volkskunde 15 (1937): 10.

6a. Translator's note: Geistesbeschlftinung. Jolles' termreferring to the mental or spiritual processes which underlie andshape narrative genres, is difficult to translate into English.William Templar and Eberhard Alsen have employed occupation of theintellect in their translation of this term in Kurt Ranke,Einfache Formen (Journal of the Folklore Institute vol. 4 no. 11.

Although correct in its literal sense, this phrase made for anundesirable clumsiness. We have therefore opted to keep Jolles'original term in this translation.

7. Andre Jolles, Einfache Formen. Second Edition. (Halle: Niemeyer,1956): 165-80; see particularly p. 175.

8 In 1756 the Berlin pastor Spalding translated Tatsache with theEnglish word 'fact' seventeen times in a theological treatise. SeeTrUbners Deutsches W6rterbuch vol. 7 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 19561,p. 23


27/31

olklore orum 20 :1 2

8a. Cited by E.R. Curtius (see ft. 4), p. 25.

9. Andre Jolles, Einfache Formen, p. 48.

10. Ibid., p. 60.

11. See Will-Erich Peuckert, Deutsches Volkstum in Mllrchen undSaxe. Schwank und Rtltsel. (Berlin: de Gruyter, 19381, pp. 130-135.

12. Werner Spanner, Das MBrchen als Gattung. (Giessen: Kindt,1939). p. 34.

13. C.G. Jung, Symbolik des Geistes. (Zurich: Rascher, 1948). p.374 (footnote 1).

14. Dunn, North Carolina. See Stuttnarter Zeitung of May 15,1954.

15. For dialect version and verification of the narrative seeBausinger, Lebendiues Erztlhlen.

16. Paul Groth, Die ethische Ha1tun.q des deutschen VolksmHrchens.(Leipzig: Eichblatt, 1930), p. 48. Also printed in Form und Geistvol. 16.

17. See Adolf Bach, Deutsche Volkskunde. (Leipzig: Hirzel, 19371,p. 380.

18. Bertolt Brecht, Versuche 27/32. (Berlin: Suhrkamp, 1953),p.152.

19. As the expression marchenhaft (like a fairy tale or fabulous)is only popular in German slang, it is used only sparingly here.Otherwise one could speak of a fairy tale like-occurrence or afairy tale-like story. The same is true for the expression

sa~enhaft legend-like or incredible), which is used in slang mostoften for adverbial emphasis. [Translator's note: Bausinger's pointin this passage is lost somewhat in the translation, for theEnglish translation of the German verbs does not adequatelyillustrate the relation of these colloquial expressions to theirgeneric origins.]


28/31

4 aus ng r

20. Max LUthi, Das europlische Volksmlrchen. (Bern: Francke,19471, p. 41 and 64.

21. Hans Arnold, Das Ma~ische es Films. Typed Diss. MUnchen, 1949.Its subtitle reads Ein Beitrag zum Problem der Wirksamkeitmagischer EinflUsse in der Gegenwart unter besondererBerUcksichtigung des Films. See in particular pp. 219-253.

22. Walter Berendsohn, Grundformen volkstllmlicher Erzlhlerkunst inden Kinder- und Hausmlrchen der BrUder Grim. (Hamburg: Gente,19211, p. 35.

23. Karl Bednarik, Der junge Arbeiter von heute ein neuer TYE.(Stuttgart: Kilpper, 1953), p. 37.

24. In Aspects of the Novel, E.M.Forster distinguishes betweenround characters and flat characters.

25. Max LUthi, Mlrchen und Sage, Deutsche Vierteljahresschriftfur Literaturwissenschaft und Geistes~eschichte 5 (1951): 168.

26. The wedding is a similar imaginary conclusion to the fairy talein our reality. The psychiatrist knows numerous cases ofdepression which arise imnediately after marriage and which havetheir psychological basis in this attitude. In terms of the past,one should point above all to the chiliastic movements, whose ideaswere to a great extent rooted in a type of fairy tale thought.27. Emile Zola, Die Gesellschaft: Realistische Wochenschrift furLiteratur. Kunst, und 8ffentliches Leben I1 (1889): 670.

28. For the crucial definition of inner form in recent literarycriticism see, for example, Paul Bbckmann, Formgeschichte derdeutschen Dichtung. (Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 1949), pp. 1- 69.

29. Compare the debate over such attempts at an interpretation inPaul Delarue, Le Conte de 1'Enfant a' la queue du loup, Arts etTraditions populaires (1953): 33-58; and Bausinger, Aschenputtel:Zum Problem der MBrchensymbolik, Zeitschrift fur Volkskunde 52(1955): 144-55.


29/31

o lk lo re orum 2 0 : 1 230. Franz Heyden, VolksmBrchen und Volksmlrchenerzlhler: Zurliterarischer Gestaltung des deutschen Volksmlrchens. (Hamburg:Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt, 1922). p. 81.

31. Leo Weisgerber, Die Entdeckunn der Muttersurache imeuro~lischen enken. (LUneburg: Heliand, 1948). p. 36. It shouldalso be noted parenthetically that that which is situated outsideis by no means always considered second-rate. The fairy tale andlegend are proof of this.

32. Lothar Brixius, Erscheinungsformen des Volksglaubens, p. 74.33. Gustav Hagemann, Zur Lebensform der deutschen VolkserzBhlung,Zeitschrift fur die deutsche Bildung 14 (1938): 160.

34. The expression new view of the world should be allowed here,although it should certainly be examined, along with Heidegger,whether the time of the view of the world did not actually beginonly with the changes to which this article refers. See the essayof the same title in the collection: Martin Heidegger, Holzwege.(Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 1950).

35. See footnotes 9 and 10.

36. Sudetendeutsche Zeitschrift far Volkskunde 6 (1933): 217. DrDieter Narr has informed me that it also appears in the secondedition of Barack's Zimnerischen Chronik vol. I (Tubingen: Mohr,1881). p. 174. As an additional reference see Alois Siegel,Lichter am Lebenswen: Aus unserer hernebrachten VolksfrUmnigkeit.(Karlsruhe: Badenia-Verlag, 1953), p. 98.

37. See Gerhard Gesemann, Soziologische und psychologischeZusamnenhlnge in der Sagenforschung, Zeitschrift fur VUlker-psychologie und Soziolonie 4 (1928): 33.

38. Hermann Schneider, Die deutschen Sagen der BrUder G rim.(Leipzig, Wien and Stuttgart: no year or publisher given), p. 4.

39. Willy Hellpach, Sozialpsycholonie. Ein Elementarlehrbuch furStudierende und Praktizierende. Third Edition (Stuttgart: Enke,1951). p. 201.


30/31

6 aus ing r40. Both according to stories from Schwabsberg, in county Aalen,West Germany.

41. Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl, Die burnerliche Gesellschaft, vol. 2 ofDie Naturneschichte des Volkes als Grundlage einer deutschenSozialpolitik. (Stuttgart and Tubingen: Ebda, 1854). p. 59.

42. Alone the schwank-fairy tale claims a special place. See hereand for the following Bausinger, Schwank und Witz in StudiumGenerale.

43. For a comparison see Hugo Moser, Schwkibischer Volkshumor.(Stuttgart: Kohlhamner, 1950), pp. 399-406.

44. Heinz-Eugen Schramn, Michael Buck als Mundartdichter.(Stuttgart: Verlag des Schwlbischen Albvereins, 1956), pp. 150-62.[Translator's note: BrOller is dialect for 'flood.' The referenceis drawn from a local dialect drama in which an underground springthat erupts every few years is considered by local residents to bea bad omen. Personal comnunication with author.]

44a. [Translator's note: Persil is a German brand of cleansersimilar to Ajax.]

45. See Kurt Ranke, Schwank und Witz als Schwundstufe,Festschrift fur W.E. Peuckert. (Munchen: 1955), pp. 41-59.

46. Will-Erich Peuckert, Deutsches Volkstum in Mlrchen und Sane,Schwank und Rltsel. (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1938), p. 168.

47. See Elisabeth Pfeil, Fremdheit und Nachbarschaft in derGrossstadt, Studiwn Generale 8 (1955): 121-126, in particular thereference to Georg Simnel on p. 122. In addition, see WillyHellpach, Mensch und Volk der Grossstadt. First Edition.(Stuttgart: Enke, 1939). p. 74.

48. See Peter HofstBtter, Gruppendynamik: Kritik derMassenpsychologie, Rowohlts Deutsche Enzyklopkidie Nr. 38.(Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1957).

49. Paul BOckmann, Der Beitrag der Literaturwissenschaft zuunserer Zeit, Die Samnlung (1952), p.190.


31/31

Folklore Forum 20 :1 2

50. See Ernst Robert Curtius, p. 395.

50a. [Translator's note: Oskar Walzel was a Germanist whose workGehalt und Gestalt im Kunstwerk des Dichters, Handbuch der

Literaturwissenschaft (Wildpark-Potsdam, Athenaion, 1924) greatlyinfluenced post-war literary studies in Germany. In this work headdresses the interdependence of form and content in verbal art.Personal comnunication with author.]

51. Aside from the fairy tale, legend and schwank, Peuckert'sfundamental work names only the riddle in its title. See alsoBausinger, Sage, Mtlrchen, Schwank, Der Deutschunterricht(1956): 37-43.

52. The filler words such as of course which are repeatedextensively in Richard Dorson's account of stories of a Greek-American family are one such example, for they also shape thestories in this country. See Dorson, Tales of a Greek-AmericanFamily on Tape, Fabula 1 (1957): 114-43, esp. 124.

53. C.W. von Sydow's fundamental treatise, Kategorien der Prosa-Volksdichtung, should be mentioned here. See VolkskundlicheGaben: John Meier zum 70. Geburtstan darnebracht. Harry Schwebe,ed. (Berlin and Leipzig: de Gruyter: 1934). pp. 253-268.

the structures of everyday narration 20(1,2) 7-37

Documents