nannah
Written on Jul 25, 2019
Book content warnings:
- MISOGYNY and sexism (sometimes very violent)
- racism; there's one folktale where, though it's unclear, I'm pretty sure the main character is black. And it's a pretty ugly stereotype of a black person being violent.
- antisemitism. There's only 1 Jewish character in the whole collection, and she's treated horribly by her Christian lover; so much so that she wishes she would die and of course ... she does, but before the last moment, she appeals to the Holy Mother and "is saved" ... nice.
So this collection of Góral folktales was published in 1943, and while I know there are some great Highlanders making strides to end the kind of conservative attitudes the "old folk" have, I know these attitudes are still around. I just didn't know how strong they actually were.
But anyway, on to the stories themselves. They're told in a very beautiful style -- thank you Mr. Kennedy and Ms. Uminsksa for the translations! -- and are each accompanied by a really unique and wonderful black and white illustration. I'm a little upset the spelling of places are translated and that names are "Americanized", but I guess back then no one wanted to read those "difficult Polish words" (I was just having a talk about that with my Polish-American friends about this yesterday coincidentally).
The first couple stories were really lovely - and tragic! The middle ones were all right, mostly misogynistic, and that last third came into the intolerant, ugly ones. Most of the stories were told from a male protag's perspective (and they all really thought they were the victims, too! A woman didn't like him back, she chose someone else over him, etc., and so suddenly the guy needed to SMASH).
My favorite was HE, told from the perspective of a great black bear, watching the Highlanders clear and set up some mountain pastures (in HIS territory!) to let their sheep graze in, make huts for themselves to make cheese in, etc., before he decided enough was enough.
This was a hard book to find, but since it's rather difficult to find Actual Góral folktales - even on the internet! - it's a good read if someone really wants to find details on how these people live(d) day-to-day. (I'm writing a book, so I'm gathering as many sources as I can find. Otherwise I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone.)