Essay topics on folklore

Let's see if the following information can help you, I hope it will be useful to you

Folk Literature The language art of the working people at large - the oral creations of the people. It includes folk literature in such genres as myths, folk legends (see Chinese folklore), folk tales (see Chinese folk stories), ballads, folk narrative poems, rap literature (e.g., plain speech), proverbs, and riddles.

Features of Folk Literature

①Oral. Creation and dissemination in oral language is one of the main features of folk literature. In the long historical period in the past, the majority of the working people could not use words, they could only use oral language to conceive, express and disseminate. Nowadays, most of the people have already recognized the written word, but on many occasions, they still have to sing or tell in the oral language the forms of literature familiar to the people at large and handed down by the folk over the centuries, such as stories, ballads, and so on.

②Collectivity. Folk literature, is the collective creation of the masses. The so-called collective creation, including the content of the work of thought, feelings and imagination, form and artistic expression and ownership of the work, including the entire process of creation and circulation. Some works are processed and refined by countless singers in the process of continuous singing or telling. Therefore, folklore works generally cannot be signed. Some folklore works, processed by singers and storytellers with excellent talent and rich experience among the masses, have a certain individuality, but their individuality can be integrated with the collective nature of the oral creation of the masses.

3 mutability. Due to the instability of the oral language, folk literature in the process of circulation and singing, often due to time, geographical, ethnic differences, as well as the spread of the subjective thoughts and feelings of the listener's emotional changes and other factors, and some variation. This characteristic is the fruit of and natural to the oral and collective nature described above.

4) Inheritance. Folklore, like customs, is generally transmitted and inherited by action and language. This kind of mass collective inheritance of culture has an inestimable vitality. The 16th-century German folk tale "The Life of Dr. Johann Faust" was not only popular at that time, but also has been passed down in the folklore, which became a source of material for later writers (such as Goethe).

⑤ Direct popularity. In measuring the value of literature, the concept of "popularity" is often put forward. In this sense, the oral creation of the people has its great superiority. The authors of folk literature are the creators of history and its witnesses. Folklore, with its superiority of the people, is quite broad in content, and it contains and radiates the noble thoughts and virtues of the people, such as heroism, patriotism, optimism, humanism and dedication. Folklore not only expresses the sufferings and hopes of the people, but also their exemplary personalities and noble qualities.

6 superior artistry. Folk literature is a special kind of literature, a kind of art that uses language as well as performance. It is bound to be characterized by art in some ways. Prose stories, narrative poems, etc. Most of them have characters and plots, long poems, short ballads, and some proverbs and riddles, most of them have a certain syntax and rhyme, and the small opera has a storyline and a form of duet, etc. But these alone do not fully prove that it is an art form. But these alone cannot fully prove its artistry. Many folklore works also have their own and superior artistic characteristics. The epic poems of the brotherly peoples discovered one after another in China in recent years have astonished the world with their artistic achievements. As for the countless love songs and lyrical ballads, they often surpass the similar works of writers in the expression of joyful and painful feelings. And those short stories, proverbs, and epigrams really make thoughts, experiences, and wisdom condense like a five-fingered clenched fist. Stylistically speaking, simplicity and conciseness are the characteristics of folk literature in general. In short, the artistic characteristics and merits of folk literature are manifold, and some of them are still unattainable.

The Close Relationship between Folk Literature and Social Life

Folk literature is the product of the long-term social life of the people. It arises and circulates according to the needs of their social life, it reflects all aspects of their lives and related thoughts and feelings, and it serves their lives directly or indirectly - giving knowledge, teaching, inspiration and hope, some of which are themselves constituent parts of life. In this respect folk literature is unique in comparison with the literature of professional writers in general. Because of the large number of its authors and the fact that they live at the grassroots level, they are able to reflect social life more widely, y and accurately. Its social function is also quite different from that of written literature. Many folk proverbs are textbooks of the life and labor of the working people. Many labor songs are indispensable for adjusting their breathing, movements and inspiring their emotions during various kinds of labor. Many ancient myths and legends passed down from generation to generation not only convey certain historical knowledge, but also cultivate feelings of national and ethnic unity. Many heroes and legends of defending the countryside and the motherland will always give the majority of people the power to inspire.

Folk Literature and Written Literature of Writers

Folk literature and written literature of professional writers are very different in content and form. But the two literatures are both independent and mutually influential. In terms of origin, they share the same *** roots in primitive literature. In classless societies, some kinds of literature - myths, ballads, legends - have largely been produced, and this is the literature of clans and tribal masses***. After the formation of class societies, literary specialists in the service of the upper classes, as well as historians, poets, and religious executors, arose, and literature became increasingly written. Distance from the traditions of primitive literature . However, the masses of the lower classes, deprived of the use of the written word, basically followed the traditions of primitive literature and changed them with the progress of social life. The nature and appearance of these two kinds of literature, which were originally of the same origin, became very different in the long period of class society, forming a state of confrontation or antagonism. On the other hand, these two literatures influenced each other. Not only were many works of folk literature recorded to become written literature; moreover, many of the genres of written literature, such as poetry, stories, legends, and novels, were often developed from folk literature. As for the written literature from folklore or use it as "words", there are more. At the same time, the written literature of writers also had a certain influence on folk literature in terms of thought, imagination and language. In modern times, due to the drastic changes in society, politics, economy, culture and people's lives and thoughts, the two kinds of literature have influenced each other even more. Exchanges and Influences of Folk Literature of Various Ethnic Groups Folk literature is a multi-ethnic folk literature, and there are obvious phenomena of mutual exchanges and influences of folk literature of various ethnic groups. Different ethnic groups influence and promote each other culturally. In China, the folk literature of the Han nationality is intertwined and connected with the folk literature of various nationalities. In particular, the traces of influence produced or borne by those ethnic groups that had contact with each other earlier or lived in interlaced and neighboring areas are more significant. Most of the folklore influences received among the ethnic groups are based on the life and culture of their own ethnic groups, and they select, choose, transform and process it. They try their best to nationalize it. This is the natural law of cultural exchange and influence among peoples.

World Relationship of Folk Literature

Some genres of folk literature, such as folk tales, are not only similar in conception and expression, but also have the same or similar characters and plots in some cases, even in geographically distant areas. Like Cinderella-type stories, swan virgin stories and other "world expansion cloth" folk narrative works, belong to this category. In addition, the similarity of certain ideas or parts of the plot in stories or narrative poems may be the result of direct or indirect influence from other peoples. For example, China has a long history of cultural interaction with its neighbors, such as India, Korea, and Japan. Therefore, the relationship between Chinese folklore and the same kind of works of those countries is quite close. From the phenomenon of mutual exchanges and influence of folk literature, the exchange of literature and culture of various nationalities in the world has a long history. Study of Folk Literature Folk literature is the spiritual wealth created and owned by the vast number of producers of material wealth in the country and nation. It not only has its own ideological content and artistic form, but also has its unique process of performance and mode of dissemination. The discipline of studying folk literature is called folklore. Its main task is to explore and elucidate all kinds of folk literature or to clean up and discuss its history. In recent years, academics have taken folk literature as an important part of national literature to give scientific exploration and proper narrative, giving folk literature its due status. The collection and study of folk literature is also closely related to cultural history and cultural studies. The inquiry and narration of cultural history and cultural science should take the whole culture of the world or of the nation as its object. In order to describe the cultural history or culture of a country, folklore is an important spiritual and cultural product that must not be left out; otherwise, not only is the generalization incomplete, but it may also affect the accuracy of the evaluation and description of the whole cultural phenomenon.