UNCG - MLS610C Global Arts Unit 6 - Texts
Comments to this blog entry are my discussion about Unit 6 texts.
(Note: Chicago citation format for bibliographies)
Listed in the order texts were read.
[[under revision until 11-30-06]]
“Quevedo and the King.” In Favorite Folktales From Around the World, edited by Jane Yolen, 131-32. New York: Pantheon, 1986.
“The Drovers Who Lost Their Feet.” In Favorite Folktales From Around the World, edited by Jane Yolen, 177-78. New York: Pantheon, 1986.
“The Hungry Peasant, God, and Death.” In Favorite Folktales From Around the World, edited by Jane Yolen, 469-71. New York: Pantheon, 1986.
Carmichael, Elizabeth and Chloe Sayer. The Skeleton at the Feast: The Dead of the Dead in Mexico: Interviews pp. 75-96. British Museum Press/U.T.Austin.
Frida and Diego on their wedding day. http://www.mexonline.com/culture/images/frida-kahlo-wedding-day-1929.jpg
posted by Y @ 12:43 PM
3 Comments:
“Quevedo and the King.” In Favorite Folktales From Around the World, edited by Jane Yolen, 131-32. New York: Pantheon, 1986.
This folktale is actually a joke answering every part of what comedy writers call the joke machine meaning that there’s a premise, set-up, and punchline (sometimes called the turn).
Because the characters are the King and Queen of France, and the jokester’s name, Quevedo, suggests that he’s representative of visiting courtiers from Mexico to France, I guess this joke originated way before the time of Napoleon, and in the early colonial period of Mexico. With apologies to the copyright holders of the following translation, here is a funny joke:
"Quevedo and the King"
While Quevedo was in France, the king received notice of the complaints against him, that he was very obscene in his ways. So he called him and said, "Either you leave my country or I'll have you hanged, because the things you have been doing here are not polite."
"No, Majesty, I will try to behave. Please give me another chance."
He says, "Very well, look. I will give you another chance just to show you I am a conscientious king. I give you license to play a trick on me, any trick that you wish, as long as your apology is grosser than the trick. I give you a period fo three days. If within those three days you do not play a trick on me and excuse it with an apology grosser than the trick itself, you must leave the country or hang."
"Very well, Majesty. Give me those three days, and I will be there."
The first day passed, the second, and the third. And he couldn't find a solution for the fix he was in. Finally he has to come to the king's reception hall, and he still hasn't thought of a trick to play on the kind and what apology to give, so he could stay longer in France, because he liked it there very much.
He hid behind some curtains. The moment arrived when the king gave audience, to receive all the notables of the town, listen to complaints or give advice or so many things of those times. When the king was passing by the curtains, Quevedo sticks out his hand and grabs him by the private parts.
The king says, astonished, "Quevedo! What are you doing?"
Quevedo says, "Pardon, Majesty. I thought it was the queen!"
“The Drovers Who Lost Their Feet.” In Favorite Folktales From Around the World, edited by Jane Yolen, 177-78. New York: Pantheon, 1986.
This is a short-short tale about “how the people from Lagos are.” Evidently, they have little common sense and will use any excuse to give up and do nothing. The tale is reminiscent of Polack jokes from the 1950s.
“The Hungry Peasant, God, and Death.” In Favorite Folktales From Around the World, edited by Jane Yolen, 469-71. New York: Pantheon, 1986.
Zacatecas is the setting for this tale. It’s about a farmer who can never grow enough to keep his family fed and has never in his life had a full stomach. He steals a chicken, takes to the hills, where he cooks the chicken, and is just about to eat the chicken alone, when who decides to walk up and ask for food? First God and then the Devil.
There’s two ways of interpreting the meanings of this tale:
1) People from Zacatecas are thankless heathens, or
2) People from Zacatecas are realists! Notably, the tale is somewhat humorous!
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