Riddle Of The Riddle

Front Cover
Routledge, Apr 29, 2016 - Social Science - 150 pages
First Published in 2005. The true folk riddle of oral traditions that have been rapidly disappearing from the face of the earth in the last hundred years is one of the most ancient threads of culture. One of the smallest genres of verbal culture—usually under a dozen of words, it is an intensely articulated utterance. It is eccentric and as such breaks every logical mould. This volume presents results of a study driven by the sheer intellectual curiosity of the author.
 

Contents

Introduction
Methodological Reflections
What is the Folk Riddle from Oral Tradition?
Genus and Species
The True Riddle
The True Riddle and Its Environs
Classification and Taxonomy
The PostTaylorian Perspective 9 Classification According to Archer Taylor
The Nexus of Morphology and Function
Modes of Teasing and the Psychology of Riddling
In the Wings of Taylors Classification 16 The Eidetic Core of the Folk Riddle
The Genetic Code and the Mechanisms of Morphological Change
A Review of the Figurative Properties of the Folk Riddle
The Poetic Form of the Folk Riddle
Final Notes
Summary

The Folk Riddle as a Figure of Concealment
The Implicit Target of the Riddle

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2016)

Savely Senderovich, born in 1935 in Odessa, USSR (modern-day Ukraine); studied Russian philology at Odessa University, German philosophy at Leningrad University; in 1974 emigrated to the USA; in 1977 earned a Ph.D. in Russian literature at New York University; since 1977 Professor of Russian Literature & Medieval Studies at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; author of studies in German philosophy, Russian letters from the eleventh through the twentieth centuries (including books on Pushkin and Chekhov), Russian cultural history (including a book on St. Gorge in Russian culture and essays on the origin of Russian historiography), folklore, and literary theory. In recent years he has written over 30 papers on Vladimir Nabokov, both Russian and English, in collaboration with Yelena Shvarts.

Bibliographic information