Folklore studies / Study of myth Books

Book SynopsisAntoine Galland’s French translation of the Thousand and One Nights appeared in 1704. One year later a pirate edition was printed in The Hague, followed by many others. Galland entertained a lively correspondence on the subject with the Dutch intellectual and statesman Gisbert Cuper (1644-1716). Dutch orientalists privately owned editions of the *Nights* and discreetly collected manuscripts of Arabic fairy tales. In 1719 the Nights were first retranslated into Dutch by the wealthy Amsterdam silk merchant and financier Gilbert de Flines (Amsterdam 1690-London 1739). The Thousand and One Nights and Orientalism in the Dutch Republic, 1700-1800: Antoine Galland, Ghisbert Cuper and Gilbert de Flines explores not only the trail of the French and Dutch editions from the eighteenth century Dutch Republic and the role of the printers and illustrators, but also the mixed sentiments of embarrassment and appreciation, and the overall literary impact of the Nights on a Protestant nation in a century when French cultural influence ruled supreme.Trade Review"In their richly illustrated, beautifully written, and highly informative book Richard van Leeuwen, lecturer in Islamic studies at the University of Amsterdam, and Arnoud Vrolijk, the curator of Oriental manuscripts and rare books at the Leiden University Library, have tackled the Dutch fortunes of Antoine Galland’s French translation of the Thousand and One Nights." - Alastair Hamilton, The Warburg Institute, BMGN Low Countries Historical Review, Volume 135 (2020)Table of ContentsTable of Contents Preface Introduction Chapter 1 The Thousand and one nights and literary Orientalism in Europe Chapter 2 Dutch Orientalism before 1700 Chapter 3 Antoine Galland and Ghisbert Cuper Chapter 4 The early editions of the Nights Chapter 5 Gilbert de Flines Chapter 6 Later editions in the eighteenth century Chapter 7 Dutch Orientalism in the eighteenth century Conclusion Appendix 1 Bibliographic survey of Dutch editions, 1705-1807 Appendix 2 The David Coster engravings Appendix 3 Text samples of the Dutch Nights Appendix 4 French and Dutch quotations Illustration credits Bibliography Index Colophon

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Book SynopsisMonstrous Beings and Media Cultures examines the monsters and sinister creatures that spawn from folk horror, Gothic fiction, and from various sectors of media cultures. The collection illuminates how folk monsters form across different art and media traditions, and interrogates the 21C revitalization of “folk” as both a cultural formation and aesthetic mode. The essays explore how combinations of vernacular and institutional creative processes shape the folkloric and/or folkoresque attributes of monstrous beings, their popularity, and the contexts in which they are received. While it focuses on 21C permutations of folk monstrosity, the collection is transhistorical in approach, featuring chapters that focus on contemporary folk monsters, historical antecedents, and the pre-C21st art and media traditions that shaped enduring monstrous beings. The collection also illuminates how folk monsters and folk “horror” travel across cultures, media, and time periods, and how iconic monsters are tethered to yet repeatedly become unanchored from material and regional contexts.Trade Review“Monstrous Beings and Media Cultures offers an outstanding series of analyses of folk horror as a complex, contested subgenre or mode. Showing sensitivity to vernacular creativity as well as tackling professional media, this edited collection smartly explores folkloresque monstrosities in a range of digital, national and regional contexts. Let these authors be your guides among lurking shadows, through liminal woods, and back to the safety (?) of illuminating scholarship.” -- Professor Matt Hills, University of Huddersfield, author of Fan Cultures “This book reframes the concept of ‘folk horror’ with remarkable ambition. By imagining folk horror’s monsters at the junction of folklore, visual media, and regional identities, Balanzategui and Craven’s contributors make us think anew about the convergence of ‘folk’ and ‘horror.’” -- Professor Adam Lowenstein, University of Pittsburgh, author of Horror Film and Otherness Table of ContentsIntroduction - Folk Monsters and Monstrous Media: The Im/materialities, Modalities, and Regionalities of Being(s) Monstrous (Allison Craven and Jessica Balanzategui) Chapter One - The Momo Challenge as Urban Legend: Child and Adult Digital Cultures and the Global Mediated Unconscious (Jessica Balanzategui) Chapter Two - Every Imaginable Invention of the Devil: Summoning the Monstrous in Eurocentric Conceptions of Voodoo (Karen Horsley) Chapter Three - The Forest and the Trees: The Woods as Intersection between Documentary, Fairy Tale, and Internet Legend in Beware the Slenderman (Naja Later) Chapter Four - Mark Duplass as Mumbelgore Serial Killer: Fictional Vernacular Filmmaking in the Creep series (Andrew Lynch) Chapter Five - Monsters in the Forest: ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ Crimes and Ecologies of the Real and Fantastic (Cristina Bacchilega and Pauline Greenhill) Chapter Six - A Mother’s Milk: Motherhood, Trauma, and Monstrous Children in Folk Horror (Emma Maguire) Chapter Seven - Documenting the Unheard: The Poetics of Listening and Empathy in The Family (Stephen Gaunson) Chapter Eight - Reimagining the Pontianak Myth in Malaysian Folk Horror: Flexible Tradition, Cinema, and Cultural Memory (Andrew Ng) Chapter Nine - An Uncommon Ancestor: Monstrous Emanations and Australian Tales of the Bunyip (Allison Craven) Chapter Ten - The Folk Horror “Feeling”: Monstrous Modalities and the Critical Occult (Jessica Balanzategui and Allison Craven)

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Book SynopsisThe sacred sites of Burma are amongst the most beautiful and spectacular in all of Asia. However, the fame and sacredness of these holy places rests almost solely on the myths and legends that surround their founding and the origins of their relics. The Buddha himself presented strands of his hair to two travelling merchants in Bodh Gaya, India. The pair returned to Burma where these 'living hairs' are venerated as the country's most sacred relics, now enshrined in the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. It appears that this myth arose amongst the Mon but today it is known throughout the land. Similar myths and legends abound in Burma, always in connection with a sacred site, whether it be the cast bronze Mahamuni Buddha in Mandalay, the Buddha footprints found at Magwe or curious geological phenomena such as the Golden Rock at Kyaik-hti-yo. These Buddhist tales can arise and evolve with astounding speed and creativity drawing on a variety of sources ranging from local folklore to Sri Lankan chronicles. The author uncovers the evidence for and traces the development of these intricate myths across a wide spectrum of Burmese sacred sites ranging from the Mon State in lower Burma to those dotted around the city of Yangon, to Pagan and Mandalay in upper Burma as well as considering the areas of Shan influence around Inle lake. Furthermore, the author illustrates how sacred sites can emerge with remarkable frequency in our own time with only those that possess myths catching the imagination of the Buddhist faithful having any chance of long term survival. This book therefore is an essential read for anyone interested in the development of Buddhism in its many aspects and facets, be they its art, archaeology, history or belief.

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Book SynopsisOur Folktales: The All-time Favourite Folktales from Asia is a collection of eight beloved children's stories from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines and Singapore. In these beautifully illustrated tales, you will meet brave heroes who outsmart others, mystical spells that enchant, talking animals that are full of mischief, and so much more. The diversity and wonder of Asia are found in these precious stories that have been passed down through generations, and now, adapted in this compilation, for your reading pleasure. These stories will not just fascinate young readers, they will also educate because they speak of admirable traits, like strength and determination, family loyalty, and and even, mysterious allegories that reveal history!Table of ContentsThe Zodiac Story (China); A Camel for Kelam (India); Princess Kemang (Indonesia); Issun-boshi (Japan); The Princess of Gunung Ledang (Malaysia); Journey to Happy Land (Myanmar); The Brother of the THree Marias (Philippines); Badang the Mighty Warrior (Singapore);

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Book SynopsisOur Folktales: The All-time Favourite Folktales from Asia is a collection of eight beloved children's stories from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines and Singapore. In these beautifully illustrated tales, you will meet brave heroes who outsmart others, mystical spells that enchant, talking animals that are full of mischief, and so much more. The diversity and wonder of Asia are found in these precious stories that have been passed down through generations, and now, adapted in this compilation, for your reading pleasure. These stories will not just fascinate young readers, they will also educate because they speak of admirable traits, like strength and determination, family loyalty, and and even, mysterious allegories that reveal history!Table of ContentsThe Zodiac Story (China); A Camel for Kelam (India); Princess Kemang (Indonesia); Issun-boshi (Japan); The Princess of Gunung Ledang (Malaysia); Journey to Happy Land (Myanmar); The Brother of the THree Marias (Philippines); Badang the Mighty Warrior (Singapore);

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Book SynopsisIn 1931 a book appeared in London with the title A Yellow Sleuth: Being the Autobiography of “Nor Nalla” (Detective-Sergeant Federated Malay States Police). It was met with puzzled enthusiasm, TheStraits Times commenting that the book “presents an interesting problem of distinguishing fact from fiction”. The author claimed to be of mixed Malay and Sakai descent, fluent in many of the languages spoken in Southeast Asia, and able to pass as Malay, Sakai, Chinese, Javanese or Burmese. He began by stating that “this story will honestly recount the part I have played in the detection of crime”, but added that he had changed personal and place names, and used a pseudonym because it would “be foolish of me to advertise my identity”. He concluded, engagingly enough, “So there you have it! A true history! And, for a start you learn that it is largely untrue.”The name Nor Nalla is an anagram, and the author has been identified as Ronald (Ron) Allan, who worked on a rubber plantation in Malaya shortly before World War I. But many questions about his authorship remain.Nor Nalla is an “impossible fantasy of hybridity” in the words of Philip Holden’s introduction. Like Kipling’s famous colonial spy, Kim, the yellow sleuth is a master of the undercover operation, from the forests of Malaya, to the ports of Java, in London’s Chinatown and with Chinese labourers in WWI Flanders. Contemporary readers will enjoy the book’s stories of detection and adventure, but they can also savour the way the author and his narrator navigate and reveal the contradictions of late colonial society.

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Book SynopsisText in Arabic. Available for the first time in Arabic, Scientific American sets out to debunk urban lore and cultural mythology. In this two-part best-selling series, scientists cast their analytical eye on long-standing claims to determine if they are fact of fiction. Based on the Strange But True columns, here youll find some of the most surprising, fascinating, useful and just plain wacky topics confronted by SA writers over the years.

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Book SynopsisHaving studied under famed ethnographer Franz Boas at Columbia University, Martha Warren Beckwith dedicated her career to recording and contextualizing the traditions of people from around the world. Specializing in Jamaican, Hawaiian, Sioux, and Mandan-Hidatsa cultures, she published widely acclaimed works of folklore and ethnography through her interviews with native storytellers around the world. Hawaiian Mythologyher most recognized workis a highly celebrated, monumental study that brings together three decades of exhaustive research of indigenous Hawaiian folklore, culture, and society. Setting itself apart from more conventional collections of folklore, Hawaiian Mythology does not concern itself with simply translating or retelling popular Hawaiian myths; instead, Beckwith presents variant narratives and core folklore motifs, guiding the reader through every significant theme and deity in Hawaiian mythology. Without question, it is one of the most comprehensive studies ever conducted on the indigenous culture of Hawai'i and her people before annexation; and is widely considered to be an authoritative text on Hawaiian folklore as it is known today.This edition of Martha Warren Beckwith's Hawaiian Mythology is a classic of anthropological literature reimagined for modern readers. Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

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