Abstract
The publication of folktale collections in the Valencian Country becomes especially notable from the 1980s. Many such publications are aimed at children and young readers, but some are targeted at general adult, or even specialized, audiences. Collections often include explicit references to authors and folklorists who serve as models or references to varying degrees. Sometimes comparisons are made between the plots of specific folktales, sometimes the reference is in the form of a scholarly commentary while at other times the reference serves to locate the collection within a wider literary tradition (Valencian, Catalan, European, international, etc.). The purpose of this chapter is to study these references in Valencian folktale collections after the 1980s, because not only do such references play a fundamental role in understanding and researching folktale collections, but they also make it possible to analyze the way—and the extent to which—these publications identify themselves within a particular linguistic, literary, or cultural framework.
TopIntroduction
Enric Valor was the first Valencian folklorist – litterateur-folklorist1 – to devote himself exclusively to the folktale genre, although preceding authors such as Joaquim Martí i Gadea, Francesc Martínez i Martínez and Adolf Salvà i Ballester had included the genre in their miscellanies.2 In the first two volumes of his Obra literària completa (1975-1976), Enric Valor gave literary form to his entire corpus of folktales: after 1976 Valor didn’t write any more folktales, although there have been plenty of adaptations and reprints. As has already been studied3, in the period following Valor – once Franco’s dictatorship had come to an end – there was an explosion of folktale compilers, largely compensating for the historical lack of Valencian folktale collections. In fact, due to historical and social circumstances, Valencian folklore after Enric Valor enters a new stage that completely changes the landscape (Borja 2017 and 2019). The arrival of schooling in Catalan, the spread of media and cultural institutions in the language, and the emergence of university researchers in popular literature are some of the key factors.
A significant share of publications during this period are therefore related to education: the rise of schooling in Catalan was conducive to the recovery of folktales, either as part of a teaching project or as a literary resource in the classroom, an item of literature for children and young people. However, young readers were not the only possible audience: progressive literacy in Catalan also made possible the emergence of collections aimed at a general adult audience. During this period, as we have mentioned, research into Valencian popular literature begins to materialise. Studies are published which, in turn, enable the development of progressively more specialized collections. After the dictatorship, therefore, the possibilities for folktale studies in the Valencian Country grow, as does the potential audience for folktale collections.
For a number of reasons, collections of folktales frequently include references to other folktale compilers and collections, from their own literary tradition as well as foreign ones. These allusions appear in introductions, prologues and colophons, as well as footnotes or endnotes, and they are much more than incidental: they reveal interesting signs that are worth studying as a whole because they help us characterise the works that include them, as well as understanding how – and to what extent – a kind of folktale tradition is formed, and from which perspective: strictly Valencian, Catalan (including all Catalan-speaking territories), or international. In this study we seek to discover who the referenced authors are, what collections they are cited in, and how and why they are presented. We will also analyse the main trends.
The hypothesis on which this work is based is that studying the allusions to other folktale compilers in the notes and introductions of folktale collections can provide us with a significant amount of relevant information about two key aspects. Firstly, regarding the classification of the collections themselves; and secondly, regarding the establishment (or not) of a broader literary tradition, and in what sense – and from what perspective – this tradition is being formed.
Thus, the purpose of this work is to analyse the references to other folktale compilers included in the Valencian folktale collections after Enric Valor (therefore written and published after 1976). We will differentiate between allusions to Valencian authors, allusions to authors from the rest of the Catalan-speaking territories, and allusions to authors from foreign literary traditions. The specific objectives of this analysis are as follows:
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to identify a significant sample of post-1976 Valencian collections that contain references to other authors;
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to analyse the types of collections in which these references appear, according to the classification outlined in the methodology;
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to give an account of the authors referenced;
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to study what kind of dialogue is established between the collection and the author it references, in other words, what the purpose of the allusion is.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Folklore: An artistic form of communication given in a small group where interaction is possible.
Literary Tradition: Set of literary works that make a series of concepts or references last.
Folktale: A narrative fictional form of folklore, anonymous and generally transmitted orally.
Folktale Collection: A written compilation of folktales, usually collected from oral interviews.
Valencian Country: A geographic, cultural, and political region located on the east side of the Iberian Peninsula, also called Valencian Community and recognised as an autonomous community of Spain. Catalan language is spoken and both Catalan and Spanish are official languages.