Einfache Formen: Legende, Sage, Mythe, Rätsel, Spruch, Kasus, Memorabile, Märchen, Witz

by André Jolles

Even 50 years after the publication of the first edition, the basic concept of this book is still valid namely to establish the determining contours of fundamental narrative forms, which the author understands as morphological archetypes in the Goethean sense. With mainly anonymous authors, they occupy an intermediate position between popular and literary writing, as evidenced by the fact that they are an object of research for both ethnologists and literary scholars."

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Literature, Criticism, Literary Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1930

Reviews

[Lukas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Der Wahnsinn. Pflichtlektüre.

[Harold Rhenisch · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the classics, and that's no exaggeration. The clear doorways that Jolles opens into varied impulses towards communication are astounding and exciting. The book is a must-read. The best chapters do come early, however. The later ones are, although invaluable, at times seen through a veil. It would be a gorgeous challenge to work them out with more care than he took. One of the fascinating things for me is the degree to which Jolles represents German existential ideas from the early twentieth century, ones running parallel with Heideggerian philosophy and at times even with populist existential philosophies incorporated into Nazi ideology, but quite separate from them and without the political stain. A secondary effect is the invaluable doorway in opens into the period, and the tools it gives for dismantling it — something of great relevance today, when the far right is, once again, pretending to carry the existential torch. Don't get me wrong, though. The book is about language, story-telling, and forms of speech on the level of a universal grammar of language. Absolutely brilliant.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jolles's quixotic and old-fashioned-seeming literary theory is flawed yet interesting, and it seems the same could be said for Jolles himself. The book was largely scorned by later literary theorists, with a few notable exceptions, such as Hans-Georg Gadamer and Fredric Jameson.

Jolles's simple forms are a set of pre-literary forms; he enumerates legend, saga, myth, riddle, saying, case, memorabile, fairytale, and joke. His clear Eurocentric examples, however, aren't exactly his claims to universalism—the simple forms themselves are the product of "mental dispositions," and communicated to others using historically constructed "verbal gestures" which are specific to each form. These, Jolles theorizes, can be found in any human culture around the globe.

Whether true or not, I found his notion to be an interesting as a mental exercise, but hardly useful for me overall.

[Novecento · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly rich and innovative, analytically sharp unfolding of basic literaty forms (not thought as genre or other transcendental notions) but as forms of languages's 'labour' or 'work'. Totally unprententious but a really elaborated work which provides a great approach to "literature" by looking for example at the basic dynamic underlying what we call 'legends' which leads to comparisons between St. George (who basically continues to existiert as legend) and the Sports section of 20th century newspapers. The sharpness and etymological dwellings on language remind me of Heidegger. Strange why like Heidegger Jolles also heavily sympathized with the Nazis. Still one of the Most profound works on literature as a process of language I have ever read.

[Valentina Markasović]

Me when I find out which party this Dutch-German writer living in the first half of the 20th century was a member of: 👁👄👁

[عبد ربه · Rating 4 out of 5]

i want to read book