Ben-Amos, Dan
Email Address
ORCID
Disciplines
relationships.isProjectOf
relationships.isOrgUnitOf
Position
Introduction
Research Interests
Collection
96 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 10 of 96
Publication Nationalism and Nihilism: The Attitude of Two Hebrew Authors Toward Folklore(1981) Ben-Amos, DanFolklore and literature are linked concepts, but so far no one theory has satisfactorily explained the nature of their relationship. Attempts have been made to establish the connection between them in terms of history, evolution, communication, and social systems. According to the historical approach, folklore consists of elementary forms which increase in formal and semantic complexity until they become literary genres.1 The Chadwicks stated a generally accepted position when they wrote that "written literature was derived in some form from this 'unwritten literature'."2 At the basis of this historical development are the dynamic laws of literature by which themes, genres, and structures advance from simple to complex patterns. Although human thoughts and emotions motivate creative writing, authors, seen in this way, are but the tools, the handmaidens of literature. The same themes repeat in different patterns, changing according to historical and social situations, yet retaining certain psychological and metaphysical elements that are as historical as they are inherent to man.Publication Review of Haim Schwarzbaum, Jewish Folklore between East and West. Collected Papers(1991) Ben-Amos, DanIn his obituary for Haim Schwarzbaum (1911-1983), Dov Noy tells that upon his arrival at Bloomington, Indiana in 1952 to begin his graduate studies, Stith Thompson asked him whether he knew Haim Schwarzbaum in Israel. He did not, and Professor Thompson invited Dov Noy to his office and showed him the thick file of correspondence that he conducted with Schwarzbaum, saying: "You should know that I correspond with over a hundred folklorists worldwide, and your Haim Schwarzbaum is the most erudite of them all" (Noy 1986, 88). At the time Schwarzbaum was in his early forties. Most of his publications to that date appeared in the literary supplement of newspapers; only two of his articles were published in Hebrew scholarly journals (GANUZ 1984, 10). Yet in his private scholarly correspondence he had already demonstrated his overflowing erudition to be deserving of such an accolade from the leading folktale scholar of our time. Folklorists learned about his scholarly acumen only in the late fifties, when his articles began to appear regularly in scholarly publications.Publication Review of David Assaf, The Regal Way: The Life and Times of R. Israel of Ruzhin(2000-01-01) Ben-Amos, DanHagiography and history tell their stories at cross-purposes. While hagiography glorifies, even sanctifies its heroes, history strips them of their traditional greatness, seeking to bare the factual truth to which documents and testimonies attest. Nowhere is this contrast more evident than in the history and study of Hasidism. Legends (shevahim) are the building blocks of the Hasidic tradition, in which the rabbi is a leader, a miracle worker and a storyteller. He is the narrating subject, who, in turn, becomes the object of stories subsequent generations tell.Publication Bettelheim Among the Folklorists(1994) Ben-Amos, DanPsychoanalysis and folklore have been uneasy bedfellows. Any psychoanalytic interpretation of folktales makes folklorists twist and turn. Their reactions have ranged from ambivalent acceptance to unequivocal rejection. Psychoanalysts, on the other hand, are ever too ready to consider such a reaction as denial, or at least avoidance of the "true" meaning of fairy tales. As a psychoanalyst, Bruno Bettelheim could have bridged between the two disciplines with his book The Uses of Enchantment (1976). His valuation of orality, his erudite familiarity with the classical sources of European folktales, and his sheer love for the fairy tale, qualified him for mediating the two disciplines. Surely, Bettelheim did not conceive of himself as a broker between two intellectual fields. However, by writing such a book this role was inevitably thrust upon him. The assessment of his success or failure requires, first, the examination of the theoretical, methodological, and attitudinal conflicts between folklore and psychoanalysis. Secondly, there is a need to clarify the charges of plagiarism that were brought against Bettelheim, and finally a need to evaluate his methodological contribution to the psychoanalytic interpretation of the fairy tale.Publication Obituary: Kenneth S. Goldstein (1927-1995)(1996) Ben-Amos, DanA midrashic proverb observes that "when a man departs this world, he does not have as much as half of his desire in his hand." When Kenny Goldstein died on November 11, 1995, at the age of 68, he left behind manuscripts he did not complete, songs he did not transcribe, and singers he did not record. But the books and articles that he did not write himself he did write through his students and friends: hundreds of them. Always the consummate teacher, he was a rabbi of folklore. The situations he enjoyed most were the long seminar discussions when, surrounded by students, he and they were engulfed in conversation about folklore matters. He deemed a seminar that ended on time a failure. Often these discussions moved from the seminar room to his home, which he and his wife Rochelle opened up for students, or to his private library, which he made accessible to all. The 1967 Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching was the professional honor he cherished the most.Publication Die Zeischen als Metasprache in der jüdischen Folklore(2004-01-01) Ben-Amos, Dan; Noy, DovDie Gematrie ist ein System zur Ver- und Entschlüsselung von Begriffen und Sinneinheiten, das auf Entsprechungen von Zahlen und Buchstaben gründet. Täuschend simpel, erhält sie ihre Komplexität durch die vielfätigen Berechnungen der Zahlenwerte, etwa indem man Zahlen mit sich selbst multipliziert oder die Buchstaben der Namen von Buchstaben miteinander kombiniert.1 Neben den verschiedenen Berechnungsmethoden tragen jedoch 2 Grundeigenschaften zu ihrer Vielschichtigkeit bei: Zum einen entfaltet die Gematre eine Eigene Interpretationsmacht, zum anderen kann sie durch die wechselseitige Übersetzbarkeit von Buchstaben und Zahlen bestehende Bedeutungen verändern. Der Prozess der Interpretation selbst wandelt auch die Funktion von Buchstaben, indem er sie zu selbstbezüglichen Zeichen werden lässt.Publication A Structural and Formal Study of Talmudic-Midrashic Legends(1965) Ben-Amos, DanPublication Review of H.A.S. Johnston, A Selection of Hausa Stories(1969) Ben-Amos, DanFolklorists should have special interest in this volume. The Hausa people comprise one of the largest tribes in West Africa, located in present day Northern Nigeria and the adjoining parts of the Republic of Niger. Their contact with the Islamic tradition, their pursuit of trade and travel and the wide currency of their language, a true lingua franca around Hausaland, are all factors which contribute to the special significance of Hausa oral tradition. It blends indigenous African elements with Islamic themes, and serves as a meeting point for narratives of several West African tribes.Publication Review of Haim Schwarzbaum, Studies in Jewish and World Folklore(1972) Ben-Amos, DanThis is a book of comparative notes and studies for the texts which are published in a volume of Yiddish oral-narratives edited by Naftoli Gross, Maaselech un Mesholim: Tales and Parables (New York, 1955). Gross, a Yiddish poet and writer had had a lifelong interest in folktales. As he writes in the preface to his book, he himself comes from a traditional home in which both parents, a grandfather, and many neighbors frequently told stories. The end of the Sabbath day was the favorite storytelling time. He learned other traditional tales and anecdotes from his peers and mates in the traditional Jewish school which he attended. At a relatively early age Gross began to record tales from oral tradition in his home town, Kolomyya, and continued to do so during his travels in Galicia. Immediately after the First World War he began publishing these tales in the children's magazine Kundas and in east European Yiddish newspapers. Some of the texts in this volume come from that period. However, the majority of the tales first appeared in a daily column which Gross edited for the Yiddish daily in America, the Jewish Daily Forward.Publication Meditation on a Russian Proverb in Israel(1995) Ben-Amos, DanMy father spoke in proverbs, but for many years I did not notice. Only after I completed my graduate studies in folklore and began teaching, did I become aware of the idioms in his conversation. Without being a religious person he interlaced his anecdotes and narratives with proverbs, biblical verses, and parables from the talmuds. I began to pay attention. A few years later, when I visited my parents in Israel, my father, who was a construction worker, told me that in retirement he tried to make a business deal but failed. Yet in spite of his naiveté in such matters, he came through that experience unscathed. "The Lord protects the simple [minded]" (Psalms 116:6). He concluded his story with a touch of self-irony, and then explained, "why 'the simple [minded]'? Because smart people can take care of themselves." When my mother's health declined, he tended to her at home, and at the same time struggled to maintain his regular busy schedule of volunteer activities in several local organizations. Not one to complain openly, he wrote me in a letter the following parable, hardly realizing its history. "A Jew has complained before God about his share of troubles. He complained so much until God got tired of him and showed him the troubles other people in the world had, and told him to select out of these any trouble that would suit him best. After observing all these afflictions the Jew chose his own old troubles—at least with those, he felt, he was familiar."1