Packy Jim: Folklore and Worldview on the Irish Border

ISBN-13: 9780299308940 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 336 str.

Ray Cashman

Opis

Growing up on a secluded smuggling route along the border of Northern Ireland and the Republic, Packy Jim McGrath regularly heard the news, songs, and stories of men and women who stopped to pass the time until cover of darkness. In his early years, he says, he was all ears--but now it is his turn to talk.

Ray Cashman, who has been interviewing McGrath for more than fifteen years, demonstrates how Packy Jim embellishes daily conversation with stories of ghosts and fairies, heroic outlaws and hateful landlords. Such folklore is a boundless resource that he uses to come to grips with the past and present, this world and the next. His stories reveal an intricate worldview that is both idiosyncratic and shared--a testament to individual intelligence and talent, and a window into Irish vernacular culture.

Spis treści

• List of Illustrations
• Preface: Packy Jim Is Your Man
• A Note on Language
•  
• Introduction: Using Tradition, Constructing a Self
• 1 Person and Place, Life and Times
• 2 Authority and Rules
• 3 Power and Politics
• 4 Place, History, and Morality
• 5 Place, the Supernatural, and Cosmology
• 6 Belief and Skepticism
• 7 Community in a World of Limited Good
• 8 Worldview
• Afterword: Real Folklore
•  
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix: Transcription Style
• Notes on the Recitations, Songs, and Traditional Stories
• Notes on the Chapters
• References
• International Motif Index
• Migratory Legend Type Index
• Subject Index