Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales

A collection of forty-three Palestinian folktales, collected in the Galilee, Gaza, and the West Bank, and divided into five thematic groups devoted to: Individuals, Family, Society, Environment, and Universe. Some of these groups are further sub-divided, into categories such as Children and Parents (Individuals) or Husbands and Wives (Family). Such categorization allows Muhawi and Kanaana to provide afterwords for each section, in which the specific cultural themes of that group of tales is discussed. Speak Bird, Speak Again also includes a useful cultural overview in the introduction, as well as a section devoted to folkloric analysis of each tale, in which themes, motifs and variants are given.

This was a fascinating book - a very show more effective and scholarly ethnographic folktale collection. From a purely cerebral perspective, I found it quite enjoyable, and felt that I learned something about (traditional) Palestinian culture. Unfortunately, I did not always enjoy the stories in their own right, which surprised me, as folklore is usually one of my favorite genres. But the frequency of violence directed against women in these stories - the beating of wives, in particular - and the casual acceptance of same, was quite disturbing, all the more so when one considers that these tales are regularly told to young children.

I appreciated the authors' points about the agency of women (ie: that they do not simply accept their fate passively), but I was somewhat skeptical of some of the ideas put forward about women's "power." I'm not sorry I read this collection, as I found it very informative, but I can't say it was especially enjoyable. show less

Over the course of several years the authors collected tales in the regions of the Galilee, Gaza, and the West Bank, determining which were the most widely known and a ppreciated and selecting the ones that best represented the Palestinian Arab folk narrative tradition. Great care has been taken with the translations to maintain the original flavor, humor, and cultural nuances of tales that are at once earthy and whimsical. The authors have also provided extensive footnotes, an international typology, and a thorough analytic guide to parallel tales in the larger Arab tradition in folk narrative.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4548439821?book_show_action=true&from_...

Wonderful resource, but I just couldn't appreciate the stories. I do recommend it if you're interested, though. Maybe you'll be lucky and can find a hardcover or ebook, though, as the font in the paperback is small.

November 2022