ABSTRACT
The rediscovery of stories and songs in their situational contexts revealed that folklore had a systematic nature, similar to religion, ideology, and art. It had become possible to conceive of folklore as a cultural system that has principles of integration of its own which are subject to discovery and analysis. The idea of folklore, if not the term, evolved as the dark side of the enlightment, the contraries of the new ideals to which the age aspired. Rationalism “regarded the folk and its creative, especially literary, products with contempt and derision, as lacking in refinement, learning, mastery of diction, and subtleness and elevation of thought. The examination of folklore in its cultural and situational contexts should enable us to explain the differences in verbal artistic capabilities and their attainment in diversified performances. The study of folklore in its cultural context reveals the diversity of verbal expression.
