A Type Index of Korean Folktales (review)

Book Reviews A Type Index of Korean Folktales. By Choi In-hak. Seoul: Myong Ji University Publishing [Folklore Institute of Northeast Asia], 1979. xii, 353 pp. Map, cross-referenced tables, index. $15.00. Folktale indexes are among the oldest and best-known tools of folklore scholarship . Since the publication of Antti Aarne's Verzeichnis der Märchentypen in 1910, more than a score of these indexes have been compiled for the folktales of various societies. China and Japan have been especially favored with two and three folktale indexes respectively. The folktale "types" catalogued in these indexes are generalized descriptions or outlines of plots that typically appear in several variant folktales. European Cinderella tales and their Korean K'ongjwi-P'atchwi analogues are a good example . Though the several versions of these tales differ in detail, all of them would nevertheless be assigned to the same type because they share a common narrative thread: poor treatment of a stepdaughter, a supernatural helper, a festival, a lost shoe, and the recognition of the heroine. Though ostensibly no more than a classificatory device, the concept of the "type" originated in a particular theoretical school of folklore. By assuming that similar tales were cognates, members of this school attempted to reconstruct the original, or urform, and paths of diffusion of a given type, just as philologists attempt to reconstruct an urtext and genealogy from variants of a written literary work. Urform reconstructions are no longer at the forefront of folklore scholarship , but type indexes have other uses that still justify their publication. For instance , such indexes offer a method of classifying folktales that is unquestionably the most useful to date. In addition to providing an outline or plot summary for each type, an index also lists bibliographical data showing where each known variant of the type can be found. 138JANELLI Choi's Type Index includes a handy cross-reference table that allows the researcher to find corresponding types in the Aarne-Thompson index of European tales, in one of the indexes of Chinese tales, and in two of the indexes of Japanese tales. Since the Aarne-Thompson index is, in turn, cross listed in most other existing type indexes, Choi, in effect, has tied Korean folktales into a worldwide system of information classification and retrieval. Thanks to his efforts, researchers can now determine with far greater ease than before where to look—bibliographically and geographically—for the variants of a Korean tale, and whether a given type of Korean tale is to be found elsewhere in the world. In addition to providing easier access to collections of Korean tales and facilitating comparisons with tales of other societies, Choi's Type Index also provides a useful overview of traditional Korean oral narratives. One can now identify which tales have circulated in oral (as opposed to written) forms, which themes are prominent in Korean tales, and which types are especially popular. Just as Choi's work offers the same advantages as other type indexes, it also suffers from their major defect: the lack of mutually exclusive categories into which the various types can be grouped. Indeed, some folktale indexes do not even attempt a classification; they simply list types. Most, like Choi's, opt for unavoidably overlapping thematic categories. To classify Korean types, Choi has modified the Aarne-Thompson system to produce the following headings: I.Animal Tales13. Tales of Fate 1.Origin of Animals14. Conflicts 2.Animal Talesa. Parents and Child 3.Origin of Plantsb. Sibling (Brothers or Sisters) Rivalry 4.Man and Animalsc. Neighbors a.Escape from OgresIII. Jokes and Anecdotes b.Foolish Animals15. Fools and Numbskulls c.Grateful Animalsa. Village of Numbskulls d.Man and Transformed Animalsb. Foolish Son-in-law II.Ordinary Folktalesc. Foolish Daughter-in-law 5.Supernatural Husbandsd. Fools 6.Supernatural Wives16. The Clever Man 7.Supernatural Birthsa. The Clever Man 8.Human Marriage and Acquisition ofb. Jokes Richesc. Men of Humor 9.Magic Objectsd. The Clever Judge 10.Defeating Ogrese. Contests 1 1 . Man and Folk-beliefsf. Tales of Adult and Child a.The Other World17. The Crafty Man b.Man and Deatha. The Crafty Man c.Spirit and Manb. Exaggerations d.Tales of GeomancyIV. Formula Tales e.Tales...