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The Judeo-Spanish Proverb and Its Narrative Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Harriet Goldberg
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Abstract

Proverbs and tales are closely related; a tale's lesson is declared at its beginning or summarized at its end by a general wisdom saying that can circulate and attach itself to different tales. Tale-based proverbs, in discourse, are either plot summaries or tag lines. They allude to stories in the cultural inventories of communities, and they are high signs between speaker and listener. Generally, by reminding the hearer of the circumstances of a familiar story, the speaker recommends a course of action or warns against it. Spanish Jews, exiled from Spain in 1492 and subsequently resident in North Africa and in the Ottoman Empire, shared a corpus of maxims, which have been assembled in collections. Some of these proverbs are inaccessible because their narrative contexts are forgotten; some survive because they contain powerful images that send clear messages without narrative context. Other sayings will be generated as new popular stories gain currency. (HG)

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Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 108 , Issue 1: Special Topic Literature and the Idea of Europe , January 1993, pp. 106 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1993

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References

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