The Folk Literature of the Sephardic Jews Digital Library
Bruce Rosenstock|Belén Bistué
The Folk Literature of the Sephardic Jews Digital Library Bruce Rosenstock (bio) and Belén Bistué contains over 200 digitized reel-to-reel audiotapes that record fieldwork two America’s foremost Romance medievalists, Samuel Armistead (University California, Davis) Joseph Silverman Santa Cruz), who gathered ballads other folk literature in Hispanic tradition as preserved by Jews. Their extended several decades latter half twentieth century spanned three continents many dozens informants. audio recordings can be heard their entirety or they searched for specific across a number different tapes. transcriptions material also words phrases. digital library is now permanently hosted University Illinois accessed at http://sephardifolklit.illinois.edu. Click larger view View full resolution Fig 1. Homepage http://sephardifolklit.illinois.edu/. Part One: Background Goals (Bruce Rosenstock) It with heavy heart I compose these lines about my friend, Sam Armistead. Gordon passed away age 85 on August 7, 2013. He had retired only years earlier from Davis, where he taught Department Spanish 28 years. Those knew him understand “retirement” was perhaps word his immense repertoire languages held no allure him. Lecturer Religious Studies Davis fall 1998 when attended public lecture delivered Sam. described late (his former colleague UCLA) conducted United States, Europe, North Africa, Israel among descendants been expelled Spain 1492. These Jews, called themselves Sephardim (from “Sepharad,” name Iberian peninsula), oral that, even time expulsion, already centuries-long history, least some its genres. approached this medievalist, seeking to trace complicated lineage often fragmentary, orally transmitted Carolingian and, cases, Germanic epic ancestry. His scholarly interest (and Hispanic) quickly came include far more than ballad fragments pan-European tradition. As explains (2003:154): comprises not “classic” genres literature: narrative poetry (ballads, corridos), lyric poetry, improvised (décimas, puntos, bertsoak), children’s rhymes, riddles, proverbs, folktales, theater, but local legends, memorates, jokes, prayers incantations (ensalmos), cumulative songs, counting-out curses blessings, comparisons, calls animals, tongue-twisters, formulaic phrases, baby talk, thieves’ jargon, microtoponymy, beliefs, indeed, language itself, all diversity, constantly changing consistently creative manifestation culture. Sam’s work uncovered was, one might say without too much exaggeration, human experience itself. Listening describe fieldwork, imagined sat presence Shekhinah, indwelling divine Person world according Kabbalistic theosophy, figure whom invoked start entirely jest, power watching until completed projected volumes Jews.1 had, fact, come talk precisely because interested development Lurianic Kabbalah arose large part response trauma Jewish expulsion Spain. idea collector shards song an agent tikkun olam. Little did know. In lecture, explained how...
Oral Tradition|LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas)|MOspace Institutional Repository (University of Missouri)