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A Treasury of Irish Folklore, edited by Padraic Colum
- Abstract
I am not going to quarrel with Padraic Colum’s definition of folklore, although only two of the nine “Parts” into which his book is divided—“Ways and Traditions” and “Fireside Tales”—fit the usual definitions of the term. The rest is literature, though rarely belles-lettres.
Mr. Colum has cast his net wider than the collector of folklore proper. He clearly wishes to catch in it everything that the collective memory of the Irish nation would say if granted the power of speech. In his desire to be all-inclusive Padraic Colum has posed the problem which faces every student of Irish literature, especially an Irish anthologist who works for an English-speaking audience. In a pretentious moment one might call it “The Problem of the Continuity of a Discontinuous Tradition.” Every American writer not of Anglo-Saxon origin has to face this problem in some form; so does every Jewish writer, whatever his nationality, who is concerned with his character as a Jew. Put in Jewish terms, the problem takes somewhat this form: “How inclusive should we make the term ‘Jewish literature’? Should it refer only to Hebrew literature, ancient and modern? Should it include Yiddish literature? Should it include any work written by Jews, regardless of language? Should a separate category be set up for Israeli literature, and if so, must Israeli literature be in Hebrew only?”
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