Tale
Filipino Popular Tales
Dean Fansler · 1921
Synopsis
Juan the lazy, who succeeds by accident, and Juan Pusong the trickster, who dupes even the king, unequal brothers who set out to seek their fortune, the monkey and the turtle who share a banana tree, enchanted princesses, and tales in which the devil lets himself be fooled like a Spanish landowner: tales collected in the provinces of the islands, in the language of each teller.
Context
This 1921 collection brings together more than two hundred tales from across the archipelago, noted down by students in their home provinces, with the name of each collector and an indication of the language: its author added a comparative apparatus relating each tale to its Asian and European parallels, which made it possible to measure what the Philippines owed to India, China, Spain and the Malay world, and what belonged to them alone. It is the first Philippine corpus established in this way, at a time when the archipelago was administered by the United States, and it remains the reference source for the study of the Philippine tale, a century after its publication.
Who it is for
Short tales in English, with comparative notes. The indications of language and province make it possible to follow their circulation.
Prizes and reception
Reissued and digitised, this corpus remains the main early source on the Philippine tale in its linguistic diversity.