Argentinian and Slovenian folk narratives: classification criteria and comparative approach

Abstract

This chapter deals at first with classification criteria of Argentinian folktales, grounded in the parameters of international indexes. The point of departure, which serves as a hypothesis, is that social beliefs introduce relevant transformations in folk narrative matrices, understood as a set of thematic, compositional and stylistic features common to different folktales, identifiedby intertextual comparison (Palleiro, 2004a, 2018).In a previous chapter, I dealt with Argentinian folk narrative archives asa whole, from a diachronic point of view. In this new one, I will deal with specific tale types and texts, with the aim of identifying distinctive features of vernacular narratives. According to the goal of a research project oriented to elaborate a typological catalogue of traditional Argentinian narrativeadapted to international standards, I will make an overview of international classification systems. Secondly, I will focus the attention on a comparison between Slovenian and Argentinian folk narrative texts connected with thesame tale types, analyzing the contextual variations and the possible connections with local beliefs. The aim of this analytical comparison is to highlight the relevance of contextual beliefs when classifying vernacular narratives.