Tall tales and the art of exaggeration

Nancy McEntire

doi:10.1556/AEthn.54.2009.1.11

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Acta Ethnographica Hungarica

Volume/Issue:: Volume 54: Issue 1

Tall tales and the art of exaggeration

Author:

Nancy McEntire

Nancy McEntire Indiana State University Department of English Terre Haute IN 47809 USA

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Pages:: 125–134

Online Publication Date:: 04 Jun 2009

Publication Date:: 01 Jun 2009

Article Category:: Journal Article

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1556/AEthn.54.2009.1.11

Keywords:: tall tale; storyteller; anecdote; oral performance; American frontier; structural analysis; understatement; visual humor; tall-tale postcards

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With roots in the Old World and fertile ground in the New World, the tall tale ourished in America, especially within the boasting, expansive atmosphere of the American frontier (Burrison 1991: 6–7). Hunting, fishing, weather, domestic life, and agriculture were popular topics, and opportunities for artful exaggeration were numerous. This paper examines the tall tale as artistic folk humor in which the narrative is carefully constructed and performed for best effect. Field recordings, printed texts, and folklore-archive texts will provide examples for analysis. Finally, examples of tall-tale postcards add a visual dimension to the genre.

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Acta Ethnographica Hungarica

Print ISSN:: 1216-9803

Online ISSN:: 1588-2586

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Editor-in-Chief: Ágnes FÜLEMILE
Associate editors: Fruzsina CSEH;
Zsuzsanna CSELÉNYI
Review Editors: Csaba MÉSZÁROS; Katalin VARGHA

Editorial Board

Balázs BALOGH (Institute of Ethnology, Research Centre for the Humanities)
Elek BARTHA (University of Debrecen)
Balázs BORSOS (Institute of Ethnology, Research Centre for the Humanities)
Miklós CSERI (Hungarian Open Air Museum, the Skanzen of Szentendre)
Lajos KEMECSI (Museum of Ethnography)
László KÓSA (Eötvös University, Budapest)
lldikó LANDGRAF (Institute of Ethnology, Research Centre for the Humanities)
Tamás MOHAY (Eötvös University, Budapest)
László MÓD (University of Szeged)
Attila PALÁDI-KOVÁCS (Institute of Ethnology, Research Centre for the Humanities and Eötvös University, Budapest)
Gábor VARGYAS (Institute of Ethnology, Research Centre for the Humanities and University of Pécs)
Vilmos VOIGT (Eötvös University, Budapest)

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Marta BOTÍKOVÁ (Bratislava, Slovakia)
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Dagnoslaw DEMSKI (Warsaw, Poland)
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Dmitriy A. FUNK (Moscow, Russia)
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Krista HARPER (Amherst, MA USA)
Anya PETERSON ROYCE (Bloomington, IN USA)
Ferenc POZSONY (Cluj, Romania)
Helena RUOTSALA (Turku, Finland)
Mary N. TAYLOR (New York, NY USA)
András ZEMPLÉNI (Paris, France)

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Translators: Elayne ANTALFFY; Zsuzsanna CSELÉNYI; Michael KANDÓ
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Acta Ethnographica Hungarica
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Institute of Ethnology
Research Centre for the Humanities
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
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E-mail: meszaros.csaba@btk.mta.hu or vargha.katalin@btk.mta.hu

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2023
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Acta Ethnographica Hungarica
Language	English
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ISSN	1216-9803 (Print)
ISSN	1588-2586 (Online)