{"title":"Brenda E F Beck","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"hidden-paradigms-book-brenda-ef-beck-9781487529345","title":"Hidden Paradigms","description":"Understanding an epic story’s key belief patterns can reveal community-level values, the nature of familial bonds, and how divine and human concerns jockey for power and influence. These foundational motifs remain understudied as they relate to South Asian folk legends, but are nonetheless crucial in shaping the values exemplified by such stories’ central heroes and heroines.   In Hidden Paradigms, anthropologist Brenda E.F. Beck describes The Legend of Ponnivala, an oral epic from rural South India. Recorded in 1965, this story was sung to a group of village enthusiasts by a respected pair of local bards. This grand legend took more than thirty-eight hours to complete over eighteen nights. Bringing this unique example of Tamil culture to the attention of an international audience, Beck compares this virtually unknown South Indian epic to five other culturally significant works – the Ojibwa Nanabush cycle, the Mahabharata, an Icelandic Saga, the Bible, and the Epic of Gilgamesh – establishing this foundational Tamil story as one that engages with the same universal human struggles and themes present throughout the world. Copiously illustrated, Hidden Paradigms provides a fresh example of the power of comparative thinking, offering a humanistic complement to scientific reasoning.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49744308961553,"sku":"NGR9781487529345","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52687327985937,"sku":"NLS9781487529345","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1487529341.jpg?v=1763222057"},{"product_id":"folk-tales-of-india-book-brenda-ef-beck-9780226040820","title":"Folk Tales of India","description":"Bringing together nearly one hundred tales translated from fourteen languages, Folktales of India opens the vast narrative world of Indian folklore to readers of English. Beck includes oral tales collected from tribal areas, peasant groups, urban areas, and remote villages in north and south India, and the distinctive boundary regions of Kashmir, Assam, and Manipur. The tales in this collection emphasize universal human characteristics--truthfulness, modesty, loyalty, courage, generosity, and honesty. Each story is meant to be savored individually with special attention given to the great range of motifs presented and the many distinct narrative styles used. Folktales of India offers a superb anthology of India's bountiful narrative tradition. \"This collection does an excellent job of representing India...It is the type of book that can be enjoyed by all readers who love a well-told tale as well as by scholars of traditional narrative and scholars of India in general.\"--Hugh M. Flick, Jr., Asian Folklore Studies \"The stories collected here are representative, rich in structural subtlety, and endowed with fresh earthy humor.\"--Kunal Chakraborti, Contributions to Indian Sociology","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49909371076881,"sku":"CIN0226040828G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0226040828.jpg?v=1751356843"},{"product_id":"land-of-the-golden-river-book-brenda-e-f-beck-9781927453599","title":"Land of the Golden River","description":"A Journey through Story to Poṉṉivaḷa Nāḍu: \u003cbr\u003eAn Ancient Tamil Kingdom\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis remarkable epic-length legend presents a rich and well-rounded view of local South Asian folk history, masterfully interwoven with many social themes and multiple layers of religious tradition. The text provides a lively read and can be enjoyed by students of all backgrounds and levels. This richly decorated oral telling combines numerous poetic songs with direct conversations and detailed narrative passages. The descriptive segments help to advance a broader story trajectory, leading the reader towards a long-foretold, yet still surprising, conclusion.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1965 a highly respected troubadour duo, C. Rāmacāmi of Erucaṇampāḷayam, and his nephew Paḷaṇicāmi, sang this magnificent legend in front of a live South Indian village audience. It took them eighteen nights to complete this tale  Weeks later the senior performer, Rāmacāmi, patiently dictated this same story to a local assistant who was working for the translator at the time. The text was meticulously written down by hand, phrase-by-phrase, over many days.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBoth bards wanted to preserve a story they knew in their hearts was truly unique and sacred. Each gave the present collector permission to share the words of this tale. They wanted the whole world to learn about a great legend they had themselves spent years learning. This story is about the potential for social renewal and those two singers believed it could better the lives of all who listened to it. Fifty-five years later, following in in the footsteps of these two men, their enthusiasm has now born fruit in a book they had both hoped for but could never have written themselves","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51057593483537,"sku":"NIN9781927453599","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1927453593.jpg?v=1751156683"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-brenda-e-f-beck.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}