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The French reading public learnt at the beginning of the Third Republic that their country still possessed an oral storytelling tradition, thanks to the works of a generation of folktale collectors including Wentworth Webster, Emmanuel Cosquin, Paul Sebillot, Achille Millien and Félix Arnaudin. In every case these folklorists had been introduced to folktales by a female domestic servant in the family's household. For the sons of the rural notability, tale collecting was motivated by nostalgia, as a way back the feminine, dialect-speaking world of hearth and home, before the rupture of boarding school, correct French and public responsibility. It was also a means to create or maintain affective relationships across social barriers. They hoped that such 'real' relationships, untainted by the falseness generated by social hierarchies, might create the cultural space in which to achieve social reconciliation. Folklore publications could promote reconciliation on a national scale. For the servants, tales were a way of preserving kin and class solidarities, negotiating their position within the household, and giving voice to their desires and ambitions. Their stories are, therefore, valuable historical sources for the history of one of the most ubiquitous but enigmatic social groups, the domestic servant. The core of this article is a consideration of what meanings servants such as Stephana Hirigaray, Françoise Vaudin, Vincente Béquet and Augustine Chevance wanted to convey through their storytelling.
The French reading public learnt at the beginning of the Third Republic that their country still possessed an oral storytelling tradition, thanks to the works of a generation of folktale collectors including Wentworth Webster, Emmanuel Cosquin, Paul Sebillot, Achille Millien and Félix Arnaudin. In every case these folklorists had been introduced to folktales by a female domestic servant in the family's household. For the sons of the rural notability, tale collecting was motivated by nostalgia, as a way back the feminine, dialect-speaking world of hearth and home, before the rupture of boarding school, correct French and public responsibility. It was also a means to create or maintain affective relationships across social barriers. They hoped that such 'real' relationships, untainted by the falseness generated by social hierarchies, might create the cultural space in which to achieve social reconciliation. Folklore publications could promote reconciliation on a national scale. For the servants, tales were a way of preserving kin and class solidarities, negotiating their position within the household, and giving voice to their desires and ambitions. Their stories are, therefore, valuable historical sources for the history of one of the most ubiquitous but enigmatic social groups, the domestic servant. The core of this article is a consideration of what meanings servants such as Stephana Hirigaray, Françoise Vaudin, Vincente Béquet and Augustine Chevance wanted to convey through their storytelling.
” Dès qu'il y a effort pour bien dire, et pas seulement pour dire, il y a effort littéraire », disait Marcel Mauss dans son cours d'ethnographie. Il exprimait ainsi, en deux mots : bien dire, deux caractéristiques essentielles de la littérature orale : d'être un moyen de communication entre les hommes, d'être, à quelque degré que ce soit, une organisation esthétique.Si nous nous tournons vers celui qui créa, semble-t-il, le terme de « littérature orale » et l'introduisit, en 1881, dans la terminologie folklorique et ethnologique, Paul Sébillot, nous constatons qu'il ne formule aucune définition explicite, reposant sur des critères nettement dégagés. Il nous propose, cependant, par le plan de son manuel de folklore de 1913, une délimitation, à l'appui de laquelle il écrit : « le domaine de la littérature orale est circonscrit avec plus de netteté que celui des autres parties du folklore », et ceci qui en semble l'explication : « une de ses caractéristiques est la fixité relative de la forme.
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