TheBlason Populaire: Slurs and Stereotypes in Irish Proverbial Material

Abstract

This paper examines the concept of the blason populaire in a corpus of Irish-language proverbial material covering the period 1858 -1952. It will demonstrate that the focus of these blasons populaires is primarily regional, as opposed to national or ethnic, and, furthermore, that such proverbs are usually jocular, descriptive, and benign, rarely exhibiting ethnic or racial slurs. The study identifies and analyses the most salient stereotypical characterizations, and the proverbial forms in which they appear.