Dégh, Linda

views updated

DÉGH, Linda

Born 19 March 1920, Budapest, Hungary

Daughter of Karoly and Folan Engl Dégh; married AndrewVazsonyi, 1958

Linda Dégh studied with the eminent folklorist, G. Ortutay, at Pázmány Peter University in Budapest and received a Ph.D. in ethnography in 1943. Her first major publication was her dissertation, Pandur Péter meséi (Tales of Peter Pandur, 1942), a collection of folktales with an analytical essay and annotation.

After graduation, Dégh conducted fieldwork and research for various scholarly institutions in Hungary, investigating primarily two major problems: urban/industrial folklore as it relates to the rural peasantry, and the folk traditions of the Hungarian revolution of 1848. Her research and publication on the latter demonstrated how historical facts have become "folklorized" through oral circulation over time, especially in lyrical and narrative folksongs. Later Dégh did extensive fieldwork throughout eastern Europe examining ethnic change and interethnic relations as well as traditional narratives, world view, and folk religion.

Dégh eventually focused her European fieldwork on collecting the oral traditions of the Bukovina Székely villagers who were resettled in western Hungary after World War II. This fieldwork resulted in a major study on the sociology of storytelling, Märchen, Erzähler und Erzählgemeinschaft, dargestellt an der ungarischen Volksüberlieferung (1962), which was awarded the international Pitré prize in 1963 and was later published in the U.S. as Folktales and Society: Storytelling in a Hungarian Peasant Community (1969). This is Dégh's most widely known work in America and it is used as a textbook in many colleges and universities. A "major classic of folklore analysis," it treats the inclusive narrative art of the villagers of Kakasd as well as the general process of transmission and innovation of oral tradition. The book also deals authoritatively with the interplay of print and oral tradition in the modern world.

In 1951 Dégh was appointed to the faculty of the Folklore Department of Eötvös-University in Budapest. She also served on various national boards and commissions dealing with folklore and ethnography. Dégh published extensively during this phase of her career, but since most of her books and articles are in Hungarian, they are not generally accessible to an American audience. In 1964 she was invited to Indiana University as a visiting professor in the Folklore Institute. After a year of field-work among the Hungarian ethnic colony in the industrial region of northwest Indiana, Dégh returned to Indiana University as a full professor.

Since coming to the U.S., Dégh's folklore interests continued to develop in two major areas: interethnic relations in North America and the modern American legend. Her research among U.S. and Canadian ethnics has been supported by various national organizations including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Philosophical Society, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Canadian Centre for Folk Culture Studies. Although she published numerous articles dealing with different aspects of this fieldwork, her major contribution so far has been a monograph, People in the Tobacco Belt: Four Lives (1975). This work is comprised of the translated life histories of Hungarians now living in Canada with annotation and an analytical essay dealing with each. Dégh examines, among other things, the techniques by which the narrators structured their stories and the world view revealed by them. The transcribed life histories depart from standard anthropological practice because they have not been rearranged and edited to fit conventional chronologies.

Although her work with ethnicity is extensive, Dégh is best known in the U.S. for her research and publication dealing with the folktale (Märchen) and the legend. In 1968 she founded and began editing a scholarly journal, Indiana Folklore, specializing in the publication and analysis of legends and legend-telling. Using her own meticulous fieldwork and publications as examples, Dégh has trained a whole generation of Indiana University graduate students in the theories and techniques of dealing with folk legendry. Dégh is also a member of a committee of the prestigious International Congress of Folk Narrative Studies which has undertaken the classification and intensive study of the legend in the U.S. and Europe.

Other Works:

Pandur Péter hét bagi meséje (Seven Tales by P. Pandur from Bag, 1940). Bodrogközi mesék (Tales from Bodrogköz,1945). Ütmutató 48-as hagyo-mány gyüjtéséhez (Fieldworkers' Guide for Researching Historical Traditions of 1848-49, 1947). A magyar népi szinjáték kutatása (Hungarian Folk Drama Research, 1947). Történeti énekek és katonadalok (Historical Songs and Soldiers' Songs, with I. Katona and L. Péter, 1952). A szabadságharc népköltészete (Folklore of the War of Independence, 1952). Szépen szól a Kossuth muzsikája (Selected Songs from the Revolution of 1848, 1953). Népköltészet (Folk Literature, 1953). Magyarországi munkásdalok (Workers' Songs from Hungary, with T. Dömötör and I. Katona, 1955). Kakasdi népmesék (Folktales from Kakasd, 1955). Magyar népmesék (Hungarian Tales, 1960). Gonaquadate a viziszörny (North American Indian Tales, 1960). A világjáró királyfi (North European Folktales, 1961). Tolna megyei székely népmesék (Szekely Folktales from Tolna County, 1965). Folklore Today: A Festschrift for Richard M. Dorson (edited by Dégh with F. Oinas and H. Glassie, 1976). East European Folk Narrative Studies (edited by Dégh, 1977).

Articles: "Ethnology in Hungary" in Anthropology in East-Central and Southeast (1970), "Folk Religion as Ideology for Ethnic Survival: The Hungarians of Kipling, Saskatchewan" in Ethnicity on the Great Plains (1980).