MYTH, EPIC, LEGEND AND FOLKTALE IN THE CONCEPTUAL WORLD OF JACK GOODY

Jack Goody, who was born in 1919, the British anthropologist and historian, is acknowledged as a scientist working interdisciplinary in the world. Therefore, his studies have been influential a wide range of different areas of social scientific fields such as cultural sociology and history. Among his numerous works, the studies of the Bagre myth that were collected among the LoDagaa who live in northern Ghana are very important for folklorists and anthropologists. In these studies in which he had working for years, he put forth new interpretations on nature of myths, legends, epics and folktales. Firstly, he examined how the transition from orality to literacy culture influenced narratives and changed human consciousness. He claimed that the development of writing caused radical changes in human consciousness and this event played important role on change of oral narratives structre. Besides, he contribution to folklore studies as stressing the individual creation, variability, and the fundamental difficulty of analysis in oral narratives. For all these reasons, his studies on oral narratives are very significant for folklorists. In this article, his ideas on myth, legend, epics and folktales will be examined with all aspects and given information about his term of lecto-oral that is called ‘the oral tradition’ by Jack Goody