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Life is Like a Chicken Coop Ladder: A Study of German National Character through Folklore Paperback – June 1, 1989

by Alan Dundes (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars 6 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Columbia University Press (June 1, 1989)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0814320384
  • ISBN-13: 978-0814320389
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #929,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsColloquial German, not folklore
By Johnny O. on March 7, 2006
Format: Paperback
I first saw this book while living in southwest Germany five years ago. Its less about German folklore than it is about colloquial German. As a linguist, this is a fantastic volume. German language, when compared to English, is remarkably limited in its ability to throw out four-letter words. So the Germanic peoples developed some pretty entertaining idioms over time. If you speak any German, this is a must for understanding colloquial speech and command of the only original swear word in the language. Its insightful but certainly not 'folklore' in the American sense.
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3.0 out of 5 starsTaxi zum Klo
By Art Shapiro on February 26, 2013
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
The noted U.C. Berkeley folklorist Alan Dundes did a study of feces, defecation and anal imagery in German culture in an attempt to test the hypothesis that such themes can help to define something called "national character." He amassed an astonishing mountain of sayings, adages, proverbs, folk songs...alluding to his focal subject. The title is an example; it says life, like a chicken coop ladder, is short, slimy and covered with....The book met with very mixed responses. Some found it hilarious and "right on;" others were offended by either the subject matter or the implied typology, or both. There were Germans and German-Americans on all sides. As a quantitative type, I was left frustrated by the lack of any attempt to demonstrate that such themes were significantly more frequent in German folklore vs. other (say, European) folklores; we just have to take his word for it that they are. But folklorists have never been statisticians. I suspect he's correct: I am familiar with the classic German toilet bowl with a "viewing platform" for the excreta, which always struck me as very odd; it's disappearing now. "Und morgen auch in gleiche Weise/Beginnt genau derselbe Scheisse!"
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3.0 out of 5 stars2.5 stars for thesis, four for content
By Michael Dobish on December 29, 2012
Format: Paperback
My review would be 3.25 stars on average, but sadly, that's not possible.

The thesis is in many respects highly questionable. Dundes posits first that there is a quality known as national character. Second, he posits that the German national character is highly scatological, which he bases on what another reviewer has more aptly termed an analysis of German colloquial speech and writing. (A folklorist may think of colloquial speech and writing as part of folklore, but the layman probably thinks more specifically of oral storytelling when he hears the word "folklore".) This second argument may be the best-supported in the book, though Dundes doesn't go far enough in comparative anthropology to demonstrate that this quality is unusually German. The most questionable part of the thesis is in his conclusions regarding what light this supposed anal-erotic character of the Germans and their language is supposed to shed on German history. If you accept the Freudian thesis that anal-eroticism is the underlying cause of parsimoniousness, orderliness, etc., then this part of the thesis makes sense on its own terms. But what if anal-eroticism were merely a parallel aspect of German "national character" (accepting for the moment the notion that there is such a thing), along with parsimoniousness, orderliness, etc.? And there are other arguments to explain, for instance, the rise of Nazism--historical, philosophical, etc.--that do not require this Freudian analysis, which Dundes does not consider. The thesis may be fine for you if you are already a Freudian, but I am not so easily convinced.

The content, on the other hand, is wide-ranging, well laid-out and entertaining. Ignoring the thesis, this makes excellent bathroom reading, actually.Read more ›
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