The Frog King: On Legends, Fables,
Fairy Tales, and Anecdotes of Animals
Boria Sax
In our dealings with animals, the categories used to describe human relationships
are never quite appropriate. On the boundaries of another realm, there
are no longer very clear distinctions between symbol and reality, thought
and emotion, morality and aesthetics, the self and the other. Animals do
not recognize these divisions. At the same time, our understanding of animals
is so intimately bound up with our self-concept as human beings, it is
virtually impossible to separate the two. Representations of animals have
always contained projections of our deepest hopes, fears and aspirations.
We cannot always tell whether a given reaction to an animal results from
empathy or from anthropomorphic symbolism. When we look at animals, we
see ourselves. This book examines the depictions of animals such as the
bear, monkey, stag, elephant and frog from the end of the Middle Ages through
the nineteenth century, in stories, pictures and scientific accounts. These
reveal many implicit assumptions about humanity and the natural world.
ISBN: 0-94473-01-6 cloth 1990, 180 pages
The Parliament of Animals: Anecdotes and
Legends from Books of Natural History
Boria Sax
"The Parliament of Animals represents a scholarly treatise on folkloric
and literary narratives of animals. Each chapter on such creatures as elephants,
monkeys, rats, snakes, dogs, wolves, cats, and birds includes informative
introductions concerning the behavior and psychology of these animals and
their relationship to their human counterparts. Useful select bibliographies
on zoology, literature, folklore and language conclude these introductory
comments which are followed by intriguing fables, legends, anecdotes and
literary works concerning the animals under discussion.
"This book is thus a novel approach to the fascinating subject of the
depiction of animals in prose writings over many centuries, giving scholarly
information while at the same time providing a splendid collection of readable
and enjoyable narratives from anonymous or known authors.
"The reader is easily engaged by this anthologized treatise on animal
behavior, intelligence and psychology, and the obvious result is a better
understanding and appreciation of both the animal and the human world.
It is exactly this all-inclusive approach to animal narratives that makes
this book by Boria Sax worthwhile reading for naturalists, folklorists,
cultural historians, literary scholars, and last but not least, the interested
generalists."
—Professor Wolfgang Mieder, Editor of A Dictionary of American Proverbs,
and author of Tradition and Innovation in Folk Literature.
ISBN: 0-944473-07-5 cloth 1992, 195 pages
Boria Sax has a doctorate in German and Intellectual History from SUNY
Buffalo, and currently teaches at Pace University. As an authority on Eastern
Europe, he has worked as a consultant for many human rights organizations
including Amnesty International, Helsinki Watch Committee, Human Rights
Internet and the International League for Human Rights. He also has appeared
before the Helsinki Commission of the U. S. Congress. In 1984 he authored
a report that was presented before the Human Rights Committee of the United
Nations in Geneva.
His published work includes poetry, short stories, articles and translations.
It has appered in Poet & Critic, Cross Currents, Index
on Censorship, Anthrozoös, Commonweal, New York
Folklore, Children's Literature Quarterly and many other journals.
His previous books include a work of criticism entitled The Romantic
Heritage of Marxism: A Study of East German Love Poetry and a collection
of poems entitled Rheinland Market. He has lectured at several institutions
including Middlebury College, the Hastings Center, the Staten Island Zoo
and the National Zoo of the Smithsonian Institute.