Children’s folklore between narrative and play: legends in a summer recreational camp

Abstract: In the framework of different narrative genres connected with children’s imagination, the legend manifests its presence in children’s processes and communication practices. This paper discusses the characteristics, content as well as diffusion of legends in the primary context of childlore, especially in regard to a corpus of stories narrated by children in a summer recreational camp in Greece. On the basis of a field research which follows the same group of children (boys and girls) from 2010 (when they depart for their first summer camp year at the age of 6 to 7) to 2014 (when they have become 11 to 12), the paper focuses on children’s differentiated views towards these narratives, as well as the ways these legends are appropriated in specific narrative and play contexts. Taking into account the basic parameters of children’s mythic thought, narrative capacity and critical evaluation of their stories, as well as comparative folklore data, the present approach tries to relate this lore with the life and the emotions of children in their specific situational context of use, everyday social life and social relationships in their peer group. The main points of discussion are:– the storytelling conditions where children are both the narrators and the audience;– the convergence of a fictive genre (the legend) with its potentiality for enactment in situational contexts of play;– the narrative and ritual (play) procedures in relation to the everyday life and the social relations in the summer camp;– the ways children transform traditional narratives, also differentiating from adult culture.