C-CS

Analysis of the Hare & the Tortoise

Aesop's Fables

Scholars regard the attribution of many of our most familiar fables to a man named Aesop to be historically unlikely. Aesop names a collection of tales that go well back into our oral culture and may have their origins in Ethiopia and Greece . The first known collection dates back to 300 B.C. The first surviving collection was assembled during the first century by Phaedrus. D. L. Ashliman writes that "covering more than 2,000 years of time and extending across the length and breadth of Europe, and beyond, illustrates the timeless appeal of the Aesopic tradition" (Ashliman, 2003). It is hardly an exaggeration to say that Aesop's fables are an important story in our cultural heritage.

As Ashliman notes, although the fables are regularly associated with specific moral applications, they do not comprise a coherent moral philosophy. In fact, the fables often contradict one another (Ashliman, 2003, xv). For example, many of the fables could be understood to suggest that "might makes right." "The Wolf and the Lamb" is an interesting example in which the wolf argues that the lamb has wronged him. The lamb successfully counters every argument with impeccable logic. Finally, tired of his attempts at persuasion, the wolf says "Well, anyhow, I'm not going without my dinner" and devours the lamb. Other fables offer a contradictory view of the matter. In the "Mouse and the Bull," the tiny mouse torments the huge bull and flees into his mouse hole. The bull tried to batter into it without success and succumbs to exhaustion. At the end, the mouse says "You big fellows don't always have it your own way. You see sometimes we little ones come off best." The moral application appended to the tale reads: "The battle is not always to the strong." Similarly, in "The Hare and the Tortoise," one of the best-known fables which I will use as my example of a cultural configuration, the slow tortoise wins out over the fast hare.

The circumstance that the fables appear from a logical point of view to be a contradictory system is an important aspect of their cultural significance. As Ashliman notes "In keeping with their folklore heritage, Aesopic fables reflect the lifestyle, the values, and the frustrations of ordinary people," and offer "practical everyday advice." Their moral applications are ad hoc and contingent rather than systematic and logically consistent. In this context, they are potential configurations. When their audiences believe that their "advice" is valuable and apply it in particular situations, they configure those experiences.. Although audiences may understand the meaning of a tale, it does not mean that they have configured it. The difference is crucial from the standpoint of enabling cultures. For example, what sort of culture would emerge from a belief that a powerful person can take whatever he wishes from someone less powerful even if it is his life? Even when they understand the meaning of the "The Wolf and the Lamb" fable, many persons would not necessarily incorporate it into their world views as a way of being in the world. We would, however, be naive if we assumed that no one is prepared to accept this "moral" as a way of being in the world. For them, " The Wolf and the Lamb" is a configuration because they believe in its moral. It is not difficult to believe that "slow and steady wins the race" is good advice. For example, Persons who believe that impatience can result in undesirable outcomes might well express it by alluding to the Hare and the Tortoise configuration. As Kenneth Burke moral axioms are "equipment for living."

In what follows, I will use "The Hare and the Tortoise" as an example of a cultural configuration.

Theoretical Assumptions

In analyzing "The Hare and the Tortoise," I employ a variant of frame analysis, derived from cognitive linguistics and narratology. The type of analysis advocated here is indebted to the work of Vladimir Propp and Gerald Prince as well as the mythographic tradition of analysis and focuses on the "story structure" underlying the narrative.

A key conception, drawn from cognitive linguistics, is that words give their readers or listeners instructions about how to construct a possible world or story world from them.

The notion of `constructivism' is taken principally from Conversation Analysis. The central idea of Conversation Analysis is that everyday conversation is the primary medium through which we enact our culture and that the turn-by-turn nature of conversational interaction involves the ongoing construction of social reality. Conversational participants respond in creative yet highly structured ways to the continuously evolving context of the interaction. Since the key point about constructivism is that speakers of a language are not working with objective, ready-made social categories and meanings that are simply mapped onto language, there is an obvious connection with the notion of construal in Cognitive Linguistics (Lee, 183)

James Paul Gee makes the same point in his Introduction to Discourse Analysis:

Language has a magical property: when we speak or write we craft what we have to say to fit the situation or context in which we are communicating. But, at the same time, how we speak or write creates that very situation or context. It seems, then, that we fit our language to a situation or context that our language, in turn, helped to create in the first place. ....
Another way to look at the matter is this: we always actively use spoken and written language to create or build the world of activities (e.g. committee meetings) and institutions (committees) around us. However, thanks to the workings of history and culture, we often do this in more or less routine ways. These routines make activities and institutions, like committees and committee meetings, seem to (and, in that sense, actually) exist apart from language and action in the here and now. None the less, these activities and institutions have to be continuously and actively rebuilt in the here and now. This is what accounts for change, transformation, and the power of language-in-action in the world.
We continually and actively build and rebuild our worlds not just through language, but through language used in tandem with actions, interactions, non-linguistic symbol systems, objects, tools, technologies, and distinctive ways of thinking, valuing, feeling, and believing. Sometimes what we build is quite similar to what we have built before; sometimes it is not. But language-in-action is always and everywhere an active building process. (11)

Both Lee's and Gee's remarks are about the ways in which language builds a social world. In the case of persons who are audiences to a story someone else has composed, from this "constructivist" point of view, the text they read is understood as a set of instructions about constructing a possible or story world. In this sense, the story's structure is an instruction. Discourse analysis reveals the instructions as a whole, as an "instructure."

This mode of analysis is suited to the description of cultural configurations—the mythoi that enable our cultures--legends, folk tales, fairy tales, and myths (including contemporary stories that are repeated so often in a culture that to recognize them is to identify yourself with that culture). Cultural configurations delineate the patterns of behavior that members of the couture believe provide them with "equipment for living," as Kenneth Burke puts it—in other words, as instructions about how to behave.. "The Hare and the Tortoise" is one of the cultural configurations that belongs to western civilization.

When a tale is retold not simply repeated, the analog version of the protolog differs. The differences mark the selectivity with which retellers organize the tale and the additions they make. Comparing the tales with respect to the details that are selected, the details that are omitted, and the details that are added provide evidences about the way in which the revised language instructs audiences to construct the story world in their imaginations. (It is not evidence of the reteller's intention.)

To analyze the construction of a story world sets parameters on the possible world that can be created from the instructuring. This is not evidence of authorial intention. Nor is it evidence of a particular reader's reconstruction of the tale in her imagination. It is only evidence of a particular story world structured in a particular manner as described by an analyst using specific analytical tools (concepts). Though it does not predict the way an individual reader might read the text, it does make explicit the instructuring of the story world to a degree that can be replicated by another analyst (or challenged). Although the instructing description is likely to account for a large percentage of readings of the tale, the exact measure can only be determined by ethnographic or interviewing methods. Nonetheless, having the instructuring details available to an ethnographer or interviewer can be of considerable assistance to these researcher in developing their prompts.

Jacob's & Jone's"The Hare and the Tortoise"

There are many versions of Aesop’s fable, “The Hare and the Tortoise.” To illustrate their configural impact, I will start with two early versions, Jacobs' and Jones':

The Hare and the Tortoise (A. a protolog )

The Hare and the Tortoise (B. an analog)

The Hare was once boasting of his speed before the other animals. "I have never yet been beaten," said he, "when I put forth my full speed. I challenge any one here to race with me." The Tortoise said quietly, "I accept your challenge.""That is a good joke," said the Hare; "I could dance round you all the way." "Keep your boasting till you've beaten," answered the Tortoise. "Shall we race?" So a course was fixed and a start was made. The Hare darted almost out of sight at once, but soon stopped and, to show his contempt for the Tortoise, lay down to have a nap. The Tortoise plodded on and plodded on, and when the Hare awoke from his nap, he saw the Tortoise just near the winning-post and could not run up in time to save the race. Then said the Tortoise:

[MORAL:] "Plodding wins the race."

FROM: Æsop. (Sixth century B.C.) Fables. The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. Ed. Joseph Jacobs

A HARE one day ridiculed the short feet and slow pace of the Tortoise, who replied, laughing: "Though you be swift as the wind, I will beat you in a race." The Hare, believing her assertion to be simply impossible, assented to the proposal; and they agreed that the Fox should choose the course and fix the goal. On the day appointed for the race the two started together. The Tortoise never for a moment stopped, but went on with a slow but steady pace straight to the end of the course. The Hare, lying down by the wayside, fell fast asleep. At last waking up, and moving as fast as he could, he saw the Tortoise had reached the goal, and was comfortably dozing after her fatigue.

[MORAL:] Slow but steady wins the race.

Translated by Vernon Jones for the Heimann edition of Aesop’s Fables.

Comparison of the Discourse in the Protolog & Analog

The Hare and The Tortoise (Protolog--version A)	The Hare and the Tortoise (Analog--version B)

[1] A Hare was once boasting of his speed before the other animals.	[1] A HARE one day ridiculed the short feet and slow pace of the Tortoise,
[2] "I have never yet been beaten," said he, "when I put forth my full speed.
[3] I challenge any one here to race with me."
[4] The Tortoise said quietly, "I accept your challenge."	[2] who replied, laughing: "Though you be swift as the wind, I will beat you in a race."
[5] "That is a good joke," said the Hare;	[3] The Hare, believing her assertion to be simply impossible,
[6] "I could dance round you all the way."
[7] "Keep your boasting till you've beaten," answered the Tortoise.
[8] "Shall we race?"	[3b] assented to the proposal;
[9] So a course was fixed	[4] And they agreed that the Fox should choose the course and fix the goal.
[10] and a start was made.	[5] On the day appointed for the race the two started together.
[11] The Hare darted almost out of sight at once,
[12] but soon stopped
[13] and, to show his contempt for the Tortoise, lay down to have a nap.	[8] The Hare, lying down by the wayside, fell fast asleep.
	[6] The Tortoise never for a moment stopped,
[14] The Tortoise plodded on and plodded on,	[7] but went on with a slow but steady pace straight to the end of the course.
[15] and when the Hare awoke from his nap,	[9] At last waking up,
[16] he saw the Tortoise just near the winning-post	[11] he saw the Tortoise had reached the goal,
	[12] and was comfortably dozing after her fatigue.
[17] and could not run up in time to save the race.	[10] and moving as fast as he could,
[18] Then said the Tortoise: "Plodding wins the race."	[13] Slow but steady wins the race.

The words highlighted in the same color show discourse matches. Green indicates an insulting act. her indicates the sex of the animals. race indicates the race context of situation. together indicates positioning.

Differences Between the Protolog and Analog

These versions invite their readers to construe the fable in quite different ways. Though they share the same story structure—conflict between H & T > race > T wins, they are different configurations. These differences imply two contrasting ways of configuring the story.

FIGURES: Whereas B configures as a conflict between a man and woman (the Hare is male, the Tortoise is female), A does not (the Hare is male, but the gender of the Tortoise is ambiguous).
CHARACTERIZATION [HARE]: In B, the Hare ridicules the Tortoise. In A, the Hare is boastful, and is said to “show his contempt for the Tortoise” by taking a nap.
CHARACTERIZATION [TORTOISE]: In B, the Tortoise is confident that she will win the race even though she knows the Hare is “swift as the wind.” In A, the Tortoise quietly accepts the Hare’s boastful challenge.
ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT THE OTHER: In B the Hare believes the Tortoise’s challenge to be “impossible.” In A, the Hare believes the Tortoise’s acceptance of his challenge to be a “joke.”
IDENTIFICATION: In B, the audience is invited to identify with a woman who takes the initiative in the situation and wins with determination. In A, the audience is invited to identify with a person of undetermined gender.
MOTIVATION: In B the Hare ridicules the Tortoise specifically. In A, the Hare perceives the Tortoise’s acceptance of his challenge as a “joke” and suggests he can “dance round” the Tortoise all the way.
MOTIVATION: In B, the Hare insults the Tortoise, who then, “laughing,” challenges him. In A, the Hare, to prove his boast, challenges “anyone here.” The Tortoise “quietly” accepts his challenge.
ACTION: The action that “wins the race” for the Tortoise is said to be “slow but steady” in B and “plodding” in A.
TEMPORAL AXIS: In B a day is “appointed for the race.” In A the race occurs immediately after the Hare’s boastful insult.
SPATIAL AXIS: In B the course is chosen by the Hare described as a “way” (from the expression “wayside”). In A, the course was “fixed” and it had a “winning-post.”
RESOLUTION: In B the Tortoise has reached the goal & is dozing from fatigue. In A, the Tortoise is “near the winning-post.”
THEME: In B, “Slow but steady wins the race” [not in the text]. In A, “Plodding wins the race” [is announced by the Tortoise.]

There is an obvious difference in the treatment of the figures. In B, the re-telling, the audience is instructed to configure the conflict as gendered. In A, gender is not foregrounded. This is a salient difference. Though persons reading fable A can construe the Tortoise as female, they are not invited to construe the fable as a gendered conflict. If readers construe it as gendered, then the characterization of the Tortoise as confident and proactive in responding to the Hare’s ridicule poses a possible world in which a man’s superior physical ability is overcome by a woman’s persistence. In A, the conflict is not a sexist issue. Boasting is foregrounded and the fable can easily be constructed as a possible world in which arrogant persons with inflated views of themselves can be outdone by persons who are quiet (not arrogant) and whose behavior has no particular social cache since it is perceived as “plodding.”

In retelling the story (analog B), it seems likely that the story-teller has identified with the Tortoise as a self-figure. The identification results in making the Tortoise female, suggesting that the retold tale configures a woman’s experience of the men who ridicule them for their lack of physical prowess. Let’s consider a retelling in which we know that the re-teller is a woman.

Kit Lee's Analog

http://people.umass.edu/giloth/

Professor Copper Giloth of the U of Massachusetts at Amherst typically assigns her students in Art 271, “Introduction to Computing in the Fine Arts,” the task of illustrating a traditional Aesop's fable along side their own retellings of the fables in a modern setting. One of her students, Kit Lee did a Flash version of the traditional tale and a modern version of it. In the retelling, the Hare is a young man driving a fast car and the Tortoise an elderly woman driving a slow car. The Hare ridicules the slow driving woman who claims she can beat him to a gas station down the road. The Hare decides that he has time to stop for a bite to eat and goes to a restaurant where he dines on lobster. When he comes out and resumes driving, he sees that the old woman is already at the gas station. She comments: I didn't’t need to be fast just persistent. Kit Lee’s retelling configures the tale as one in which elderly women drive slowly and young men drive fast. The retelling suggests that Kit identified with the woman over against the man who insulted her. Like the preceding retelling, the competition is configured as gendered.

Although we do not know anything about the impact of Aesop’s fable on Kit Lee, we do know that she followed the instructions built into the story since in her retelling of the story, the old woman has the same role as the Tortoise. We don’t have much information about the extent to which she identified with the OW/Tortoise but her characterizations of the “modern” Hare and “modern” Tortoise suggest that she understood that the former insults the latter because he says “slow drivers should stay home!!!!” The woman responds “I heard that” suggesting that she was insulted. Kit also repeats the event in which the old woman claims that she can beat the young man. The woman says: “I may drive slow but I can beat you to any destination.” The man responds: “Nobody can beat me in this car!!! Especially by an old woman!!” [sic]. Kit omits the “contemptuous nap” and has the man say: ”She’s so slow!!! HAHA!! I bet I have time to pull over and grab a bite to eat.” Rather than contempt, the man exhibits an emotion closer to overconfidence in his fast car. An interesting aspect of the retelling is that in the woman’s challenge, she picks the goal of the race, a gas station 10 miles away. Then when the man stops for his meal, she shows his watch moving to indicate that he spent 30 minutes in the restaurant. So the speed of the woman’s car was 30-35 mph. It’s also interesting that he has lobster for his meal though we don’t know whether it’s lunch or dinner. Finally, the woman identifies “persistence” as the trait that won the race though she quotes Aesop’s moral using “plodding.”

Professor Giloth instructed her students to put the fable “in a modern setting.” Kit’s choice of a car race between a young man and an old woman belongs to her motivation in the retelling. However, the retelling itself does not reveal the impact of the fable on Kit. It does reveal that she configured it because she accepted the instructions about how to tell (structure) the story and con-figured the relationship between the protagonist and antagonist according the telling. My mythographic description of her retelling points to this match up. Her innovations do not change the story structure significantly. The motives she assigns are close to those in the telling. The one departure involves the “contemptuous nap,” but that is a subplot and her departure from it does not change the outcome of the main plot.

The Hare and the Tortoise Configuration

The Hare and the Tortoise configuration is a formula for story-telling. I can easily retell the story, retaining its narrative structure but changing its content. If I put fable A in the context of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the “moral” then could be configured as a fable about athletes with superior ability who lose to less gifted and unspectacular but consistent and “on task” players. If I put it into a blog on ESPN’s web site, it would very likely be construed (retold in the minds of readers) as a comment on the current plight of the New York Knicks. As it happens, Steve Marbury, a black player for the Knicks who declared himself the best point guard in the NBA & named himself “Starbury,” is constantly criticized by his white coach, Larry Brown, for lapses in his defense and intensity. The Knicks had one of the worst records in the league in 2006-2007 but its largest payroll. They regularly lost to teams with far less athletic ability like the Chicago Bulls who traded a black player to the Knicks, released another obtained from them, and benched yet a third, all of whom have the same liabilities as Marbury. In addition, the Bulls frequently play in their stead three white players with less talent but who play excellent defense with more intensity. In this context, “the Hare and the Tortoise” could easily be construed as a racist allegory if it were configured as an indictment of black players.

Needless to say, the fable, even in the context of the NBA, could only be configured in this racist way if the reader of the blog identified with the Hare instead of the Tortoise and perceived the Hare as a figure for players like Marbury. If on the other hand, the Hare was construed as an emblem for a player with the talent to score and an unwillingness to defend, he could stand for both white and black players and the Tortoise for both black and white players since the character of the Hare and the Tortoise can readily be applied to players from various racial backgrounds.

This example illustrates the way in which a configuration (story structure) can organize experiences as a tale. Such retellings will deviate from the protolog and thus reveal selectivity as the content is added to the structure. It does not reveal the meanings that a reader or listener may construe. Construals are only available through studies of readers and listeners. However, selectivity in retellings reveals a framework of expectations.

A telling is perhaps more accurately described as an in-structuring, that is, the instructions in the text’s language are dynamic; they are sequential. But in-structuring is not equivalent to authoring. The author’s intention in composing a story is not a factor in a configural description. Configural-protolog analysis matches the instructions in a retelling with the instructions in a telling. In this sense, just as a telling is not identical to the author’s compositional intention, so a retelling is not identical to a reader’s reading of the tale. One would suspect that a reader’s reading is the basis of his or her retelling of the story but configural analysis is concerned with the cultural impact of story telling not with the meaning of stories. A configuration is a culturally shared story independent of the original author’s intention or a reader’s interpretation. A configuration depends for its impact on the model of behavior it illustrates.

The two different ways of construing the NBA retelling of The Hare and the Tortoise mentioned above are based on the same model of behavior. The tale has the same cultural impact on both interpreters of it.

The Story Structure of the Hare and the Tortoise

As a story structure, the Hare and the Tortoise fable has a cultural meaning fixed in the “moral” assigned to it. In a more traditional analysis, the statements “Slow but steady wins the race” and “Plodding wins the race” can be interpreted as the same moral. Contextualized in the varied experiences of an audience, it can be configured in numerous ways. The “stability” (shared cultural usage) of a configuration comes not from its meaning which varies with each member of its audience but from its story script, that is, the structure of interaction or their “mythos.” In the case of the Hare and the Tortoise, the script is rather simple.

A.     Initial State: two figures conflict
B.     Event: they compete
C.     Final State: one wins

Cognitive Linguists (Langacker, Ungerer & Schmid, for example) argue that we organize our activities in terms of “basic domains” of action or “basic categories” of action. For example, a basic activity is walking. It is associated with subordinate terms (more specific forms of the activity), e.g., stride, strut, amble, stroll, and so on. This phenomenon allows us to generate a “basic story” form from various specific instances of telling it. The mythos (story structure), which I will draw from Joseph Jacobs highly regarded retelling, is slightly more complex:

A. A figure claims to be faster than anyone. Another figure, though slow, responds. They agree to race.
B. The two figures compete.
C. The faster figure, who is far ahead, stops to sleep during the race. The slower figure continues racing without stopping.
D. The slower figure wins the competition
MORAL: persistence (moving slowly but steadily) wins

At a lower levels of generality, the mythos could include motivation either by stipulating that the conflict was occasioned by the hare insulting the tortoise as in the Joseph Jacobs version; or by the tortoise challenging the hare to a race after hearing his claim to be faster than anyone, as in Vernon Jones version. The conflict is resolved by a competition. The event that produces the outcome is the persistent application of the talent which the winning figure has. The story structure of the fable is quite general. Thus it can “frame” a wide range of situations as we have already seen in the retellings. In Kit Lee’s retelling, the cars have to be understood (in a somewhat cyborgian fashion) as extensions of the hare’s and tortoise’s legs. When various re-tellers narrate the story, the telling is a “protolog” basic configuration and the retold story is the “analog” configuration. In a sense whenever someone configures a story, it is always an “analog” configuration with the “telling/in-structuring” of the story as its protolog even when the content is not much varied.

The Hare and the Tortoise Analogs

In the sections that follow, I will examine several more configurations of the Hare and the Tortoise story and describe the elements in the retellings which reveal that their tellers have configured it. Two of the most familiar versions of Aesop’s tale are retold by Vernon Jones in 1912 and Joseph Jacobs sometime between 1909 and 1914. The versions of the tale by Vernon Jones and Joseph Jacobs contrast in that in the former the tortoise accepts the hare’s challenge and in latter the tortoise challenges the hare. All versions begin with the Hare claiming to be faster than any of the other animals. Although this difference is significant, I will combine the two into a “protolog” and the contemporary retellings of the tale as “analogs.”

Aesop’s story is quite simple. The story is set by defining H as fast & T as slow; then a challenge creates rivalry (conflict) motivated by H’s arrogance and T’s being insulted or annoyed which lead to a race which starts with the H far ahead of the T; but the turning point comes when the H naps and the T continues at his pace to the finish line and wins the race. It has roughly 8 parts that can be described by using Fretag’s Pyramid diagram of dramatic structure: exposition, conflict, motivation, provocation, rising action, turning point, denouement, and conclusion.

comparing the protolog & first analog

Comparing the tales yields the following dramatic structure, an expanded version of the tale’s basic mythos.

Dramatic structure	Vernon Jones’ version	Joseph Jacobs’ version
Exposition	The Hare was once boasting of his speed before the other animals. "I have never yet been beaten," said he, "when I put forth my full speed.	A hare was one day making fun of a tortoise for being so slow upon his feet.
Dramatic Conflict	I challenge any one here to race with me." The Tortoise said quietly, "I accept your challenge."	“Wait a bit,” said the tortoise. “I’ll run a race with you, and I’ll wager that I’ll win.”
T’s motivation	"That is a good joke," said the Hare; "I could dance round you all the way."	“Oh, well,” replied the hare, who was much amused at the idea,
H’s motivation	"Keep your boasting till you've beaten," answered the Tortoise.
provocation	"Shall we race?"	“let’s try and see.”
Initial Rising action (preparation)	So a course was fixed	And it was soon agreed that the fox should set a course for them and be the judge.
Rising action (start of race)	and a start was made.	When the time came both started off together,
Rising action (complication)	The Hare darted almost out of sight at once	but the hare was soon so far ahead
Turning point	, but soon stopped, and, to show his contempt for the Tortoise, lay down to have a nap.	that he thought he might as well have a rest. So down he lay and fell fast asleep.
Falling action (T’s move)	The Tortoise plodded on and plodded on,	Meanwhile the tortoise kept plodding on, and in time reached the goal.
Falling action H’s move Falling action	and when the Hare awoke from his nap, he saw the Tortoise just near the winning-post	At last the Hare woke up with a start And dashed on at his fastest,
resolution	and could not run up in time to save the race.	But only to find that the tortoise had already won the race.
MORAL	Then said the Tortoise: "Plodding wins the race."	Slow and steady wins the race.

In the first column, the colors code the different dramatic sections of the tale.

The dramatic structure & story structure of the protolog:

Opening	exposition	Characterizes H	H boasts of his speed before the other animals.
H’s claim	exposition	Characterizes H	T is known to be slow.
The challenge	Conflict = initial situation	Dramatic conflict (from h’s pt of vw)	H challenges any one to race.
T’s response	Conflict = initial situation	Dramatic conflict (from t’s pt of vw)	T challenges H to a race.
H’s insult	motivation	H instults T (provides T with motivation for T to race)	H dismisses the H.
T’s response	motivation	T reprimands H (provides motivation for H to win the race)	T reprimands H.
challenge	provocation	Initiates the action	They agree to race.
Course prepared	Re-setting	Changes setting to race course	A race course (& judge) are established.
Race started	complication	Action starts	The race starts
H’s first move	complication	complication	H jumps out to a huge lead.
H stops	Turning point	Prelude to turning point	H stops racing (for some side-attraction).
H naps	Turning point	Turning point of the race	H takes a nap.
T’s move	denouement	T’s move initiates the denouement	T plods on and on.
H wakes up	denouement	H’s move precipitates the denouement	H is awakened from his nap.
T at finish line	denouement	The denouement ends	T is at the finish line.
H realizes he lost	Resolution = Final situation	Resolution of the story	H cannot run fast enough to win. T wins.
commentary	epilogue	Epilogue	Comment on events is made either by a character or by the narrator.
MORAL		General moral application	Slow and steady wins the race.

In the various retellings of the story, the re-tellers amplify the mythos of the protolog. Their “amplifications” reveal the “in-structuring” of the story (the instructions the re-teller is giving the audience about how to construe the tale) become visible. I will first examine the transposition markers which reveal whether the re-teller has configured the story or has simply repeated the protolog with minor changes in wording.

Six Analogs

In this section, I will examine several more configurations of the Hare and the Tortoise story and describe the elements in the retellings which reveal that their tellers have configured it. When readers or listeners identify with a figure in the tale (usually the Tortoise), they "configure" it by transposing their perspective with that of the character in the tale. The assume the perspective of the character viewing the situations from his or er point of view. Though it is not possible to know whether the original teller (the protolog version) identifies with one of the characters, when the tale is retold there are several ways in which transpositional identifications are marked in the language of the analog.

Using six other retellings of the Hare and the Tortoise story, I will give examples of these transposition markers. In a mythographic description of a story structure or mythos, the more transposition markers revealed in the text, the stronger the evidence of a transposition. “As the term implies, a trans-position indicates that the viewer or reader changes or transfers his actual position (sitting in a theater) to take on the perspective of the self-figure (e.g., Indiana Jones). The audience, instead of seeing events through their eyes, see events from the perspective of the self-figure.” How are trans-positions marked in retellings? We can say that, just as film makers force their audiences to configure scenes from a particular point of view, so re-tellers instruct their audiences to configure scenes in specific ways. The markers of perspective in a tale depend upon a process of trans-positioning to the extent that the perspectives instruct the audience to configure the tale on the basis of their experiences of perspectives in their everyday lives. However, they are not seeing a actual scene but a virtual one and the perspective they have taken already belongs to a character in the tale. Just as in the cinema, the character’s perspective is the only one available.

Detailed Comparison of the Analog Plots

Composite Plot of the H&T tale

1a. exposition	setting
protolog	The Hare was . . . before the other animals
anonymous	Hare and Tortoise (1b)
Pinkney
McAllister	One day, Tortoise overheard Hare boasting to some rabbits.
Granowsky	Once upon a time, there was a hare who could run very fast. In fact, the hare ran so fast that he was just a blur as he dashed over the hills and through the trees.
Granowsky 2	__You wouldn't’t think that a slow poke tortoise could beat a speedy hare like me, would you? Well, we all know he did. You just might not know how. Losing to that tortoise was the best thing that ever happened to me. I lost the race, but I won something else. __Let me tell you about it. __Since I was very young, I have been one speedy little hare. My family found out early how quick I was. One sunny day, we went on a picnic at the park. Mama Hare set me down just for a minute to unpack our lunch. Before she knew it, I had zipped to the other end of the pond. __“Where is Little Hare?” Mama Hare asked when she didn't’t see me on the blanket. __Papa Hare looked around. “My goodness, is that Little Hare way down there? How did he get there so fast?” he asked. __Soon, the word about my speed spread to the other animals. “Have you seen how fast Little Hare hops along?” they would ask one another. “He’s quicker than lightning!” __ All the speedy animals wanted to race me. The fox, the deer, and the squirrel each took a turn. __“The hare wins again!” the lion would roar. __It felt great to be the winner. I’m afraid I just didn't’t think about how the other animals felt about losing. __After a while, the other animals stopped playing with me. “What’s wrong?” I wondered. “We always have so much fun racing, don’t we? I’m really fast, aren’t I?” __Well, fast or not, I had no friends. So I was very sad and lonely during my little bunny years. __Then one day, I was hopping by myself across the grasslands when I came upon the tortoise. He was chatting and laughing with some other animals.
Stevens	Once upon a time, there was a tortoise and a hare
Corwin	Although Tortoise and Hare had been best friends since they first met in school

1b. exposition	Characterizes H
protolog	Hare was boasting of his speed. "I have never yet been beaten," said he, "when I put forth my full speed. Arrogant (2b1), contemptuous (5)
anonymous	A hare was continually poking fun at a tortoise because of the slowness of his pace. [Jeering (2a), arrogant (2b1), in the end “ashamed” (6c)
Pinkney	A conceited hare boasted about her speed to everyone who would listen. “Not even the North Wind is as fast as I am!” she declared. “No animal in the forest could beat me in a race!”
McAllister	“I can run so fast, I leave the wind behind,” said Hare. The rabbits were amazed.
Granowsky	The hare like to boast about his speed. “I am the fastest runner in all the land,” he would often say to the other animals. “Look around as far as you can see. You won’t find any animal that can run as fast as I can.”
Granowsky 2	When I saw all those animals having fun together, I felt even more lonely. I wanted to play, too. So I challenged the tortoise to a race. “Tortoise,” I said “can you imagine how you would do in a race against me?”
Stevens	Hare was flashy and rude. He did everything quickly.
Corwin	Hare always teased Tortoise about being a super slowpoke.

1c. exposition	Characterizes T
protolog	Quiet (2b), assertive (2a1), plodding (6a)
anonymous	The tortoise tried not to be annoyed by the jeers of the hare [goaded in challenging the H [assertive 2a1, plodding (4b, 6a))
Pinkney	Now a tortoise nearby grew tired of such bragging. “We’ve all heard you talk, but we’ve never seen you run,” she said.
McAllister	“What nonsense,” said Tortoise, creeping out of the rhubarb,
Granowsky	The tortoise grew tired of the hare’s talk. “I may be slow, but I get where I want to go,” said the tortoise.
Granowsky 2	“That tortoise sure has a lot of friends,” I thought. “He’s such a slow poke. But everyone still seems to like him.”
Stevens	Tortoise was friendly and quiet. He did everything slowly.
Corwin	One day, deciding enough was enough,

2a. Conflict	Dramatic conflict (initiated by hare)
protolog	I challenge any one here to race with me."
anonymous	the jeers of the hare (hare jeers at the Tortoise, hence contemptuous)
Pinkney
McAllister
Granowsky	The hare like to brag, and he also like to tease the other animals. He teased the tortoise the most. “you are so slow!” said the hare to the tortoise. “I don’t know why you bother to go anywhere. Why don’t you just sit around in your silly shell all day?” The hare teased on. He said to the other animals, “Wouldn't’t it be funny to see the tortoise and me in a race?”
Granowsky 2	When I saw all those animals having fun together, I felt even more lonely. I wanted to play, too. So I challenged the tortoise to a race. “Tortoise,” I said “can you imagine how you would do in a race against me?”
Stevens	One afternoon, Hare followed Tortoise to the store, the store will be closed,” he said. “You’re so slow, I could beat you at a race, hopping backwards on one paw.”
Corwin

2b. Conflict	Dramatic conflict (initiated by Tortoise)
protolog	The Tortoise said quietly "I accept your challenge."
anonymous	He (T) was goaded into challenging the hare to a foot race.
Pinkney	T: “Why don’t you race with me, and then we’ll see who is the fastest.”
McAllister	T: “I’ll give you a race.”
Granowsky	The tortoise spoke up. “Let’s race to the end of the field,” he said.
Granowsky 2	That little tortoise had spunk. He held his head up high in the air and said, “I’ll race you anytime and any place!”
Stevens	“But I could never beat you, Hare,” said Tortoise. Tortoise pulled his head into his shell. “I don’t want to,” he said. “You’ve got to,” said his friends. “You’ve put up with that nasty hare long enough. We think you can win.”
Corwin	Tortoise challenged the Hare to race to the moon!

2b1. motivation	H “taunts” T (provides T with motivation to race)
protolog	"That is a good joke," said the Hare; "I could dance round you all the way."
anonymous	“Surely, this is a joke,” said the hare, you know that I can run circles around you.”
Pinkney	The hare burst out laughing. “I could beat you standing still!” she exclaimed.
McAllister	Hare peered down at Tortoise, “Short, slow people aren’t worth racing,” he said, and he leapt right over the rhubarb. The rabbits cheered.
Granowsky	The hare laughed so hard that he cried. “you want to race me?” he asked the tortoise. He called to the other animals. “Tortoise wants a race. Can you believe that? You can all watch me win.”
Granowsky 2	I laughed at the tortoise.
Stevens	Hare liked to tease Tortoise about being so slow. When Tortoise ate breakfast, Hare said, “By the Time you finish your last bite, it will be dinnertime. When Tortoise worked in his garden, Hare said, “By the time you pick those spring flowers, it will be winter.”
Corwin

2a1. motivation	T’s remonstrance (provides motivation for H to win the race)
protolog	"Keep your boasting till you've beaten," answered the Tortoise.
anonymous	“Enough of your boasting,” said the tortoise.
Pinkney
McAllister	Tortoise squinted up at Hare. “Think you can beat me, eh?”
Granowsky	[The other animals were tired of the hare’s boasting , too. They knew that the tortoise was a fine animal who just happened to move slowly. There was no reason for the hare to be so unkind.] Animals speak for the tortoise
Granowsky 2	The other animals turned their backs to me. “Don’t worry about that hare,” the raccoon said to the tortoise, “all he cares about is winning. He only thinks of himself.”
Stevens	Tortoise didn't’t want to disappoint his friends, so he finally agreed to race against Hare.
Corwin

3a. provocation	Initiates the action
protolog	"Shall we race?"
anonymous	“Let’s get on with the race.” (said the tortoise)
Pinkney	But she agreed that they would race
McAllister	“Right,” said Hare.
Granowsky	The race was set for early the next morning.
Granowsky 2	“Be here at sunrise tomorrow,” said the lion. “The tortoise will race you then.”
Stevens	“Then you will race me, Tortoise?” asked the Hare.
Corwin	[T challenges H to race]

3b. Re-setting	Changes setting to race course
protolog	So a course was fixed
anonymous	So the course was set by the animals and the fox was chosen as judge.
Pinkney	to an oak tree around the bend in the road.
McAllister	“I’ll race you to the hedge and back.” “That’s not far enough,” said Tortoise. “We’ll race down the lane, past the mill and across the meadow to the bridge.”
Granowsky	The lion would be the judge. “Be sure to get a good night’s sleep,” said the lion. “Then you’ll do your best.” That evening, the tortoise went to bed extra early. As the sun began to set, the tortoise tucked his head into his shell and went right to sleep. It was almost time for the sun to rise, though, before the hare went to sleep. He stayed up and played. “I would much rather have fun than rest,” he said. “Besides, I can beat the tortoise in a race without even trying.” The next morning, the tortoise was ready for the race. The hare was ready, too, but he was a bit sleepy. He could not stop yawning. As the animals gathered around to watch the start of the race, they cheered for the tortoise.
Granowsky 2	I walked home along while the tortoise and his friends played. I stayed up the whole night thinking about what the raccoon said about me. Could it be true? Did I only care about winning? Was that why I had no friends?
Stevens	Tortoise only had two-and-a-half weeks to get in shape before the big race. Rooster helped him out at the gym. Racoon cooked him healthy meals. Frog went jogging with him every morning. By the day of the race, Tortoise was ready. Animals from all over the county came to watch the tortoise and the hare. Rooster read aloud the rules and described the course.
Corwin	Hare had a lot of money and bought an aerodynamic hyperspaceship of the latest design. Tortoise, on the other hand, had no money. He made a spaceship all on his own, using whatever parts he could find. Hare’s spaceship was slick, shiny, and super-duper fast. Tortoise’s spaceship was rink-dink and very, very slow. Even Snail, who’s slower than slow, laughed at Tortoise.

4a. complication	Action starts
protolog	and a start was made.
anonymous	He gave a sharp bark and the race was on.
Pinkney	In an instant, they were off-
McAllister	So, it was agreed.
Granowsky	The tortoise and the hare took their places on the starting line. The lion said, “Get ready, get set, go!” The race was on!
Granowsky 2	I took off like a flash when the lion roared, “Get ready, get set, go!”
Stevens	“Attention, everyone. The race will begin when I sound this gong. The six-mile course is marked by red flags. The first one to reach the finish line wins. Runners, take you mark, get set. GO!! Raccoon sound the gong.
Corwin	When they were ready, their friend Squirrel, as loud as he could, began the starting countdown . . . “10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-BLAST OFF!”

4b. complication	Complication (hare jumps out far ahead)
protolog	The Hare darted almost out of sight at once
anonymous	Almost before you could say “scat,” the hare was out of sight. The tortoise plodded along at his usual pace.
Pinkney	-the hare soon out of sight, the tortoise plodding step by patient step.
McAllister	Hare bounded off down the lane. Tortoise started to creep along, slow but sure.
Granowsky	The hare took off in a flash. He was far down the field before the tortoise had taken his first full step.
Granowsky 2	I wanted to get the race behind me. Then, halfway down the field, I looked back and.
Stevens	Hare bolted out of sight before Tortoise had taken his first step. [The crowd roared and cheered as Tortoise inched forward.]
Corwin	Hare’s spaceship engines rumbled like thunder. Tortoise’s just rattled and buzzed. Tortoise’s spaceship went putt, putt, putt. VOOOSH! Hare whizzed right by him. “Woo-hoo, eat my dust!” yelled Hare. Hare’s spaceship nearly knocked some birds clear out of the sky! “I’m fast, fast, fast!” said Hare. Tortoise’s spaceship went putt, putt, putt.

4c.complication	Prelude to turning point
protolog	, but soon stopped
anonymous	After a time the hare stopped to wait for the tortoise to come along. He waited for a long, long time until he began to get sleepy.
Pinkney	“I’ve practically won already,” thought the hare as she dashed around the bend in the road. “I could stretch out here and take a little rest, and still beat that tortoise by a mile.” And she settled down by the side of the road. She planned to jump up and finish the race the minute she saw the tortoise.
McAllister	Hare soon reached the mill. In the miller’s garden he spied a row of carrots. “old wrinkly won’t be coming by for hours,” he said. “I’ve got plenty of time for elevenses.” He helped himself to the juiciest carrot. Tortoise plodded down the lane. He knew very well that Hare liked carrots more than anything … Hare enjoyed his meal, then continued on his way.
Granowsky	The race went on just as it had started. The hare zoomed along, and the tortoise took one steady step after another. “I’m so far ahead,” thought the hare, “I have nothing to worry about. Winning will be easy.” “I’m doing my best,” thought the tortoise. “I can just keep taking one step at a time. I’ll get to the end of the field just as I wanted.”
Granowsky 2	saw the tortoise not far from the starting line Instead of feeling happy about winning, I felt sorry for the tortoise. It really wasn't’t right for me to ask him to race. After all, I am the fastest animal around, and the is the slowest. I began to think about how someone else might feel. I didn't’t know what to do. I couldn't’t just stop in the middle of the race. I closed my eyes to think
Stevens	Hare was so far ahead that he decided to stop at Bear’s house for something cool to drink. Hare rested and sipped lemonade. Bear noticed something moving outside the window. “Hare, there goes Tortoise.” “What?” yelled Hare, running out the door. Hare passed Tortoise for the second time. Then he decided to stop at Mouse’s house for a snack. As Hare munched on crackers and cheese, Mouse yelled, “is that Tortoise I see out the window?” “I’m not worried about that slowpoke,” said Hare. “I’ve passed him twice already.” Then he finished his snack and hopped out the door. Hare passed Tortoise for a third time. Now, he was far ahead. He saw a pond and decided to stop and rest. The snacks had made him sleepy.
Corwin	“I’m so fast, I have all the time in the world!” said Hare to himself. So he decided to make a few stops before going to the moon. Hare quickly flew to the North Pole and went sledding with a polar bear. “Woo-hoo!” yelled Hare. Then Hare, even more quickly, flew to the African plains, where the sun is very, very hot, and played cards with a friendly rhinoceros. “I wonder where that slowpoke Tortoise is right now?” said Hare. Tortoise, super slow, but keeping on track, was already in the clouds. Putt, putt, putt. “Keep on going, spaceship, ol’ pal of mine!” said Tortoise. Next, Hare soared to the rain forest, where he had a game of catch with a playful monkey. Tortoise kept on track. Putt, putt, putt. Hare finally decided to fly up through the clouds. VOOSH! WOOSH! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

5. Turning point	Turning point of the race
protolog	and, to show his contempt for the Tortoise, lay down to have a nap.
anonymous	“I’ll just take a quick nap here in this soft grass, and then in the cool of the day, I’ll finish the race.” He lay down and closed his eyes.
Pinkney	But the grass was so soft and the sun was so warm that before the hare realized it, she had fallen fast asleep.
McAllister	The midday sun was hot. When he reached the meadow he felt full and sleepy. “Old baggy-drawers will be miles behind,” he said, with a yawn. “There’s plenty of time for a nap.” He settled down in the shade of a tree and went to sleep.
Granowsky	At the halfway mark, the hare felt tired. He turned around to see how far behind the tortoise was. The hare saw only a speck in the distance. The hare rubbed his sleepy eyes and yawned. “I think I’ll take a little rest. I have plenty of time because that slow poke tortoise will take all day.” Soon the hare was fast asleep.
Granowsky 2	Because I had been awake all night worrying, I fell fast asleep.
Stevens	He was so sure that he would win, he took a nap in the soft grass. As he closed his eyes, he dreamed of victory.
Corwin	But he stopped to take a nap. “I’m so fast, I have all the time in the world! Said Hare to himself. And boy, did he really snore.

6a. denouement	T’s move initiates the denouement
protolog	The Tortoise plodded on and plodded on,
anonymous	Meanwhile, the tortoise plodded on. He passed the sleeping hare, and was approaching the finish line
Pinkney	Meanwhile, the tortoise continued on. Slowly she came around the bend in the road and passed the sleeping hare.
McAllister	When he came to the meadow, Tortoise tiptoed silently past Hare. Hare twitched an ear, then went on sleeping. Tortoise was tired and hot, but he didn't’t stop. He just crawled along, slow but sure. All afternoon Tortoise trudged on through the grass.
Granowsky	But the tortoise was moving quietly toward the end of the field.
Granowsky 2	I guess I slept so long that the tortoise had passed me by.
Stevens
Corwin	Night came, and the stars lit the way. Tortoise, super slow but keeping on track, was way past the clouds and had reached outer space. He looked out at the stars and smiled.

6b. denouement	H’s move (waking up) precipitates the close of the denouement
protolog	and when the Hare awoke from his nap,
anonymous	when the hare awoke with a start.
Pinkney	She was only a few feet from the oak tree when the hare woke up from her nap.
McAllister	Meanwhile, Hare dreamt he was leaping over the moon, while all the rabbits cheered. The cheering woke him up.
Granowsky	The hare snoozed for some time. When he woke up, he could see the tortoise about to cross the finish line!
Granowsky 2	As he was about to cross the finish line, the cheers of his friends woke me up.
Stevens	Suddenly, Hare woke up because the crowd was cheering. “Yay, Tortoise,” the crowd roared. Tortoise was two steps away from the finish line.
Corwin	Hare finally woke up and set his controls for outer space! VOOSH! WOOSH! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! Tortoise was look back at the tiny earth when he head a noise. Was that Hare in the distance catching up? Could it be? Hare’s hyperwarp-drive, deluxe engines rumbled with the speed of one thousand horses. VOOSH! WOOSH! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! Hare could see the moon. Hot dog! Tortoise could also see the moon, getting closer and closer, bigger and bigger. But Hare’s engine’s engines got louder and louder, louder and louder. Then right before Hare pushed the special lever for a super-speedy space travel landing, he heard … RATTLE! TATTLE! CLANK! BANG!

6c. denouement	The denouement closes
protolog	he saw the Tortoise just near the winning-post
anonymous	It was too late to save the race. Much ashamed, he crept away
Pinkney	Seeing the tortoise so close to the finish, the hare leaped up and tore along the road as if the hounds were after her. But she was too late.
McAllister	To his surprise, he saw the rabbits and other animals cheering loudly as Tortoise struggled towards the bridge. Hare realized he hadn't’t a moment to lose. He bounded across the meadow—but was too late
Granowsky	As fast as his powerful legs could go, the hare raced to catch up. It was too late. The tortoise had crossed the finish line.
Granowsky 2	I raced as fast as I could to win, but I was too late.
Stevens	“Slow down, you bowlegged reptile,” screamed Hare as he tried to catch up. But it was too late.
Corwin	Tortoise’s landing gear! Hare watched as Tortoise floated down through the bright light of the twinkling stars toward the surface of the glowing moon.

7. Resolution	Resolution of the story
protolog	and could not run up in time to save the race.
anonymous	while all the animals at the finish line acclaimed the winner.
Pinkney	Before she could reach the oak tree, the tortoise had already been declared the winner by the crowd of cheering bystanders.
McAllister	Tortoise lumbered on to the bridge and the race was won!
Granowsky	“The tortoise wins the race!” shouted the lion. The animals cheered as they danced around their friend.
Granowsky 2	For the first time ever, I knew how it felt to lose.
Stevens	Tortoise crossed the line just before the tornado of dust and fur that was Hare flew by. Tortoise had won the race. Hare couldn't’t believe it. That measly shell on legs had beaten him.
Corwin	Touchdown! A perfect landing. Even though he was super slow, and putt-putted along, Tortoise never gave up. He kept on track and finally won the race!

8. epilogue	Epilogue (char in tales gives the moral)
protolog	Then said the Tortoise: "Plodding wins the race."
anonymous
Pinkney
McAllister	Tortoise was exhausted. Hare felt a fool. “I see I am fast, but not very wise,” said Hare. “I promise not to boast any more.” The rabbits cheered again. “Quite right,” said Tortoise, with a yawn. “And now, how about carrying me home? One of us champions needs a nap.!”
Granowsky	Then the lion said, “Here we have learned an important lesson.” All the animals gathered to listen as the lion said, “Fast and speedy May be great, But slow and steady Won this race.”
Granowsky 2	“Well, I still won’t have any friends,” I thought. “Now everyone will think I’m a loser.” That’s not what happened at all. The other animals were very happy for the tortoise. But they also cared about me. Even the tortoise tried to make me feel better. He put his arm around me and said, “Maybe next time!” Well, I learned a lesson that I’d like to pass on to you. I used to think that I had to win all the time to have friends. Now I know that I can lose and still have friends. To have friends, I have to care about others. But you already knew that, didn't’t you?
Stevens	Tortoise smiled as his friends carried him on their shoulders. He had learned an important lesson: HARD WORK AND PERSEVERANCE BRING REWARD.
Corwin	“Tortoise, you slowpoke, what are you doing here?” asked Hare after he landed last. “Never mind that, Hare, you super-duper slowpoke,” said Tortoise. “Use those hop-hopping feet and jump toward the stars with me. We can jump six times higher on the moon!” And being best friends, that is exactly what they did.

MORAL	Moral application
protolog	Slow and steady (Plodding) wins the race.
anonymous	Slow and steady wins the race.
Pinkney	Slow and steady wins the race.
McAllister	NOTE: It’s interesting that the traditional moral “slow but sure” is repeated twice during the text but the ending moral is quite different. “I am fast but not wise”
Granowsky	slow and steady Won this race
Granowsky 2	To have friends, I have to care about others.
Stevens	HARD WORK AND PERSEVERANCE BRING REWARD.
Corwin	Tortoise never gave up. He kept on track and finally won the race!

TRANSPOSITIONS IN THE RETELLINGS

In the following analyses, the markers of transposition (identification) are related to various aspects of the tale's instructure: (1) perspective, (2 valued behaviors) accepted and rejected actions, (3) elaboration of motives, and (4) application to "real" life. Each of these linguistically marked features reflects an identification with a figure in the tale. Taking the perspective of a figure is a minimally marked transposition but one built into the instructure of most retellings where the Tortoise's perspective is privileged. Markers of acceptance or rejection assigned to particular actions suggests an evaluation which creates an instructure where a figure is presented as imitable. Since motives are a critical aspect of a story, elaborations of a motive emphasize it instructionally suggesting it is an acceptable or unacceptable form of behavior. Similarly, applying the story structure to a real life situation entails an identification with its instructure.

Assuming the Perspective of a Figure in the Story.

The basic form of transposition occurs when the re-teller tells the tale from the point of view of one of the figures in it. To do so requires that the re-teller assume the perspective of the character which is a marker of transposition. In this case the re-teller changes positions with a figure in the tale. If the protolog contains a specific locative preposition that typically produces an image schema derived from bodily experience and it is changed to a different locative preposition also requiring particular bodily experiences of perspective, then the reteller has drawn from her reservoir of experience in her memory and supplied a new perspective. However, since a perspective is an instruction to see a scene from a particular vantage point, the change of prepositions re-configures it. (Ungerer & Schmid, 1996, 108). For example, in the protolog the setting for the race is described quite abstractly (“so a course was fixed”), but in Pinkney’s retelling the course is seen from the Hare’s perspective when she suggests that they race “to an oak tree around the bend in the road.” In McAllister’s retelling, the race course is given from both the hare’s and the tortoise’s perspective. The hare says “I’ll race to the hedge and back.” But the Tortoise replies “That’s not far enough. We’ll race down the lane, past the mill and across the meadow to the bridge.” Both Pinkney and McAllister sketch the scene of the race from the participants perspective. Readers are instructed to imagine the hare looking out over the course of a “road” to an oak tree or, alternatively, over the course of a lane, past a mill and across a meadow to a bridge. Both retellers configure the race course quite differently than they way it is figured in the protolog.

In Granowsky’s version of the fable, the narrator is the hare and the story is seen entirely from his perspective. It is also the hare who learns the lesson: “I learned a lesson that I’d like to pass on to you. I used to think that I had to win all the time to have friends. To have friends, I have to care about others. But you already knew that, didn't’t you?”

A very common but “muted” version of this type of transposition can be noted in various markers of point of view. For example, When I say that the hare saw the tortoise near the finish line, this remark can only be from the hare’s point of view. The same situation seen from the Tortoise’s point of view would have to be rendered along the following lines: When the tortoise looked back over the course he had just traveled, he saw the hare in the distance. Even in third person narratives, the points of view of the characters can be marked.. Various spatial indicators construct the perspective from which we see the events. To retell the tale incorporating such points of view requires the reteller to imagine the scene he or she is describing from that point of view.

Take the following example from David Lee’s Introduction to Cognitive Grammar:

… consider the contrast between (5) and (6).

(5)      John bought the car from Mary.

(6)      Mary sold the car to John.

Here too we have a pair of sentences which refer to 'the same event' but they could hardly be said to express the same meaning. Again the contrast has to do with perspective (in a rather more abstract sense than in (3) and (4)). Sentence (5) construes the situation from John's point of view, whereas (6) is an expression of Mary's viewpoint. As a small piece of evidence that this is so, consider:

(7)      John bought the car from Mary for a good price.

(8)      Mary sold the car to John for a good price.

In (7) we infer that the price was relatively low, whereas (8) suggests that it was high. This must mean that (5) and (7) are oriented to the buyer's point of view, whereas (6) and (8) are oriented to that of the seller. (Lee, 2004, 3.)

The reader understands these situations from different perspectives. But the reader has to assume those perspectives (put herself in Mary’s or John’s shoes, so to speak—see the analogy to her own experiences of buying and selling) in order to construe the situations positively (good for Mary) or negatively (bad for John) or vice versa.

It is also relevant to understand this example in terms of the FRAME / situation “commercial event.” (Ungerer & Schmid, 1996, 206ff) It’s noteworthy that the verbs involved are factors in assigning perspectives. The difference between bought and sold is a difference of perspective within the frame of a commercial exchange. [Note: Langacker’s conception of “profiling” parallels “perspectivizing” (Ungerer & Schmid, 1996, 209)]

A narrator, even though omniscient, can construct the spatial and temporal parameter of a storyworld and then locate us (orient us) in that world. This orientation has to be imagined by the re-teller and so it is a form of transposition since the teller is in an actual world in which THAT perspective is not available. It is only available IF IMAGINED. This may be a weaker form of “identification” but nonetheless the teller has to assume the perspective (be in the shoes of) the figure in the tale.

So, in these instances, the re-teller assumes the perspective of the figures in the tale thus instructuring it.

Affirming the Value of a Figure or a Figure’s Actions

We are accustomed to the notion of “value laden terms.” They are qualities we attribute to persons or things to which we are attracted and which we would like to have or enjoy having. They tend to function semantically in positive/negative pairings: good/bad, friendly/unfriendly, smart/dumb, happy/sad, healthy/unhealthy, and so on. In moments of self-criticism or even of self-hatred we attribute the negative qualities to ourselves. Normally, we attribute the positive qualities we most value to ourselves. Hence, when we positively identify ourselves with someone, we project on them the very qualities we most value. She’s very smart. She’s very friendly. She’s a nice person. When a re-teller goes beyond the language that characterizes the figures in the protolog, attributions to the figures in the retelling mark transpositions in the sense that positive or negative qualities are projected onto them by the re-teller. These identificatory attributions are transpositions. We tend to see the other person as if he or she were us. This can only happen if we imagine the character with the attributed virtues and choose language that is consistent with it.

It is not a question of whether the re-teller actually projects a positive value that is an aspect of her self-esteem. There is no way of knowing that from the text of the re-telling. The transposition is marked when the re-teller attributes a positive or a negative value not in the protolog to a character in the analog. By doing so, the re-teller takes up a point of view in the tale. For example, in Angela McAllister’s retelling, we find the following passage: “When he came to the meadow, Tortoise tiptoed silently past Hare. Hare twitched an ear, then went on sleeping. Tortoise was tired and hot, but he didn't’t stop. He just crawled along, slow but sure” (14). In this passage which amplifies the denouement in the protolog, the tortoise is characterized in a very positive way as “slow but sure,” the virtue that is assigned to the fable as its moral application. McAllister illustrates this virtue by describing the tortoise’s behavior, again in terms that go beyond those of the protolog. The scene is described from the tortoise’s orientation. Jonathan Heale’s illustration of the scene foregrounds* the tortoise and show the hare in the background asleep. Thus the instruction we receive from McAllister’s text is to take the perspective which Heale’s illustration gives us. Because the tortoise behavior is an instance of the virtue of persistence attributed to him, we are instructed to construe the tale from the tortoise’s orientation. In David Lee’s example of Mary’s selling the car to John above, “the reader has to assume those perspectives (put herself in Mary’s or John’s shoes, so to speak—see the analogy to her own experiences of buying and selling) in order to construe the situations positively (good for Mary) or negatively (bad for John) or vice versa. In this instance, the reader has to assume the tortoise’s perspective [put herself in his shoes, so to speak—see the analogy to her own experiences of rivalry in order to construe the situation good for the tortoise.

*NOTE: Another type of valuing involved in changing the figure/ground relations of the protolog. This would suggest that the re-teller is emphasizing or foregrounding and item and thus deliberately instructing the audience to attend to it. (Ungerer & Schmid, 1996, 156ff.).

In Cognitive Models in Language and Thought, a collection of papers from the 29^th International LAUD Symposium whose theme was “The Language of Socio-Political Ideologies” (2002), various contributors argued that metaphors in texts which instructed readers to construe situations from a particular ideological slant are indices of value. We are familiar with the use of metaphors in political discourse that confer value on one position or devalue the opponent’s position. In Janet Stevens's retelling, the Hare is represented as a "tornado of dust and fur," a metaphor that characterizes him negatively.

The model I am developing works in the following way: In cultural configurations, a protolog is identified. If the perspectives, figure/ground relations, prominence, and attributes are not changed, the protolog has NOT been configured. If they have, it has. The assumption is that any re-configuring involves drawing upon past memories and hence applying them to the protolog. The question is: is this tantamount to applying the tale to oneself.

Accepting and Rejecting the Actions of the Figures on the basis of the moral7

Generally, in Aesopian fables, the tale is an illustration of the moral. How the moral is illustrated reveals the value orientation of the re-teller.

MORAL	Moral application
protolog	Plodding wins the race.
anonymous	Slow and steady wins the race.
Pinkney	Slow and steady wins the race.
Granowsky	slow and steady Won this race
McAllister	NOTE: It’s interesting that the traditional moral “slow but sure” is repeated twice during the text but the ending moral is quite different. “I am fast but not wise”
Granowsky 2	To have friends, I have to care about others.
Stevens	HARD WORK AND PERSEVERANCE BRING REWARD.
Corwin	Tortoise never gave up. He kept on track and finally won the race!

Three retellings apply the moral, “slow and steady wins the race.” This is close to the protolog’s “plodding wins the race.” Four other retellings apply quite different morals.

In the protolog, plodding is the action established as the value being illustrated. However, it is not illustrated specifically as the corresponding actions of the tortoise are “The Tortoise plodded on and plodded on.” The protolog is more of an indictment of the hare, not any specific action of his as much as his attitudes—boastful, arrogant, and contemptuous. In contrast, the tortoise is quiet rather than boastful, assertive but not arrogant, confident but not contemptuous. The key indictment of the hare comes at the turning point of the fable: “to show his contempt for the Tortoise, [he] lay down to have a nap.”

The anonymous retelling changes the language of the moral from “plodding” to “slow and steady wins the race.” In this tale, the moral is illustrated both positively and negatively. “The tortoise plodded along at his usual pace” and “Meanwhile, the tortoise plodded on.” Although the amplification of the protolog is not extensive, it does comment on behavior not simply attitude. Whereas the hare can’t “pace” himself, the tortoise can. The hare “stopped to wait for the tortoise to come along. He waited for a long, long time until he began to get sleepy.” Though it is not clear why the hare stops and waits, it is his undoing. Had he continued “at his usual pace,” he would have easily won the race. Thus the commentary on the moral “slow and steady wins the race” has to do with “pacing one’s efforts.” The hare’s attitude, as in the protolog, is boastful, arrogant, and contemptuous (“Surely, this is a joke,” said the hare, you know that I can run circles around you.”) in contrast to the Tortoise’s attitude which is assertive and confident.

Pinkney’s moral is “slow and steady wins the race.” Leaving aside the attitudes, I focus on the way he illustrates this moral. The tortoise plodding as in the protolog but plodding is glossed as “step by patient step.” In Pinkney’s version the action that is valued is a “step by step” approach informed by an attitude of patience. Whereas pacing oneself suggests regulating one’s behavior, step by step suggests systematic or methodical behavior.

Granowsky’s version told from the point of view of the tortoise also has the moral, “slow and steady wins the race.” In his version, Granowsky stresses preparation for the race. The tortoise goes to bed early but the hare plays until late at night. When the race begins, “The hare zoomed along, and the tortoise took one steady step after another.” Granowsky combines the previous illustrations. Pace is involved as the hare “zooms” along while the tortoise is “steady.” In addition, the tortoise goes “one steady step after another” and so, as in the previous version behaves methodically. It’s interesting to contrast the image of “step by patient step” with the image of “one steady step after another.” The first image conjures up a mode of behavior parallel to someone carefully walking through a mine field. The second image conjures up someone walking with an even and determined pace.

McAllister’s version, by comparison with the ones I have discussed, includes a similar implicit moral, “slow and sure” wins the race. Nonetheless “steady” and “sure” are somewhat different modes of behavior. Whereas “steady” conjures up an action that is taken firmly with continuous and even energy applied to it; “sure” conjures us a confident behavior that has a reliable outcome because it is taken appropriately. Whereas the hare “bounded off,” the tortoise “creeps along.” While the hare stops to eat carrots, the tortoise “plodded down the lane.” His snack and the hot sun make the hare sleepy.” Like the hare, the tortoise “was tired and hot, but he didn't’t stop. He just crawled along, slow but sure. All afternoon Tortoise trudged on through the grass.” The action illustrating the moral is underscored by the sharp contrast between the behavior of the hare and the tortoise. Both are hot and tired. The hare stops and takes a nap; the tortoise does not stop but crawls along, trudging through the grass. The valued behavior conjured up by McAllister’s description is that of “a hard worker.” The emphasis is on effort to accomplish a difficult task—crawling along, trudging through the grass. The verb trudging suggests a long difficult walk or walking heavily and firmly as when weary, or considering the etymology of plod, as if “through mud.” All of this emphasizes effort. So the moral as inscribed is “effort wins the race.” Thus it becomes quite interesting that McAllister has the hare learn this lesson when he admits that he is fast “but not wise.”

Stevens, like McAllister emphasizes “hard work” in her version of the tale but stresses a different aspect of working hard—preparation. She offers the moral “Hard Work and Perseverance Bring Reward.” In her tale, hare “did everything quickly” and the tortoise “did everything slowly,” which is an important change from the more typical contrast between “fast” and “slow” afoot. However, in her version the tortoise does not want to race and does not believe he can win against the hare; but does only so as not to disappoint his friends. Like Granowsky, Stevens emphasizes preparation but shows the tortoise’s friends helping him to prepare for two and a half weeks. The tortoise “inches” along. So, the “hard work” in the moral refers to the tortoise’s preparation for the race. It is the tortoise who learns this lesson, so the implication is that, even though you don’t believe in yourself, hard work with the help of friends brings a renewed self-esteem as a reward. In this tale, the tortoise’s friends believe he can win even though he doesn't’t. They show him that hard work together with perseverance makes it possible for him to do what he didn't’t believe he could do.

Corwin’s amplification of the protolog is far more extensive than any other reteller’s and departs from the protolog more than they do. His moral, “Tortoise never gave up; he kept on track and finally won the race” is in line with the others but the behavior it validates is quite different than theirs. Corwin changes the race from a foot race to a race to the moon in spaceships. As expected, the hare’s spaceship is very fast and the tortoise’s is very slow—very much like Kit Lee’s retelling the tale as a car race. The tortoise’s behavior during the race, “keeping on track,” does not illustrate Corwin’s moral which is “keeping on track wins the race.” But, the tortoise’s behavior prior to the race can be construed as a gloss on the moral. In this version, the hare is rich and the tortoise is poor. So, the hare buys the latest and fastest spaceship available. In contrast, the tortoise “made a spaceship all on his own, using whatever parts he could find.” The resulting spaceship is “rinky-dink” and goes “very, very slow.” Because the hare’s spaceship is so much faster, he goes all over the world (and does not keep on track). The virtue that allows the tortoise to “keep on task” is the same one that allows him to make a spaceship “all on his own.” He persists against all odds by virtue of a commitment to succeed by following the “straight and narrow” path. He has his sights set on his objective and moves along the straightest path to it never giving up.

Elaborating on the Basic Motivation in the Story

The hallmark of sermonizing is elaboration. Fables are not sermons. One of their endearing characteristics is brevity. Thus, when a re-teller elaborates on a positive or negative value or on the moral, it is marker of interest to the extent the re-teller’s investment in the tale is more than repeating the story. Elaborations found together with other transposition markers suggest the re-teller’s identification with the teller or the figures in the tale. When a re-teller assigns dialogue to a character which is not in the protolog, for example, he or she must assume the role of the teller/narrator who determines the story’s perspectives. When new perspectives are added, the mythos of the tale is reconfigured.

Applying the Story to Experiences in the Actual World

When a re-teller applies the mythos to a recognizable real world situation, he assumes the role of the teller of the tale. In this context the transposition takes place whenever the re-teller tells the story. However, when the re-teller also applies the tale to a real world situation and maps the various elements of the tale onto it, this deepens the transposition. For example, I applied the tale to the contemporary NBA by mapping various elements in the tale onto the real world situation of the Knicks in March of 2006 season. In doing so, I take the same role that “Aesop” took in his telling of the tale since the genre of the fable, as in the genre of the allegory, is a tale that comments on the world in which the teller lives.

In Oliver Corwin’s “Hare and Tortoise Race to the Moon” the hare builds a “hyperspaceship” to race to the moon. This version of the tale parallels Kit Lee’s retelling of it. Both retellers contextualize their tales in recognizable contemporary experiences. In both tales, the hare is steering the fastest, latest model vehicle and the Tortoise is steering a “rinky-dink, very, very slow one.” In Corwin’s retelling, the context is expanded to include having money and being able to buy the latest model vs. not having any money and having to make do with what you already have. In Lee’s retelling, the context is expanded to include male-female relations. In both instances the contextualization is likely to bring to the audience’s mind a contemporary experience to which the retelling can apply.

Admitting An Identification With A Figure In The Story During The Retelling Of It

Corwin in an afterward about himself admits to identifying with the Tortoise.

Growing up with my pets Herman and Jumper, respectively a tortoise and a rabbit, I have always had a special appreciation for the Aesop tale, "The Hare and the Tortoise". Part of me is like Hare and another part is like Tortoise. LIke Hare, I enjoy jumping from idea to idea, but the Tortoise part of me help me to push myself to focus on and stick with one idea until it is fully developed. Effort brings an idea to reality. (Author's Note on last page.)

Corwin's remark is the equivalent of the data that would be obtained in an ethnographic investigation accompanying the discourse analysis. We would have to note that the identification based on "jumping from idea to idea" or sticking "with one idea until it is fully developed" is not part of the instructure of his retelling. However, their complementarities are--"Part of me is like Hare and another part is like Tortoise"--represented by his portrayal of them as close friends.

The Cultural Impact of the Hare an the Tortoise

We can argue from the retellings that the Hare and the Tortoise is a cultural configuration. The protolog provides a model of behavior which the analogs follow and configure. For each of the retellers, the fable offers a response to a recognizable situation that they believe is a "equipment for living."

The discourse that accompanies the narrative differs considerably as do the settings, characterizations, motives, and themes, which shows how the configuration is applied to specific situations.

Following Geertz' distinction between a "model of" and a "model for," we can say that the fable is a model of a common competitive situation in which a person of superior talent loses out to a person with a better work ethic. As a "model of" such situations, each retelling construes it discursively as a "model for" the attitudes, emotions, and plans for behaving in such situations.

The outcome of a configural-prototype analysis is a description of the production of a disposition

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Notes:

. [D. L. Ashliman writes that “Aesop may not be a historical figure but rather a name that refers to a group of ancient storytellers.” (Ashliman, 2003)Ashliman, D. L. (Ed.). (2003). Aesop's fables (With an Introduction and Notes by D. L. Ashliman, Illustrations by Arthur Rackham ed.). New York: Barnes & Noble.] ...

. [In using the term “configuration” here, I leave out the qualifying adjective “potential.” From this point on, I will use the term to imply a set of instructions to the audience about how to configure the story in their minds (mental spaces). The term “configure” will be used as a reference to a way of construing a story as a configuration.] ...

. [I’ve avoided using the terms “source” and “target” to describe analogous tellings and retellings. The term source implies that the subsequent story was derived from it. Protolog only implies that the tale so identified is regarded a “primary” telling against which other instances are to be compared. Though it is sometimes possible to find a particular telling that is general enough to serve as the story “mythos” and hence as a protolog, for the most part, the story structure is derived from stories, which though varied, have a similar if not identical story structure. ] ...

. [It may seem that telling a story and configuring a story are the same cognitive process. For example, one can tell a story in the sense of narrating experiences with an effort to be accurate in the report. Configuring a story has to do with adopting its mythos to ones’ own experiences by shaping the story on the basis of analogies to one’s experience.] ...

. [Fretag includes motivation in the category “conflict.” To describe the phenomenon of transposition, it is necessary to underscore and emphasize motivation which, together with characterization, leads audiences to identify with one figure rather than another.] ...

. [ Although it might certainly be the case that had I retold the episode exactly as it was originally filmed, I might well have transposed my real perspective. A retelling in which the perspective is changed is stronger evidence of a transposition and can be marked as one the re-teller makes, thus providing evidence of the re-teller’s configuring a story on the basis of his or her past experience since the elements added to the tale can only be drawn from memories of past experiences.] ...

[Alvin Granowsky, Ed. D., a former Director of Reading and Language Arts for the public schools of Greensboro, NC, and Dallas, TX, has most recently served as vice president of Education for World Books, Inc. His readers and texts are used in schools through the nation. Dr. Granowsky has served as a consultant to the North Carolina State Education Agency's Right-to-Read program and the New York State Education Agency's Reading Department. He has also served on the Board of the National PTA as reading consultant. After more than 35 years as a teacher, author, and educational consultant, Dr. Granowsky believes that the future of our nation is tied directly to how well we educate our children. Alvin Granowsky, Vice-President, Education World Book Educational Products

Point of View Yesterday was VIPS (Volunteers in Public Schools) Reading Day. I have a few favorite books I like to use at these things, but I used a few new books this time. Dr. Alvin Granowsky has taken the old stories and given them a new twist. The books are called “Another Point of View” stories. He gives his own rendition of stories such as “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” and Jack in the Beanstalk. These versions are seen from the point of view of the Bears and Jack. They make Goldilocks and the Giant out to be nasty and bad. But every story has two sides. So, Dr. Granowsky has written the stories from Goldilocks’ and the Giant’s point of view. We have heard the stories one way for so long that it is somewhat disturbing to hear the other perspective. One little girl commented, “I wonder which one is true?” November 20, 2002 A WORD FOR TODAY, November 2002

http://www.angelfire.com/ak3/dailyword/november2002.html.] ...

. [[From “Children's Literature Within and Without the Profession” Children's Literature Within and Without the Profession Vallone, Lynne. 1996. Letter. PMLA 111 (March): 297-98. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3709/is_199804/ai_n8796709

The cynical and obnoxious bestseller Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner (1994) represents, I believe, another misunderstanding and pernicious abuse of children's literature criticism.10 Garner's book is a cutesy attempt to ridicule not only those who value the "significant beliefs in the environment, feminism, the rights of minorities, and a multicultural academy" represented by the "politically correct"-the definition of political correctness I am using is Catharine Stimpson's (1994, 191)-but also children's texts, the meanings of which are considered by Garner to be obviously uniform, simplistic and "value-free." His mean-spirited parody should strike everyone, he reasons, as hilarious. For example, in his rewriting of "The three little pigs," the wolf dies of a heart attack because his diet has been high in fatty foods, and the pigs then rejoice. Okay, that plot-twist, like other lighthearted reimaginings of fairy tales-such as Babette Cole's feminist Princess Smartypants or Robert Munsch's The Paper Bag Princess-could be funny. The pigs' next action, however, is to form a band of other pigs who had been forced off their lands. This new brigade of porcinistas attacked the resort complex [where the wolves had built condominiums, running the pigs out of their homes] with machine guns and rocket launchers and slaughtered the cruel wolf oppressors, sending a clear signal to the rest of the hemisphere not to meddle in their internal affairs. Then the pigs set up a model socialist democracy with free education, universal health care, and affordable housing for everyone. (Garner 1994b, 11-12)

This coda to the story obviously attacks both Latin American revolutionaries (the Sandinistas so vilified by the Reagan administration) as well as anyone who believes in "free education, universal health care, and affordable housing for everyone." Is this really so very funny, sophisticated, worthy of all the attention it has "garnered?" We all know, this retelling winks, that "The three little pigs" is just a cute story for children and couldn't really have any greater significance or meaning and therefore this exploitation of such a "meaningless" story will now finally expose the ridiculousness of believing in moral ambiguity and the rights and feelings of others. The book obviously upsets me on a number of levels, not the least of which is why should children's literature be such an easy target for this kind of trash talk? While Politically Correct Bedtime Stories is clearly a make-a-buck-quick scheme engineered to capitalize on a particular cultural moment, Garner also, I think, plays on the politicization of "Our Children" that the right has attempted: we know what's best for Our Children to know, and to think, and to read (or not know, think, and read). Another example of such purposeful politicization of children's literature is William Bennett's The Children's Book of Virtues (1996) which attempts to codify an exclusive "cultural literacy" of children's stories (to cite another buzz word made famous in the ongoing culture wars).11 “] ...

. [On the other hand, Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind by Guy Claxton seems to be an obvious instance of applying the tale to the way we think. However, his configuration of the story depends upon a mythos that has nothing to do with the Aesop’s fable. In his application, there is no insult or competition. The Hare Brain is a mode of fast thinking equally necessary to everyday life as the Tortoise mind, a different mode of cognition, which employs intuitions and “thinks” more slowly. Claxton only borrows the association of Hare with “fast” and Tortoise with “slow.” It is therefore not surprising that Claxton does not refer to Aesop and does not retell the tale.] ...

Discourse Analysis
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