Blason Populaire

Blason populaire is an umbrella genre in the field of folkloristics used to designate any item of any genre that makes use of stereotypes of a particular group. These stereotypes are usually, but not always, negative ones. The term blason populaire was first used by the French folklorist Alfred Canel (1859) in his collection Blason populaire de la Normandie (Blason populaire of Normandy). Blason populaire is expressed in a variety of folkloric genres, including proverbs, sayings, rhymes, nicknames, folktales and folksongs, jokes, anecdotes, schwanks (humorous tales), contemporary legends, and, to a lesser extent, traditional customs. The same motives also give rise to nonfolkloric expressive forms such as aphorisms, cabaret, satire, caricature, movies, and cyberspace, all of which often draw from folklore. Some blason populaire of ...