"Call a Spade a Spade": From Classical Phrase to Racial Slur: A Case Study

Mieder, Wolfgang

ISBN 10: 0820461768 / ISBN 13: 9780820461762

Published by Peter Lang, New York, 2002

About this Item

A clean copy in excellent condition. Inscribed on title page. Seller Inventory # 005389

Bibliographic Details

Title: "Call a Spade a Spade": From Classical ...

Publisher: Peter Lang, New York

Publication Date: 2002

Binding: Soft cover

Condition: Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket

Signed: Inscribed by Author(s)

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

This book is an attempt to trace the origin, history, dissemination, and meaning of the well-known proverbial expression «to call a spade a spade.» The first four chapters discuss the previous scholarship on this classical phrase turned proverb, trace its history from Aristophanes to Erasmus of Rotterdam, review the appearance of the expression in dictionaries of quotations, and analyze the inclusion of the phrase in proverb and idiom collections. The fifth chapter treats various meanings of the word «spade» – shovel, eunuch, playing card, and «black.» This is followed by four chapters dealing with the appearance of the phrase in literary texts from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, in scholarly writings, in the mass media, in advertisements, and in cartoons. A significant chapter shows how the innocuous proverbial phrase became a racial slur in the written media. The final chapter contains four demographic studies based on questionnaires to show the various interpretations of the «spade»-phrase among modern English speakers, including its unfortunate misuse as a stereotypical statement.

About the Author:

The Author: Wolfgang Mieder is Professor of German and Folklore at the University of Vermont. In addition to editing Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship since 1984, he has written numerous books on proverbs, including American Proverbs: A Study of Texts and Contexts (Peter Lang, 1989); A Dictionary of American Proverbs (1992; with S. Kingsbury and K. Harder); Proverbs Are Never Out of Season: Popular Wisdom in the Modern Age (1993); The Politics of Proverbs: From Traditional Wisdom to Proverbial Stereotypes (1997); Proverbs in World Literature: A Bibliography (Peter Lang, 1996; with G. Bryan); Proverb Iconography: An International Bibliography (Peter Lang, 1999; with J. Sobieski); Strategies of Wisdom: Anglo-American and German Proverb Studies (2000); «No Struggle, No Progress»: Frederick Douglass and His Proverbial Rhetoric for Civil Rights (Peter Lang, 2001); and International Proverb Scholarship: An Annotated Bibliography, Supplement III (1990-2000) (Peter Lang, 2001).