Introduction to Folklore

This online course introduces students to the study of Folklore, its occurrence in daily life, and the scholarly analysis of its use in culture. As a discipline, Folklore explores expressive cultural forms in both traditional and modern societies, in small-scale groups where people interact face-to-face, as well as in large-scale, often industrial societies in which traditional themes, symbols, and forms occupy new positions in everyday life. We will study contemporary applications of Folklore as they relate to the formation and maintenance of individual and group identity, belief, tradition, performance, stereotypes, public display, and activism. These issues will emerge in our study of various folklore genres, including folk speech, jokes, superstitions, folktales, contemporary legends, fake news, digital memes, material culture, body adornment, and musical traditions. Through fieldwork and research assignments, students will gain the skills necessary to conduct an ethnographic study and develop an understanding of the relationship between folk groups, folklore genres, and the issues they express. The goals of this course are: 1) To understand key concepts in folkloristics. 2) To recognize, identify, and analyze the forms of verbal, customary, and material folklore encountered in daily life. 3) To demonstrate folklore research methods -- including comparative research, folklore collecting, documentation, and interpretation -- through independent ethnographic projects.