Convergences in the Hyper Era: Thirty Years after American Folklore Studies

Abstract

Given the 40th anniversary of Francis Lee Utley's death and the crossroads theme for this conference, I take a cue from Utley's reflection on the intellectual "highway projects" of folklore studies in its second century, those paving the way for an independent discipline that would veer away from the paths of anthropology and literature (1949). Just before his death, he wrote of his gratification of folklore studies enjoying visibility as a result in academe (1970), observing under construction a modern, multifaceted, and forward-thinking expanse that cut widening swaths of academic terrain. Witnessing the scholarly and public traffic while still in folklore's second century, I surveyed the evolution of the American intellectual landscape of folkloristics in American Folklore Studies (1986). I linked developments in American folklore studies over its 180-year history with a sequence of intellectual movements in the 19th and 20th centuries: the "hidden usable past," "professionalization of time and space," and "the era of communication." Now in its third century, folklore studies shows signs of connection with a new epoch I call the "hyper era," characterized by keywords of convergence, practice, and frame rather than the previous period's signification of performance, symbol, and structure. Having traveled on the highways Utley observed being formed, I look back in our disciplinary vehicle's rear-view mirror to see, and question, the road ahead.