Syllabus: F516 Folklore Theory in Practice

Abstract

This course is a graduate seminar that introduces students to the field of folklore studies (folkloristics). Specifically, students will encounter selected major theories that have been developed in, or used by, folklorists for the study of expressive forms and vernacular cultures in social and historical context. To pursue such inquiry requires grappling with the key debates and social contexts that have shaped the study of folklore. Important case studies from the literature of folkloristics will be examined, appreciated, critiqued, and contextualized. Students will become familiar with a range of approaches to the study of expressive culture in four broad generic areas: (1) verbal folklore, (2) material culture, (3) composite and performance genres, and (4) customary knowledge and practice. Folkloristics will be situated within a wider constellation of disciplines and interdisciplinary projects concerned with the human condition and we will begin to wrestle with the distinctive roles that folklorists might play in the contemporary world.