Although folklorists were initially slow to embrace the study of folklore and the Internet as a viable field of inquiry, the past decade has seen an explosion of compelling new research that wades into the technologically mediated domain and attempts to make sense of it. To be sure, there have been major simultaneous efforts to legitimize the folkloristic examination of digital culture in both America and Europe over the last decade. Folklore in the Digital Age brings together a collection of essays that expand upon the previous conference papers, lectures, and published works of Polish folklorist and ethnologist Violetta Krawczyk-Wasilewska. The book is divided into eight compact chapters, each incorporating the author’s Eurocentric digital fieldwork and observations spanning the last fifteen years of her career on topics ranging from proverbs to online dating.
While the scope of Folklore in the Digital Age is commendable, many of the insights shared by the author are not particularly revelatory or new, and as a collection of earlier essays and presentations, the book often feels somewhat dated. A notable exception are the final three chapters, which present interesting research on online dating traditions, avatar curation, and food. However, a problem that plagues most of the chapters throughout the book is the general lack of meaningful engagement with most of the major American scholarship from the past decade on folklore and the Internet. There are some peripheral references at times, but they are usually in the form of brief footnote citations that do not provide additional context or commentary. Much of the text, then, feels quite divorced from these existing conversations about digital folklore, which limits the book’s value for course adoption and general reading.
For instance, in chapter 2, “e-Folklore as Part of Digital Culture,” Krawczyk-Wasilewska seems to be arguing for the importance of studying folklore and the Internet and outlines the dynamic ways that the digital medium is a powerful one for vernacular expression. The problem is that this has already been thoroughly argued, demonstrated, proven, and more or less accepted for some time now (see Blank 2009, 2012), which renders the chapter somewhat redundant from the outset as there isn’t much new ground uncovered, even though it is well-written. Chapter 4, “Post September 11: Global Fear vs. Digital Humour,” while composed of good scholarship and interesting insights, fails to manage any sort of dialogue with the important and existing folkloristic research on 9/11 and disaster humor--Bill Ellis’s (2001, 2002) groundbreaking analyses, or the many other works that broke down the vernacular response to the terrorist attacks (Blank 2013: 38-56, Csaszi 2003; Frank 2011: 63-95; Hathaway 2005; Kuipers 2002, 2005) are all curiously absent.
In chapter 5, which explores rumors, belief, and hoaxes following the massive, devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, there is no real mention of the numerous useful examples of contemporary folkloristic literature on the subject where such insights would have brought additional value (see Fine and Ellis 2010; Kitta 2011), and the relations to digital folklore are only briefly examined. And while each chapter in the book boasts a wealth of anthropological, communications, and mainstream media citations that point to further readings, their folkloristic connections are not always apparent. Moreover, with this in mind, the brevity of some of the chapters is disappointing given that there appears to be ample room at times for more extensive analysis, case studies, and engagement with scholarly literature. Sometimes, the chapters do not seem to be significantly expanded upon from their earlier incarnations as conference papers. The manuscript is also littered with minor grammar and syntax errors, which may be forgiven as the book was originally published by a Polish press with presumably non-native-English speakers at the helm, but it does occasionally distract from the author’s flow and argument organization.
Although it is dismaying that American folkloristic scholarship does not feature prominently in Folklore in the Digital Age, this lack nevertheless gives way to a noteworthy strength, albeit abstractly. Indeed, perhaps the book’s greatest asset is its broad overview of the European approaches to the folkloristic study of, and engagement with, digital culture. This is best illustrated in chapter 3, “Towards a Digital Folklore Heritage,” which chronicles the European efforts to digitize and curate folkloric materials in ways that allow for public consumption and academic stewardship of the various archives profiled by Krawczyk-Wasilewska. Chapters 6 and 7 explore the traditionality and scope of online dating websites and users’ unique approaches to finding love via the World Wide Web and social media outlets. The author’s analysis is more fleshed out and comprehensive towards the end of the book.
In sum, Folklore in the Digital Age provides a deeper understanding and appreciation of the corresponding developments of the study of folklore and the Internet in Europe which, when examined in tandem with the American school’s contributions, offers a useful composite view of folklorists’ attempts to make sense of the Digital Age in recent years.
Works Cited
Blank, Trevor J. 2009. Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular Expression in a Digital World. Logan: Utah State University Press.
----. 2012. Folk Culture in the Digital Age: The Emergent Dynamics of Human Interaction. Logan: Utah State University Press.
----. 2013. The Last Laugh: Folk Humor, Celebrity Culture, and Mass-Mediated Disasters in the Digital Age. Madison: University Press of Wisconsin.
Csaszi, Lajos. 2003. “World Trade Center Jokes and Their Hungarian Reception,” Journal of Folklore Research 40: 175–210.
Ellis, Bill. 2001. “A Model for Collecting and Interpreting World Trade Center Disaster Jokes,” New Directions in Folklore 5: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/ndif/article/view/19881.
----. 2002. “Making a Big Apple Crumble: The Role of Humor in Constructing a Global Response to Disaster,” New Directions in Folklore 6: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/ndif/article/view/19883.
Fine, Gary Alan, and Bill Ellis. 2010. The Global Grapevine: Why Rumors of Terrorism, Immigration, and Trade Matter. London: Oxford University Press.
Frank, Russell. 2011. Newslore: Contemporary Folklore on the Internet. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Hathaway, Rosemary V. 2005. “‘Life in the TV’: The Visual Nature of 9/11 Lore and Its Impact on Vernacular Response,” Journal of Folklore Research 42: 33–56.
Kitta, Andrea. 2011. Vaccinations and Public Concern in History: Legend, Rumor, and Risk Perception. New York: Routledge.
Kuipers, Giselinde. 2002. “Media Culture and Internet Disaster Jokes: Bin Laden and the Attack on the World Trade Center,” European Journal of Cultural Studies 5: 450–70.
----. 2005. “‘Where Was King Kong When We Needed Him?’ Public Discourse, Digital Disaster Jokes, and the Functions of Laughter after 9/11,” Journal of American Culture 28: 70–84.
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[Review length: 1081 words • Review posted on May 3, 2018]