As a window into a group‘s worldview, folklore consists of traditional products of everyday belief and practice that people employ in the course of everyday social interaction, especially people belonging to tightly-knit groups.  After an introduction to theories and methods specific to folklore studies, this course explores some of the more common oral forms of folklore, such as the folktale, the joke, the legend (including the urban legend), the proverb, and the riddle.  We will also, to a lesser extent, examine material forms of folklore (arts and crafts).  Additionally, we will study peripheral forms of folklore (graffiti and Xeroxlore).  Toward the end of the semester, we’ll turn our attention toward festival, ritual, and celebration that characterize folk festivals, focusing on the King Biscuit Blues Festival of Helena, Arkansas.  There are two in-class exams (each including two short essays) and three papers based on folklore research.

Required Text:  Barre Toelken's The Dynamics of Folklore, rev. ed. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1996. (=Dynamics)

Course Outline:

23 August:  Introduction:  What is folklore and who are the folk?  The class will generate a definition that we will modify as the  course continues.  Each student should be able to identify his/her folk groups and provide examples of folklore in each group.  We will also
discuss resources folklorists use when conducting research.  Reading assignment for 28 August: Toelken's The Dynamics of Folklore, pp. xi-54.

28-30 August: Characteristics of Folklore.
Reading assignment for 4 Sept.: Dynamics, pp. 347-388.

4-6 September: Collecting Folklore: issues, ethics, ownership. Discussion of Project #1: Family Folklore.
Reading assignment for 11 Sept.: Dynamics, pp. 55-115.
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11-13 September:  Dynamics of Folk Groups and Folk Customs
Reading assignment for 18 Sept.: Dynamics,pp. pp. 117-156.  Reading Assignment for 20 Sept.: Dynamics, pp. 157-182.

18-20 September: The Folk Performance.
Reading assignments for 25 Sept.: Stith Thompson. The Folktale. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1946, pp. 126-128. Reading assignment for 27 Sept.: excerpt from Lina Degh and Andrew Vazsonyi, "Legend and Belief," in Dan Ben-Amos, ed., Folklore
Genres. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981, pp. 93-123.

25-27 September: Folk Narratives: Legends and Folktales
Reading assignment for 2 Oct.: Dynamics, pp. 183-240.

2-4 October: Folk Narratives--from personal family narrative to urban legends.  Discussion of "legend" paper.
Reading assignment for 9 Oct.: Dynamics, pp. 241-262.

9-11 October: Types of Folk Narratives: myths, legends, folktales.
PROJECT #1 DUE

16 October: Exam #1 (Mid-term)
Reading assignment for 18 October: Dynamics, pp. 263-314.

18 October : Material Folk Culture and Worldview
Reading for 23 October: article, William. R. Bascom, "The Four Functions of Folklore."  In Alan Dundes, ed., The Study of Folklore. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1965, pp. 277-298.  Reading for 25 October: handouts--examples of the folklore of disasters (crisis folklore), etc.

23-25 October:  Folklore Pragmatics: Functions of Folklore
Reading assignment for 30 Oct.: Dynamics, pp. 315-346

30 October-1 November: Folklore in the Workplace.  Briefly look through the Tale Type Index by Aarne, the Motif Index by Thompson, and the Type & Motif Index of the Folktales of England and North America by Baughman in the Reference section of the Dean B. Ellis Library.  Look for stories on work, trades, professions, etc. and analyze the traditional values and worldview we often associate with such occupational folklore.  Be prepared to discuss at least two examples from your own occupation or household, etc.
Reading assignment for 6 Nov.: Dynamics, pp. 389-432.

6 November: Folklore, Popular Culture, and Mass Media
Reading assignment for 13 November: Handout on Xeroxlore.
Note: You instructor will be gone on 8 November (Thursday) so there will be no class that day.

13-15 November: Folklore, Popular Culture, and Mass Media--Cyberlore?
PROJECT #2 DUE (13 November)
Reading assignment for 20 November: handout on festivals and ritual.

20 November: Festival, Ritual, and Celebration
Case study: The King Biscuit Blues Festival
Discussion of Project #3: Collection and Analysis of a Joke

22 November: Thanksgiving

27 November: Other Folklore Genres.
Reading assignment: handout on children's folklore.

29 November: Children's Folklore.

4 December: Presentation of research/Catch-up and review.
PROJECT #3 DUE

6 December: Catch-up and review.

FINAL EXAMINATION,  Tuesday, 18 December (8-10 AM)

Requirements

Instructions for projects 1, 2, and 3 will be distributed before you begin each project.  Each project is due on the specified date at the beginning of class.  Late submissions will lose one letter grade; submissions more than two weeks late will not be accepted.

1. "Family" Folklore Project.  Describe in detail one customary observance in your family tradition (or that of another folk group to which you belong).  Your description should include a chronological presentation of what occurred during a specific enactment of the observance (e.g., the 1999 family reunion), including any preparations that were necessary.  You should carefully provide the setting (time and place), persons involved, and the traditional and unique aspects of the particular enactment you treat.  The last point is particularly important, for you need to suggest through your description the dynamic between the forces of custom and tradition and of innovation.  For this project, you may simply draw upon your own memory.  But if you do interview someone else, that person should be clearly identified.  The project should produce a five-page, typewritten paper, which is due on 9 October.

2. Functional Analysis of a Legend.  Using a tape recorder, collect a legend.  When you interview your source, find out as much about his or her use of the legend (how he or she learned it, its natural context, etc.) as possible. Then using William Bascom's model, analyze the functions possibly performed by the legend you have collected.  The result of your project will be a three-page, double-spaced, typewritten essay in which you develop your functional analysis and a verbatim transcript of the interview you conducted. You will submit the cassette on which you recorded the interview.  Due 13 November.

3. Presentation of a Joke Performance.  Using a tape recorder, collect a joke.  Then interview the person about the natural context in which he or she would usually tells this joke and/or others like it.  You should transcribe the joke so that not only what is said appears in print, but also some sense of how it is performed also appears.  The result of your project will be this ethnopoetic transcription of the joke itself, a transcript of the interview with the joketeller, and a two-page, double-spaced essay in which you describe your ethnopoetic method and features of the performance that do not appear in the text.  You will also submit the cassette on which you recorded the interview.  Due 4 December.

4. Examination.  There will be two examinations: a mid-term on 16 October and a final on 13 December.  Both will test objective knowledge of concepts as well as your ability to use those concepts when writing essays.  Material will come from class presentations and from assigned readings.  There may be comprehensive component on the final examination.  The mid-term examination can be made up only with a verified, justifiable excuse (illness, serious family emergency, university business).  You must initiate the make-up process, and the make-up must be taken within a week of your return to class.  There will be no make-ups for the final examination.

5. Attendance Policy. This course does not fall under the university attendance policy, but regular attendance is important.  Consequently, a record of attendance will be kept.  And though the Student Handbook explicitly states that a student in an upper-level course cannot receive a failing grade solely on the basis of attendance, your final average will be affected negatively by excessive absences.  If you miss six classes without verified, justifiable excuses (illness, serious family emergency, university business), your final average will be lowered one letter grade.  Should illness or work schedule force you to miss an excessive number of classes, you should drop the course.

6. Grades.  Each project and each examination will count one-fifth (20%) of your final grade.  Failure to turn in a project or to take an examination will result in a zero for one-fifth of the final average.