Required Texts:
Robert A. Georges and Michael Owen Jones, Folkloristics: An Introduction. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.
Edward D. Ives, The Tape-Recorded Interview. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995.
Course Outline:
Week 1: 19-21 August: Introduction; Toward a Definition of Folklore Readings: Georges and Jones, 1-27
Week 2: 26-28 August: Characteristics of Folklore Readings: Georges and Jones, 31-92
Week 3: 2-4 September: Characteristics of Folklore (continued) Readings: Georges and Jones, 93-158
Week 4: 9-11 September: Folk Groups Readings: Georges and Jones, 159-230
Week 5: 16-18 September: Documenting Folklore Readings: Ives: The Tape Recorded Interview
Week 6: 23-25 September: Approaches to Studying Folklore; The Functions of Folklore PROJECT #1 DUE 25 September
Week 7: 30 September-2 October: Conversational Genres: Gestures, Speech
Week 8: 7-9 October: Conversational Genres: Proverbs, Legends
Week 9: 14-16 October Conversational Genres: Legends MID-TERM EXAMINATION (16 October)
Week 10: 21-23 October: Participatory Genres: Customs, Beliefs, and Games
Week 11: 28-30 October: Performance Genres: Performance-Oriented Folklore Studies Readings: Georges and Jones, 231-312.
Week 12: 4-6 November: Storytelling Performances
Week 13: 11-13 November: Storytelling Performances Readings: "Prison Folk Narratives" PROJECT #2 DUE (13 November)
Week 14: 18-20 November: Performance Genres: Music and Song
Week 15: 25 November: Performance Genres: Music and Song (continued)
Week 16: 2 December: Material Folk Culture PROJECT #3 DUE (2 December)
FINAL EXAMINATION, Thursday, 11 December (12:30 PM - 2:30 PM)
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 1996 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 25 September.
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 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 tell 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 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 2 December.
4. Examination. There will be two examinations: a mid-term on 16 October and a final on 11 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 even if the latter are not discussed in class. 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 eight 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 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.