ENG 3613: Introduction to Folklore
Fall 2005
TR 9:30 - 10:45 AM, Wilson 412
Course Description:
This course will focus on the collection, classification, and analysis of folklore, with special emphasis on oral literature, such as urban legends.
Instructor: Dr. Richard Burns Email: rburns@astate.edu
Web-site: www.clt.astate.edu/rburns Office: Wilson 213
Office phone: 972-2164 Office hours: 11-12AM, 3:30-4:30 PM,
Tuesdays and Thursdays, or by appointment
Required Texts:
Jan Harold Brunvand , The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003 [1981])).
Edward D. Ives, The Tape Recorded Interview,2nd ed., University of Tennessee Press, 1995.
W. K. McNeil and William M. Clements, An Arkansas Folklore Sourcebook (Fayetteville:
The University of Arkansas Press, 1992).
Course Outline:
Aug 23: Course Introduction
25: Read the definitions of folklore that appear at the following websites: http://faculty.buffalostate.edu/fishlm/ant144/folkdef.htm, http://www.afsnet.org/aboutfolklore/aboutFL.cfm
and then familiarize yourself with the following additional websites:
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/, http://educate.si.edu/migrations/seek2/family.html, http://www.temple.edu/isllc/newfolk/, http://www.folklife.si.edu/, and
30: What is the lore and who are the folk? (McNeil and Clements, 1-13).
Sept. 1: Discussion of Family Folklore Paper (paper #1), due Oct. 2nd.
Customs and Beliefs (McNeil and Clements, pp. 155-171).
6: Folk Narratives (McNeil and Clements, pp. 87-105).
8: Studying Folklore and Urban Legends (Brunvand, pp. xi-17).
13: Automobile Legends (Brunvand, pp. 19-46)
15: ÒThe HookÓ (Brunvand, pp. 47-73).
20: Contamination Legends (Brunvand, pp. 75-101).
22: Fear of the Dead (Brunvand, pp. 103-123).
27: Nudity and Nightmares (Brunvand, pp. 125-152).
29: Family Folklore Paper due. Discussion of Urban Legend Paper (due Nov. 4th).
Oct. 4: Collecting and Analyzing Urban Legends (Brunvand, pp. 193-202)
6: Midterm Exam
11: Edward D. Ives, The Tape Recorded Interview
13: Business Ripoffs (Brunvand, pp. 153-173).
18: Emerging Urban Legends (Brunvand, pp. 175-185)Ñprogress on legend collection.
20: Ballads (McNeil and Clements, pp. 57-71).
25: Ragtime, Blues, and Gospel (McNeil and Clements, pp. 71-78).
27: Country, old-time, and bluegrass (McNeil and Clements, pp. 78-86).
Nov. 1: Arkansas Folklore Studies and Folklore Genres (McNeil and Clements, pp. 31-56)
3: Folk Architecture (McNeil and Clements, pp. 107-154). Shotgun Houses
8: Legend Paper due; student presentations of research.
10: Foodways (McNeil and Clements, pp. 173-211).
15: Festival, Ritual, and Celebration (McNeil and Clements, pp. 213-231).
17: Familiarize yourself with the following two websites: http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/feature/daydeadindex.html and http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/8813/list.html
Discussion of Paper #3: Presentation of a joke performance (due Dec. 1st).
21-26: Fall
Break/Thanksgiving
29: Folk Art.
Dec. 1: Paper #3 due. Class presentation and joke-telling.
6: Catch-up and Review; Other Folklore Genres
13: Final Exam (Tuesday, 8-10 AM).
Course
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 2004 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 especially 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 29 September. This will count for 15% of your final grade.
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. 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. This will count for 20% of your final grade. Due 8 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 joke-teller, 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. This will count for 20% of your final grade. Due 1 December.
4. Examinations and Quizzes. There will be two examinations: a mid-term on 6 October and a final exam on 13 December. You will also take quizzes over assigned readings from time to time, so be sure you have completed the readings given for each class meeting. Both of the major exams 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 a 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. Each exam will count 20% of your final course grade; a quiz average will count 5%. 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.
Failure to turn in a project or to take an examination will result in a
zero for that percent of your final course grade. Grading Scale: The numerical ranges of letter grades
for mid-term and final grades will be: A = 90-100, B = 80-89, C = 70-79, D =
60-69, F = below 60.