Folkloristics
Encyclopedia
Folkloristics is the formal academic study of folklore
. The term derives from a nineteenth century German designation of folkloristik to distinguish between folklore as the content and folkloristics as its study, much as language is distinguished from linguistics. The adjective "folkloristic" for an academically oriented study is also distinguished from "folkloric" for material having the character of folklore or tradition. In scholarly usage, folkloristics represents an emphasis on the contemporary social aspects of expressive culture, in contrast to the more literary-historical study of texts.
Scholars specializing in folkloristics are known as folklorists.
(1934–2005) of the University of California
at Berkeley is often credited with promotion of folkloristics as a disciplinary term, with the explanation that methodology should contextualize the material of the "lore" within the sociology of the "folk." In contrast to a definition of folk as peasant or remote peoples, he applied what he called a "modern" flexible social definition for folk as two or more persons who share any trait in common and express their identity through traditions. With this expanded social definition also emerged a wider view of the material of folklore characterized by their repetition and variation to include material, written, and visual practices. Another implication of the term, according to Dundes, is that folkloristic work is interpretative or scientific rather than descriptive or devoted solely to collection.
In 1978, Dundes published a collection of his essays as Essays in Folkloristics and in the preface advocated for "folkloristics" as a preferred term for a discipline devoted to the study of folklore. Four years earlier, Pentti Leino published an historical overview of one of the important centers of comparative folklore studies as Finnish Folkloristics. In other international developments drawing attention to "folkloristics," the University of Helsinki
established a professorial chair in folkloristics, the University of Tartu
created a department of folkloristics, and the Estonian Literary Museum featured a department of folkloristics. In 1999, Dundes reiterated his case with the publication of International Folkloristics, a compilation of foundational essays in the international study of folklore, and an historical retrospective in "Folkloristics in the Twenty-First Century" in the Journal of American Folklore (2005).
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
. The term derives from a nineteenth century German designation of folkloristik to distinguish between folklore as the content and folkloristics as its study, much as language is distinguished from linguistics. The adjective "folkloristic" for an academically oriented study is also distinguished from "folkloric" for material having the character of folklore or tradition. In scholarly usage, folkloristics represents an emphasis on the contemporary social aspects of expressive culture, in contrast to the more literary-historical study of texts.
Scholars specializing in folkloristics are known as folklorists.
Contribution of Alan Dundes
Folklorist Alan DundesAlan Dundes
Alan Dundes, was a folklorist at the University of California, Berkeley. His work was said to have been central to establishing the study of folklore as an academic discipline. He wrote 12 books, both academic and popular, and edited or co-wrote two dozen more...
(1934–2005) of the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
at Berkeley is often credited with promotion of folkloristics as a disciplinary term, with the explanation that methodology should contextualize the material of the "lore" within the sociology of the "folk." In contrast to a definition of folk as peasant or remote peoples, he applied what he called a "modern" flexible social definition for folk as two or more persons who share any trait in common and express their identity through traditions. With this expanded social definition also emerged a wider view of the material of folklore characterized by their repetition and variation to include material, written, and visual practices. Another implication of the term, according to Dundes, is that folkloristic work is interpretative or scientific rather than descriptive or devoted solely to collection.
In 1978, Dundes published a collection of his essays as Essays in Folkloristics and in the preface advocated for "folkloristics" as a preferred term for a discipline devoted to the study of folklore. Four years earlier, Pentti Leino published an historical overview of one of the important centers of comparative folklore studies as Finnish Folkloristics. In other international developments drawing attention to "folkloristics," the University of Helsinki
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki is a university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but was founded in the city of Turku in 1640 as The Royal Academy of Turku, at that time part of the Swedish Empire. It is the oldest and largest university in Finland with the widest range of disciplines available...
established a professorial chair in folkloristics, the University of Tartu
University of Tartu
The University of Tartu is a classical university in the city of Tartu, Estonia. University of Tartu is the national university of Estonia; it is the biggest and highest-ranked university in Estonia...
created a department of folkloristics, and the Estonian Literary Museum featured a department of folkloristics. In 1999, Dundes reiterated his case with the publication of International Folkloristics, a compilation of foundational essays in the international study of folklore, and an historical retrospective in "Folkloristics in the Twenty-First Century" in the Journal of American Folklore (2005).
Application to literary and textual study
Efforts have been made by some folklorists to apply folkloristic approaches concerned with context and practice to literary and textual work, so as not to limit folkloristics to ethnographic or sociological perspectives (Examples are Simon Bronner's "Historical Methodology in Folkloristics" in 1982 and Sandra Stahl Dolby's publication of Literary Folkloristics and the Personal Narrative in 1988). Some scholars still prefer "folklore studies" or "folklife research" to indicate the interdisciplinary mix of humanistic and social science approaches, but folkloristics maintains wide currency in academic circles. In 1995, a major introductory textbook was written by American folklorists Robert A. Georges and Michael Owen Jones as Folkloristics: An Introduction. The Journal of Indian Folkloristics and International Folkloristics are serials that have had folkloristics in its masthead since 1978.See also
- LegendLegendA legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
- HeraldryHeraldryHeraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
- Urban folklore (modern usage)