1. What is folklore?
Folklore is the traditional art, literature, knowledge, and practice that is disseminated largely through oral communication and behavioral example.
(American Folklore Society)

2. Folklore
Folkloristics

3. Folk + Lore What is meant by “folk”? What is meant by “lore”?
A word with many meanings
An old word for “knowledge”
Meaning varies, but less debated than “folk”

4. Folklore and Folkloristics
Origins in late 18th and early 19th c.
Originally the study of European peasant traditions
Peasant traditions presumed to be “dying out”

5. The Grimm brothers
Wilhelm ( ) and Jakob ( )

6. Grimms’ “Circular-Letter Concerned with Collecting of Folk Poetry” (1815)

7. Founding Fathers of American Folkloristics
Literature: Francis Child
Anthropology: Franz Boas ( )

8. “Folk”
A level of culture

9. Elite culture Associated with formal institutions
education or other value-related goal is primary purpose
Examples include literature, ballet, symphony, opera, painting, photography

10. Normative culture (mass, popular)
experienced through the mass media
Profit and entertainment is primary goal
Examples include TV, Hollywood movies, comic books, best-sellers, video games

11. Folk culture
Generally learned and conducted in face-to-face situations/small groups
Traditional, unofficial, noninstitutional level of culture

12. Characteristics of Folklore
Note: I added two more characteristics to those of Brunvand

13. 1. Is usually oral, customary, or material
Jeannie Robertson, ballad singer

14. Parrot being taken to the Blessing of the Animals, Los Angeles, 1953

15. Irish mumming

16. Face jug/ugly jug, American south

17. Car art

18. 2. Constructed as “traditional”
The fundamental elements remain stable over time
Circulates among members of a group

19. 3. Exists in multiple versions
Propagates
Changes as it propagates
No “correct” version

20. 4. Usually anonymous in origin
Lacks original “authorship”
No known “original author”
Only known “performers”

21. 5. Is formularized Follows an identifiable pattern
Pattern followed is usually associated with a genre

22. 6. Exists at “folk” level of culture
Circulates informally and/or is “non-institutional”

23. 7. Associated with a group of people
This is the modern “folk” in/of folklore