ENGH 315: Folklore and Folklife

ENGH 315-003: Folklore and Folklife
(Fall 2017)

03:00 PM to 04:15 PM MW

Section Information for Fall 2017

ENGH 315 - 003: Folklore and Folklife

This course equips students with the tools to identify, document, and analyze folklore’s role in our everyday lives.  Rather than simply a checklist of cultural artifacts or genres - stories, customers, handcrafts - we explore how folklore operates as an unofficial body of cultural knowledge and aesthetic practices, and as a communicative process that incorporates both continuity and creativity.  This frees us from the notion that "the folk" are always situated elsewhere or in the past, by shifting our attention to the artistry and agency of those who perform and share folklore in specific contexts for specific purposes.  We investigate, for example, how folklore adapts to changes in technology, and how it intersects in often unexpected ways with popular and elite cultures. We consider how folklore serves not only to create, maintain and express senses of identity among groups, but also to communicate social differences, tensions and resistance.

The topics that form the focus of our classes and assignments are all designed to demonstrate how folklore both shapes and reflects everyday experience in a globalized world.  Fieldwork-based research projects encourage students to apply the concepts discussed in classes and readings to case studies of your own choosing.  In the course of working through these assignments, you will discover how our definition of folklore and cultural knowledge, aesthetic practice, and communicative process plays out in real-life contexts.

We will begin by thinking through some of the core concepts of folklore study, e.g. concepts of group and group identity, the nature of tradition, its transmission, and circulation, the "doing" of folklore--the performance of traditional practices, and how folklorists work in the field.  Then, we'll move to explore seven case studies related to a particular form of folklore in its wider performance contexts.  Writing is central to the academic discipline of folkloristics.  As such, writing is one of the primary practices in which we will be engaged.  In this course, you will learn to write ethnographically and practice skills in interviewing and observation.

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Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 3

Topics include folktales, personal narratives, legends, proverbs, jokes, folk songs, folk art and craft, and folk architecture. Considers ethnicity, community, family, festival, folklore in literature, and oral history. Discusses traditions in students' own lives. Limited to three attempts.
Mason Core: Arts
Recommended Prerequisite: Satisfaction of University requirements in 100-level English and in Mason Core literature.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Grading:
This course is graded on the Undergraduate Regular scale.

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