American Folklore Studies

American Folklore Studies
Author: Simon J. Bronner
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Total Pages: 231
Release: 1986-10-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0700603131

Folklore. Washington Irving and Mark Twain used it in their fiction; Sigmund Freud and William James incorporated it into their work; Henry Ford and Franklin Roosevelt promoted it. Their efforts were set against the background of folklorists who brought collections of traditional tales, songs, and crafts to the attention of a modernizing society. The ideas of these folklorists influenced how Americans thought about the character of their society and the directions it was taking. Here for the first time is a history of American folkloristic ideas and the figures who shaped them. Simon Bronner puts these ideas in cultural context, showing the interconnection of folklore studies with historical events, social changes, and intellectual movements. He follows the beginnings of American folklore studies in the antiquarian literature of the 1830s through the rise of folklore societies in the 1880s to the emergence of an independent discipline in the 1950s. In this progression, Bronner identifies several major themes tying folklore studies to intellectual history: first, the unearthing of a hidden, usable past; second, the charting of time and space; and third, the structuring of communication. More than a chronological or biographical history, this book is an interpretation of folkloristic ideas and their relationship to American society.

A Bibliography of Canadian Folklore in English

A Bibliography of Canadian Folklore in English
Author: Edith Fowke
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 234
Release: 1982-12-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1487597177

This book is the only comprehensive bibliography of Canadian folklore in English. The 3877 different items are arranged by genres: folktales; folk music and dance; folk speech and naming; superstitions, popular beliefs, folk medicine, and the supernatural; folk life and customs; folk art and material culture; and within genres by ethnic groups: Anglophone and Celtic, Francophone, Indian and Inuit, and other cultural groups. The items include reference books, periodicals, articles, records, films, biographies of scholars and informants, and graduate theses. Each items is annotated through a coding that indicates whether it is academic or popular, its importance to the scholar, and whether it is suitable for young people. The introduction includes a brief survey of Canadian folklore studies, putting this work into academic and social perspective. The book covers all the important items and most minor items dealing with Canadian folklore published in English up to the end of 1979. It is concerned with legitimate Canadian folklore – whether transplanted from other countries and preserved here, or created here to reflect the culture of this country. It distinguishes between authentic folklore presented as collected and popular treatments in which the material has been rewritten by the authors. Intended primarily for scholars of folklore, international as well as Canadian, the book will also be of use to scholars in anthropology, cultural geography, oral history, and other branches of Canadian culture studies, as well as to librarians, teachers, and the general public.

Indiana Folklore

Indiana Folklore
Author: Linda Dégh
Publisher:
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1980
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780253109866

Discusses old crafts and folk skills, from covered bridge building to quiltmaking, as well as the legends and lore of Indiana.

Example Stories

Example Stories
Author: Jeffrey Tucker
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 451
Release: 1997-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567607682

This study challenges the popular notion that four parables in the Gospel of Luke-the Good Samaritan, the Rich Fool, the Rich Man and Lazarus, and the Pharisee and the Toll Collector-are example stories. A wealth of scholars' views on the example stories are scrutinized, with Adolf Jnlicher's pivotal definition receiving special attention. The various criteria used to distinguish between parable and example are assessed from both a literary and a rhetorical perspective in order to ascertain what, if any, formal features are peculiar to the example stories. Tucker shows that attempts to differentiate the example stories from other narrative parables attributed to Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels are largely unsuccessful. The result is that these four parables in the Gospel of Luke can be seen for what they really are.