Notes and Reviews

Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics 11 (2): 137–143 DOI: 10.1515/jef-2017-0017 NOTES AND REVIEWS INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR SIMON J. BRONNER According to an American Folklore Society Folklore at Pennsylvania State University, (AFS) inside joke, Simon Bronner bears a Harrisburg; and yet, this knowledge goes far striking resemblance to Alan Dundes. Many a beyond academia and the USA. true word is spoken in jest, and this compari- son goes beyond facial similarity: Bronner is a You wrote your dissertation in the 1970s renowned figure within folklore studies with and early 1980s at Indiana University, the wide knowledge and an impressive record acclaimed research centre for folklore, eth- of influential writing. He has written about nomusicology and humanities. Who were topics as diverse as Jewish and children’s your teachers? How did these years shape folklore, material culture and masculinity, your later academic career and your under- campus traditions and Internet folklore, to standing of folklore? name just a few. His most cited works are I came to Indiana University with my MA monographs as different as American Folklore from the Cooperstown Graduate Program, Studies: An Intellectual History (1986), Consum- which was organized on the European model ing Visions: Accumulation and Display of Goods of ethnology or folklife with a heavy empha- in America, 1880–1920 (1989), and Explaining sis on American material culture and commu- Traditions: Folk Behavior in Modern Culture nity life. Louis C. Jones, Roderick J. Roberts, (2011). What distinguishes Bronner’s writ- and Bruce Buckley, who were experts in folk ing is an accessible style that attracts more art, architecture, and music were the promi- and more readers, without watering down nent folklorists there. At Indiana, I became complex ideas. Moreover, Bronner is a highly more exposed to the study of oral tradition regarded teacher who mentored several gen- in a global context. One of the unexpected erations of influential folklore students. He surprises of that experience were classes with has been a vivacious promoter of folklore Estonian folklorist Felix Oinas who taught studies in academia, as well as outside of it. Finnish, Baltic, and Russian folklore. I was Just to name one of his multiple activities, in awe of his erudition, linguistic abilities Bronner assiduously popularises folklore (in addition to speaking multiple languages studies in the American Folklore Society’s besides Estonian and English, he also taught History and Folklore Section Facebook page, Church Slavonic at Indiana), and global bib- regularly posting meaningful pieces on new liographic knowledge. He was especially publications, dates important to folklore stud- influential in guiding my thinking about ies, and biographies of folklorists (in doing the link of folklore and politics, particularly so working toward the creation of a much- on issues of nationalism. I had already read needed international biographical dictionary about American nationalism, but he gave me of folklorists). Continuing the tradition of a profound comparative perspective from Indiana’s prominent folklore program, where his work on Finland, the Baltic countries, he studied, Bronner masterfully conveys his and the Soviet Union. There is no doubt that prizewinning knowledge as a Distinguished Richard Dorson was the face of folklore at Professor Emeritus of American Studies and Indiana, and from him I learned historical Notes and Reviews 137 perspectives on the United States. I also What kinds of change have you seen in served as his editorial assistant and in that American and international folkloristics capacity I learned life-long lessons about since you entered the field? writing, editing, and publication in addi- I would say that the biggest change is the tion to administrative visions for expand- rising inquiry into the mediation of folklore ing and promoting folklore studies (I later and processes of traditionalizing. When directed a folklore program and thought I first studied folklore, there was a certain of him often). My research – field study of purist attitude in defining as well as collect- woodcarvers in southern Indiana – that led ing folklore. Folklorists wanted to find pri- to my dissertation was with Warren Roberts, marily oral material unpolluted by popular who had made the move from the historic– culture and from people usually in isolated geographic school of narrative studies to rural enclaves that had remained stable ethnological studies of art and architecture. over centuries. There was a great skepti- A valuable experience with him was the cism of organized ‘folk festivals’ and com- fieldwork class that he led away from cam- mercialized ‘folk singers’ (or for that matter, pus in southern Indiana. It was from that the value of ‘race’ and ‘hillbilly’ records, experience that my dissertation research although now they constitute a trove of arose and other lasting work on foodways, evidence for traditional music and regional architecture, and legendry. Allowing me to culture). Dorson, who I mentioned earlier, make more connections of North America encouraged thinking about “folklore in the to European ethnology and ethnic stud- modern world” and the emergence of new ies was the eminent Hungarian folklor- folklore rather than the search for unadul- ist Linda Dégh who served as an adviser terated relics of tradition. At the same time, throughout my career in addition to my he drew a sharp line between folklore and undergraduate folklore adviser at Bingham- ‘fakelore’. Moving beyond those early con- ton Bill Nicolaisen. Other professors were troversies, folklorists have been eager since probably less renowned and prolific, but the 1970s to address folklore mediated, and nonetheless influential on emphasizing the indeed generated, by television, copiers and broad scope of folklore: Mary Ellen Brown facsimile machines, computers, and now the on literature and British folklore, William Internet and smartphones. Instead of dis- Wiggins on African and African-American missing ‘fakelore’, folklorists have increas- lore, and Roger Janelli on anthropological ingly examined the process of traditionaliz- perspectives and Asian folklore. Certainly ing events and texts within the context of a those years at Indiana were also shaped by modernizing world. They represent a more my student cohort with many late-night dis- objective consideration of this process with cussions about the future of folklore stud- terms such as ‘folklorism’ and ‘invented (or ies. We also worked together on establish- what I call ‘managed’) tradition’. Indeed, ing Trickster Press and editing ambitious tradition, once taken for granted, is also publications such as Folklore Forum (which receiving more critical inquiry. Along with I edited), Journal of the Folklore Institute, and that inquiry about tradition as a malle- Indiana Folklore. Many of those relationships able process is the expansion of the social in public and academic folklore work (for worlds that produce and maintain folklore. example Carl Lindahl, Steve Siporin, Tom Whereas regional and ethnic groups domi- Carter, Elissa Henken, Egle Zygas, Erika nated the textbooks of an earlier generation, Brady, Peter Voorheis) have continued to today’s handbooks cover family, occupa- be maintained at conferences, publications, tional, urban, LGBTQ, organizational, gen- and projects. Annually, we pick up threads der, fan, and friendship interactions, among of conversation that began long ago. other identities. Not only is the awareness of 138 JOURNAL OF ETHNOLOGY AND FOLKLORISTICS 11 (2) multiple and overlapping identities within of Pennsylvania, Henry Glassie of Indiana our experience evident in folklore and folk- University, and Patricia Turner of Univer- life studies, but so too are those out in the sity of California, Los Angeles, but this year world as a result of the digital revolution. that circle expanded as I was happy to meet And the mediation evident in computers participants at the meeting who I have been that allows us to communicate all over the or will be able to greet again in my planned globe also leads to thinking about digital 2017–2018 lectures in Latvia, Estonia, Fin- culture in relation to what came before, and land, India, and China. what might come after. How would you characterise the AFS and Most recently, in 2017, the AFS held its its roles in scholarship and in society, both 128th annual meeting in Minneapolis. in the US and internationally? What were the highlights of this meeting The American Folklore Society has embraced for you? a role in responding to current events and On a personal level, the meeting was an movements. Probably more than in other opportunity to connect with many con- folklore organizations in which I participate, tributors to an ambitious reference-work the AFS features in its communications and project I am editing for Oxford University its annual meeting opportunities to relate Press: Oxford Handbook of American Folklore scholarship to news of the day. Perhaps and Folklife Studies. With 43 chapters (pro- because of the large proportion of members jected over 1000 pages), you can imagine in the public sector, and concerns for the con- that I was engaged in many hallway con- temporary world, the AFS has had an activ- versations about the scope and content of ist component. At the 2017 annual meeting, the work. I was heartened at the meeting to many sessions, for example, were concerned see many presenters who I had mentored with the ‘fake news’ and dealing with the as students coming through our program ‘age of Trump’. Of major concern this year at Penn State. Spontaneously, I organized has been a proposal by the controversial US a dinner and sent word out through social President to abolish national endowments media, not knowing who would respond. for the arts and humanities, which would With the packed schedule of the meeting, not only adversely affect many folklorists, I expected only a handful of attendees, but would also impair traditional communi- and we kept needing to add chairs until ties across the country.

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